- Position‹4 of 5›
- The Catcher in the Rye is about sexuality
- Argument1 of 3›
Holden Caulfield's sexuality is a notable theme in The Catcher in the Rye
Throughout the Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield is struggling with his sexuality and has trouble establishing physical relationships. He is unable to clearly differentiate between the emotional responses related to being intimate and having sex.
The argument
Holden Caulfield struggles with sexuality for the duration of the novel, and the struggle is consistent enough to work as a structuring theme rather than an incidental trait. He only shows interest for girls whom he has known for a long time, and has difficulty expressing his sexual interests even when the opportunity is directly in front of him — a pattern that recurs across the book's encounters rather than appearing once. The gap between how Holden presents himself and what he actually does is where the theme is clearest. In reality, Holden is clueless about sex. He brags to readers about being sexy and calls himself a "sex maniac", yet there are no sex scenes; the claim exists only in his narration. He also admits to finding sex confusing, which is proven by his conversations and body language with Sally Hayes, where the confidence of the narration is nowhere in evidence. Reading the two together, readers can tell that Holden is pretending to know about sex and that he is insecure in his own sexuality — the bravado is a cover rather than a description. A reason Holden struggles with sex is that he cannot distinguish it from love and compatibility, and treats the three as one thing that must arrive together. He still has a crush on Jane Gallagher because they have known each other for so long and so well; because of their preexisting relationship, Holden feels comfortable thinking about her in an intimate way, where an unfamiliar person would leave him at a loss. The same rule runs in the opposite direction with everyone else: when he identifies someone as a phony, they also become unattractive and unappealing, because his judgement of a person's authenticity governs whether desire is available to him at all.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Holden is not struggling with his sexuality since he is still able to have crushes on others. He only struggles to be intimate with people he doesn't trust, proving he needs an emotional connection to have sexual feelings. Since his classmates are obsessed with dating and sex, Holden feels like an outcast because he develops crushes instead. But Holden is not struggling with identifying his sexuality.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P2] Holden Caulfield tells readers how he has "necked" girls before.