In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, has very definiteviews on sexuality, aggression, and death. He is ambivalent towards sex,loathsome of aggression, and fearsome of death. It’s this triangle of sin thatdemonstrates the conflict occurring within Holden’s inner monologue. In thenovel, Generation X, the main character, Andy, is grappling with many of thesame problems that Holden faced forty years earlier. Even though the more modernsociety is different than forty years ago, the same general issues still hauntAndy today, with many parallels to Holden’s coming-of-age issues. With such adead-end vision of the trap of adulthood and marriage, it isn’t very surprisingthat Holden is scared of being initiated into the most involving form ofrelationship–sex. In a society where human relationships are affected bymarketplace values, like status and appearance, which commodify people, ratherthan accepting them. Holden is seeking a deeper, more real relationship withsomeone, probably anyone, who understands him, and will accept him. Holdendoesn’t like to see people hurting. He explains when he says that he would liketo be “a catcher in the rye”, someone who protects children from thepitfalls of hypocrisy and lies, that Holden seems to think infect the adultworld. As a result, Holden is very careful not to use other characters as ameans for his own ends. In many ways he is unable to deflect the unexpressedpressures that every teen male feels, to have sex. He is offered the”teenage dream” of sex in a non-responsible situation when Maurice,the elevator operator in his hotel offers to set him up with a hooker. Holdenjumps at the chance, but when confronted with the reality of the situation feelshorrible, and ends up not touching the hooker. Pure sex, like many othersocietal myths, is a romantic place that Holden wants to believe exists, butunderstands through his cynicism, that is never has, or ever will exist. But hismistrust goes deeper. For Holden, it seemed like sex would somehow integrate himinto the world at large, which he despises. Holden does not want to accept anychange in his life. He sees sex as a way that society is using to lure him intobeing like the people that he hates. At Pencey, his boarding school, he equatessex with perversion. He refers to his studly roommate, Stradlater as a”very sexy bastard” because of his interest in all things related tosex. And then when Holden is obsessing over the idea of Stradlater, and hisfriend Jane having sex, he tries to think of her as innocent and naive, when hesays “when we played checkers, she always kept her kings in the backrow.” Since he cares about Jane, he can’t understand why she would want toinvolve herself with a guy like Stradlater in the first place. Thoughts aboutsex, seem to lead Holden into thoughts about death. After the fight withStradlater over Jane, Ackley, the novel’s most hated character, asks why theyfought and Holden tells the readers that “I didn’t answer him…I almostwished I was dead.” And later on, when he is alone in his hotel room ,after the hooker leaver he begins to think about his younger brother’s death. ToHolden he also sees sex as the same as aggression. As in his reaction to hisfight with Stradlater, he treats aggression in the same way as he does sex.
After losing the fight he says, “I’d only been in about two fights in mylife, and I lost both of them. I’m not too tough. I’m a pacifist, if you want toknow the truth.” Although his swing at Stradlater, seem to go against hisnon-aggressive personality, it is the name of Jane, someone who Holden considersas the model of perfection and innocence. This all comes back to the commentabout Jane keeping her kings in the back row. This is interesting because itshows her unwillingness to be aggressive or sexual, which are two of Holden’svalues, despite the fact she is now involved with Stradlater, who represents (atleast to Holden) sex and aggression. The connection between sex, death, andaggression all come together near the end of the novel when Holden visits hisyounger sister phoebe, at her elementary school. Holden sees a sign that someonehas put up that says, “Fuck You.” This phrase is so important to thenovel because it represents, a very aggressive insult, and it is also a workthat means having sex. And Holden sees sex, as something men do to women,something aggressive. So here we come full circle: Holden fears aggressionbecause it may lead to death, like in the case of his younger brother. And toHolden, sex is equated with aggression, and of course Holden has equatedaggression with death. So it can be seen that Holden has a triangle of sin thathe wants others to avoid, and that is why he wants to become “a catcher inthe rye” so he can protect everyone else from what he knows. Refreshingly,Generation X, takes place some forty years later, in a time where most thingssexual have been demystified through a more open, and tolerant society, and themedia. In many ways, Generation X’s main character, Andy has a lot of the sameissues, as Holden, without many of the neuroses that Holden suffered from.
Fittingly, “Cosmopolitan” Magazine called Generation X, “Amodern-day Catcher in the Rye.” The book opens with a cartoon whose captionreads; “Don’t worry, mother…if the marriage doesn’t work out, we canalways get divorced.” This quotation typifies the social change that hadtaken place between the time of Catcher in the Rye, and the time of GenerationX. The change that has taken place in society is that qualities like”virgin and chastity” used to be considered virtues, but today areabhorred, and are seen as qualities of the prudish, and/or the unattractive.
Andy, the main character has a lot in common with Holden Caufield. Much likeHolden, Andy becomes tired of the sexual world in which he lived. In a quotesounding a lot like Holden, Andy said, ” I became nonsexual. I started tofind humanity repulsive, reducing it to flanks, mounds, and secretions…”Andy also goes through a similar sexual identity crisis when he laments that,”I’m a lesbian trapped in a man’s body.” An ironic sexuality, muchlike that of Holden’s. Andy also abuses the sexual vocabulary to a large extent,when he uses sexual terms, to describe non-sexual objects. “Watching TV, isa lot like masturbation,” which he advocates in the book. He describes acar as, “a syphilitic old Saab.” Holden also associates objects withsexuality, like when he uses the word “crumby” to describe a sexualfantasy, and later uses the same word to describe a stomach ache. Clare, one ofGeneration X’s female character, has many of the same of qualities as Jane. BothHolden and Andy have dated their respective female characters, but neither had asexual relationship with them, and both become jealous when they hear of someonewho is. In Andy’s case the “Stradlater” is Tobias. Tobias iseverything that Andy is not. Andy has money, a job, a good body, and is veryattractive. Tobias is a lot like Stradlater, in that they both torture the maincharacter without realizing that they are doing so. Andy realizes Tobias issuperior to him when he says, “Life is not fair. Something about Tobiasalways extracts the phrase ‘life’s not fair’ from people.” Both Holden andAndy are unwavering in their contempt of “phoniness” and hypocrites.
Holden said of Stradlater, “He (Stradlater) was so phony. He just used togirls….” Andy echoes this sentiment, “He (Tobias) embodies to me allof the people in my own generation who used all that was good in themselves inbottom-feeding jobs like ambulance chasing, or money brokering.” Andy feelsjealous when he sees Claire with Tobias, in the same way that Holden feltjealous of Stradlater when he was going out with Jane. But much of theaggression that plagues Holden throughout Catcher in the Rye (i.e. the fightscene, the running way etc.) is lost on Andy. In the 1990’s as far as GenerationX, physical reaction is a thing of the past. Andy’s anxieties, and jealousies,manifest themselves in to a sea of deep cynicism, and ambivalence towards lifein general. Both Holden and Andy share the burden of knowing too much about theworld that is around them. The main characters of Catcher in the Rye, andGeneration X, have a lot in common. Holden’s views on the triangle of sin areoften closely mimicked by Andy. Despite being from two markedly differentgenerations, they suffer many of life’s timeless realities, like worries aboutsex, ambivalence, and cynicism. These characters show that these problems thoughnot easily solvable, are facts of life, and it is likely that in another fortyyears another novel will be written dealing with many of the things that Andyand Holden are all to familiar with.
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