Some may say that the main character of J. D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, is merely the average teenager, although he seems to think about sex and women quite a lot for his age of sixteen. This point can be easily argued in many ways, one example being the time Holden called a perfect stranger, Faith Cavendish, to get together at an unruly time of night.
Another example of the main character’s perversion is when he hired a prostitute named Sunny, and never actually accomplished anything. One last example could be Caulfield’s overall impression and cockiness when it comes to sex and women. In conclusion Holden Caulfield is engrossed in sexual thought. The protagonist’s fixation with members of the opposite sex can first be argued when he phone’s a girl who’s number he received from a guy he meet once at a party; he said that the girl was “not exactly a whore or anything but didn’t mind doing it once in a while”. After Holden had spent a good amount of time trying to persuade her to meet him, because he was “feeling pretty horny”, the girl, Faith Cavendish, finally got him to register the answer of no into his brain.
At this point Faith asked the main character if he would like to meet for drinks the next day, but he declined, because the next day he may not be feeling horny anymore. Obviously, the main character was so determined to do something sexy that night he turned down a friendly invitation, which proves that Holden Caulfield is fascinated by sex and women. Over all because the protagonist called an unknown woman for sex, then refused her proposal for a get together the next day; Holden is obviously fixated with both sex and women. Second, another example of Holden’s perversion is when he hires a prostitute named Sunny from the elevator man at his hotel. Although some may say that calling a stranger in the middle of the night, like Holden did with Faith, is normal, but hiring a prostitute when one is sixteen years old is far from average. After the prostitute, Sunny, arrived in Holden’s room and had stripped off her dress Holden lied to her saying that he had an injured “clavichord” so that he could back out of doing the deed, instead of admitting that he didn’t want to; this caused vexation from both Sunny and the elevator man (Sunny’s pimp), Maurice, and resulted in Holden getting beat up by Maurice because he didn’t pay the full price.
While this may seem less unusual at the present time, in the mid-nineteen hundreds this behavior was completely unsuitable. All in all, Holden’s unruly behavior shows that he is obsessed with women and sex. A final example of Holden’s fascination with sex and females is his over all attitude toward people. This can be supported when Holden runs into some nuns at a sandwich shop and they start talking about Romeo and Juliet, a timeless classic by a distinguished writer, and Caulfield starts to think, “it was sort of embarrassingto be talking about Romeo and Juliet with her the nuns. I mean that play gets pretty sexy in some parts”; this indicates that the main character couldn’t even keep his thoughts away from sex, even when with nuns.
Another case is when Holden is waiting for Sunny to come up to his room and he starts saying such things as “I’ve had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all”, which shows that he is obviously a little more then confident about his suavity. One last incident was when Caulfield was staying at his ex-teacher, Mr. Antolini’s, house (which was very generous of Antolini), and when Holden was jolted awake because Antolini was patting his head and Holden immediately left Antolini’s house, thinking that Antolini was being “flitty” and thinking to himself that “I know more damn pervertsthan anybody you’ve ever met, and they’re always being perverty when I’m around”. In conclusion, the central character is an abnormal youth because of his overall actions and feelings towards girls and sex.In retrospect, Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in
