Isolation: defined as the act of being separated from other people or things; being alone; solitary. Occasionally it can be brought upon by one’s personal temperament, but often it is caused by being cast out of a heartless society, leaving no one to turn to in even the hardest of times. Jodi Picoult once said that "If you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them." Holden Caulfield was forced into this exact situation in The Catcher in The Rye. As the story unraveled, many layers were revealed beneath the surface of Holden. As a sixteen year old boy he had experienced an abundance of trauma, beginning with the death of his brother. As a result of the great devastation that followed, Holden was forever changed for the worse, causing him to be pushed into a world of both exclusion and apostasy. Because of several events that build upon one another in the book, it can clearly be concluded that Holden Caulfield was unwillingly a victim of an unsympathetic civilization.
Right from the start, Holden brought up that "People never notice anything" (9). With this, he referred to himself acting his own age, even though he often doesn't, as he admitted previously in the book. "I act quite young for my age sometimes. I was sixteen then, I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen. . . . Sometimes I act a lot older than I am- I really do- but people never notice it " (9). This statement is a prime example of how ignorant society can be. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, people will go on with their daily routine in their own cliques, never attempting to contact anyone outside of their figurative "zone." They may think that talking to someone below their so-called social status will make them less popular among those who they already associate themselves with. Holden tried to reach out to someone in the book at several points, but failed in almost every attempt. For instance at the Lavender Room, when he had finally persuaded the cute blonde to dance with him, the other two girls at the table “nearly had hysterics” (70). Holden then responded, saying “I certainly must've been very hard up to even bother with any of them” (70). In this incident, it can be concluded that the girls were laughing at him, being a small teenager who could not even convince the bartender to serve him a drink. Holden himself even confessed that he was desperate to talk to someone; however, he still remained an outcast at the end of the day.
Also, as Holden explained why he was ejected from a school he had previously attended, he proclaimed “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That’s all. They were coming in the goddam window” (13). I believe that Holden only labeled people as "phonies” to make himself feel better when they would reject him. In...
