Catcher In The Rye Loneliness Analysis

The story of J. D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, is a view into school student, Holden Caulfield’s life in the times leading up to his nervous breakdown. David Fincher’s The Social Network, is a recount showing the creation of Facebook, primarily from the view of Mark Zuckerberg. One of the personal dilemmas seen in both The Catcher in the Rye and The Social Network is loneliness. Salinger and Fincher explore loneliness using a number of techniques, including setting, costume, camera shots and characterization.
One technique used to illustrate loneliness is setting. In the beginning of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is “freezing [his] ass off” on the top of Thomsen Hill, looking down at the football game on a cold winter’s day. The timing of this scene is during winter. The weather is quite miserable, and is something most people try to get away from. People generally don’t go and do stuff during cold weather, people stay in the warmth. It doesn’t matter where Holden goes, he is trapped in the cold. Salinger isolates Holden from the crowd of people at the football game. Throughout
In the early chapters of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is seen talking with friends such as Stradlater and Ackley. Throughout the book, he is separated further from his friends. Later in the book, Holden meets one of his friends named Luce from one of his old schools, but he “has to tear”. Holden is once again alone. Salinger changes Holden’s interactions with strangers to show his loneliness. Evidence of this is seen when Holden asks a taxi driver if he would like to “stop on the way and join me for a cocktail”. The fact that Holden asks someone he’s never met, and likely never will meet again for a drink, shows his desperation for friendship. Salinger ultimately leaves him with no friends, and only then does Holden “sort of miss everyone”, “even old Stradlater and