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Post by The Thought Police (admin) on Dec 10, 2016 6:48:58 GMT -5
1) Holden’s isolation.
‘The whole team ostracised me the whole way back on the train’
Holden finds relationships with his peers difficult and due to his mistake in leaving the equipment for the fencing team on the subway, the team responds by not talking to him and isolating him. This is one of Holden’s key problems in life: he desires company and for people to understand him, but then sabotages this and becomes isolated.
‘I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill, right next to this crazy cannon…’
At the start of the novel, this is well represented by Salinger’s use of symbolism. Holden has removed himself from the rest of the school and isolated himself at the furthest away point, at the top of the hill. His vantage point high up allows him to look down on the others with a sense of superiority, but also protects him from their criticism.
‘Practically the whole school except me was there’
Salinger reinforces Holden’s isolation from the entire school community. It is hardly a surprise that he is ‘flunking’ school and at this point, which would seem a deliberate decision as Holden does not engage with his peers and seems to detest all that they represent. His position next to the cannon perhaps demonstrates an impulse to destroy the school and all in it. Holden’s particular cocktail of insecurity, isolation and hatred of society bears similarity to real life school shooters.
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