Existentialism Catcher In The Rye

Existentialism elements can be seen in the novel through the movement of the Europeans. Adding to this it also was part of the WW2 existentialism has been part of the world since time bck. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, you can see existentialist elements by how he displays Holden's difficulties throughout the novel as he grew up in his transition from childhood to adolescents.
Throughout the novel he portrayed himself through isolation as he always wanted to be alone.As seen in the novel in the start when he went to a football game he doesn’t go where the crawd of people are. For example when he says “Anyway, it was the Saturday of the football game. […] You could see the whole field from there, and you could see the two teams bashing each other all over the place. […] You could hear them all yelling”(Salinger 1.3). Holden is explaining how what was going on in the football game but didn’t go close to the people there and integrate to the crowd. Adding to this another moment where he showed …show more content…
For example many of the times of the novel he always seem to care about his siblings. Like when he talked about phoebe he always seemed to care for her a lot. Holden demonstrated this as when he would just look at her as explained here “Old Phoebe didn't even wake up. When the light was on and all, I sort of looked at her for a while. She was laying there asleep, with her face sort of on the side of the pillow. You take adults, they look lousy when they're asleep, but kids don't. Kids look all right. They can even spit all over the pillow and they still look alright. (Salinger 21.10). Sign that he always cared about his little sister as she grew up and he also pointed out the difference between kids and adults while sleeping. Saying how his sister phoebe was still a kid. In a way this is a privilege phoebe has because she has someone looking out for her and Holden did