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The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger

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Discussion Topic

Holden's Attitudes Toward Women and Men in The Catcher in the Rye

Summary:

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield exhibits complex attitudes towards women and men. He idolizes and seeks to protect women, seeing them as innocent and pure, especially figures like Jane Gallagher and his sister Phoebe. However, he also objectifies them to some extent, struggling with sexual feelings. In contrast, Holden views most men as untrustworthy, phony, or perverted, lacking a male role model or mentor. His complicated relationships with both genders reflect his fear of adulthood and sexuality.

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In The Catcher in the Rye, how do Holden's feelings for women compare to those for men?

Holden is both very protective towards women but is also interested in them as sex objects. In contrast, he places men on a hierarchy of higher or lower than himself. There is no man in the novel that Holden is able to fully respect.

Holden is protective towards his friend Jane Gallagher, a girl he plays checkers with and perceives as an innocent. He is so upset that Stradlater, who has gone out on a date with Jane, might have taken advantage of her that he gets into a fist fight with him. Holden also feels protective toward Sunny, the young prostitute he hires, and toward the nuns he meets over breakfast at the diner.

Holden admits to having confused sexual feelings about women and to being a virgin. He does find women "sexy" and is sexually attracted to Sally Hayes , such as when he admires how...

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she looks in her short blue ice skating dress. He wants to run away with her but at the same time is put off by her phoniness.

Holden tends to organize men into categories of those he respects (to some extent) and those he feels superior to, such as Ackley. He both despises Stradlater and yet has a grudging respect for his smoothness. He starts out with respect for Mr. Antolini, but that evaporates when his former teacher makes a pass at him. Holden despises phony older men like Ossenburger, a major donor to Pencey who Holden finds fundamentally dishonest. Holden finds it difficult to find a male mentor or role model to offer him some guidance, though he is crying out for some help.

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Why does Holden objectify women in The Catcher in the Rye?

Holden might not objectify women so much as he either idolizes or looks down upon them. His views of women appear to operate under a less sexualized version of the Virgin-Whore complex, where girls and women are either innocent and pure or shallow and "phony." The former are more associated with childhood, a state Holden idealizes, while the latter are aligned with the adult world Holden both loathes and fears.

Holden could be accused of objectifying women if he viewed them as mere sexual objects or as the possessions of the men in their lives, but he never does this. In fact, he tends to respect a certain type of girl: intelligent, honest, and non-sensual. His casual interaction with the nuns is mostly positive for that reason: they discuss literature with him and are non-sexualized (the only reason he is uncomfortable around them is that he does not want them to ask if he's Catholic). He also likes Jane Gallagher, a classmate he admires for her chess-playing skill and smarts, but the thought of her in a sexual situation with Stradlater disturbs him, not just because of the threat of rape but also because he views her as innocent and non-sexual. His sister, Phoebe, is still a child and quite intelligent, another reason Holden is comfortable around her.

In contrast, Holden is not comfortable with more worldly teenage girls and women and the potential sexual (i.e. adult) world they represent. The flirtatious Sally Hayes fascinates and repels Holden: he is physically attracted to her but finds her shallow and "stupid" due to her obsession with what other people will think. Sunny the sex worker makes Holden uncomfortable with her open talk and insistence on skipping the talk to get to the impersonal sex she was supposed to provide. Holden does not objectify these women either, but he does fear and dislike them, though one could argue that has less to do with them being women and more to do with them being adults or on the verge of adulthood.

And that's what this all boils down to: Holden's feelings about the opposite sex are deeply linked to his fear of growing up. Women are a mystery to him and like the mystery of the adult world, he has extremely complicated sentiments regarding them.

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