ALIENATION AND VIOLENCE
IN WILLIAM GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES
AND J. D. SALINGER’S THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
VIDA LESTARI MAMUAYA Student Number: 014214064
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
ALIENATION AND VIOLENCE
IN WILLIAM GOLDING’S
LORD OF THE FLIES
AND J. D. SALINGER’S
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
VIDA LESTARI MAMUAYA
Student Number: 014214064
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2007
“Life is so
beautiful ”
feel, touch, and enjoy it
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to
My beloved Mother and Father
My Grandma
My Aunty
….all children in the world
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank and praise to Allah SWT, for love and life, for always remaining me to be a strong person to face any kind of the difficulties and for all the beautiful experiences in my life.
My best gratitude goes to my beloved mother and father who always give me love, affection, support, and prayers, to my naughty niece, Amanda, and my naughty nephew, Dio, for always making me busy with his and her cries, to my brother, Yossi, for the computer, printer and motorcycle. I also thank to my grandma and my aunty for the support and prayers. Special thanks to Pendi for giving support, help and patience during my undergraduate thesis writing.
I would like to thank my advisor, Novita Dewi, Dr., M.S, M.A. (Hons)., who gave her precious time and thought to read and correct my thesis. Her suggestions, her idea and her advice have made my step in the right tract. I also thank my co-advisor, Gabriel Fajar Sasmita Aji S.S., M.Hum., for his correction and advice to complete my thesis.
I would like to thank all my friends in Teater Seriboe Djendela for the incredible experiences. I will never forget the anger, the stressfulness, the sadness, the happiness, the satisfaction and the romance in every performance we have made. I would like also thank my friends in English Letters Sanata Dharma University, Reni Amit (for the innocence), Mei (for the charming and spirit) and Widhi (for the intelligence). Thanks to mas Drajat in USD library for the support. Thanks also to mbak Ninik for the administration.
Vida Lestari Mamuaya
ABSTRACT
VIDA LESTARI MAMUAYA (2007). Alienation and Violence in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
This thesis discusses William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Both contain the theme of alienation and violence. In Lord of the Flies, all characters are a group of school boys aged 6 up to 12. They are isolated in an empty island. Thus they become alienated with the world outside and their alienation leads to violence. While in The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caulfield, is described as an unhappy person. He feels lonely in his life because he is an alienated person. His alienation makes him unable to control himself as to commit violence.
This thesis is meant to answer the problems of alienation and violence of the characters in both novels. This thesis has two purposes. The first is to depict the qualities of alienation and the relation with violence in both novels. The second is to find out the causes that influence the alienation in the characters in both novels.
The writer uses library research and internet research method in the analysis. Theories of character and characterization are applied to answer the first and second problems. Theories of alienation and violence are applied to answer the first problem. Theories of family and society are applied to answer problem number two. The psychological approach is used in analyzing the character’s psychological tendency to alienation and violence.
The result of this study shows that the portrait of alienation and violence in both novels are different. In Lord of the Flies, the children become alienated all of a sudden because of the war. The children who are isolated in one empty island should face bitter experiences as alienated persons. Their qualities as alienated persons are isolation, being out of touch with the self, being out of touch with any other person, powerless, experiencing identity crisis, being neurotic, and undergo guilty feeling. While in The Catcher in the Rye, the alienation in Holden’s character is because he experiences mental disorder. Holden tells the entire story in the novel from mental hospital. Further, he has the qualities as an alienated person namely being out of touch with any other people, experiencing identity crisis, being neurotic, undergo guilty feeling, goalless feeling, empty, flat, and devoid feeling, and estrangement from God. Nevertheless, the children in both novels have the same factor that influences their alienation and violence. The careless of the member of the family and the treatment of the society become the prominent factors in influencing the development of the children’s alienation and violence. It makes all characters have a distance with their family and society. They cannot make a good interpersonal relationship with others. Besides, their alienation leads them to do both physical and verbal violence to release their feeling of alienation.
ABSTRAK
VIDA LESTARI MAMUAYA (2007). Alienation and Violence in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Tesis ini membahas karya William Golding yang berjudul Lord of the Flies dan J. D. Salinger yang berjudul The Catcher in the Rye. Kedua novel tersebut memuat tema yang sama yaitu alienasi dan kekerasan. Pada novel Lord of the Flies, semua karakternya adalah sekelompok anak sekolah berusia 6 sampai 12 tahun. Mereka terisolasi di suatu pulau kosong. Oleh sebab itu mereka teralienasi dari lingkungan di luar pulau dan keteralienasian mereka menyebabkan mereka melakukan kekerasan. Sementara itu, pada novel The Catcher in the Rye, tokoh utamanya, Holden Caulfield digambarkan sebagai orang yang tidak bahagia. Dia merasa kesepian dalam hidupnya dikarenakan dia adalah orang yang teralienasi. Alienasi pada tokoh utama ini menyebabkan dia tidak bisa mengontrol dirinya sehingga dia melakukan kekerasan.
Tesis ini bertujuan untuk menjawab permasalahan alienasi dan kekerasan pada karakter pada kedua novel. Tesis ini mempunyai dua tujuan. Pertama adalah untuk menggambarkan kualitas keteralienasian dan hubungannya dengan kekerasan pada kedua novel. Kedua adalah untuk mengetahui penyebab yang mempengaruhi alienasi pada tokoh-tokoh pada kedua novel tersebut.
Dalam penelitian ini penulis menggunakan metode studi pustaka dan internet. Teori tokoh dan penokohan di terapkan untuk menjawab permasalahan pertama dan kedua. Teori alienasi dan kekerasan diterapkan untuk menjawab permasalahan pertama. Teori tentang keluarga dan masyarakat diterapkan untuk menjawab permasalahan yang kedua. Pendekatan psikologi digunakan dalam menganalisis aspek psikologi yang bersangkutan dengan alienasi dan kekerasan pada tokoh-tokoh dalam novel.
Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa gambaran alienasi dan kekerasan pada kedua novel tersebut berbeda. Pada Lord of the Flies anak-anak memperoleh alienasi dan melakukan kekerasan secara tidak disengaja dikarenakan adanya perang. Mereka yang terisolasi di sebuah pulau kosong harus menghadapi pengalaman pahit sebagai orang yang teralienasi. Kualitas mereka sebagai orang yang teralienasi adalah terisolasi, tidak mengenal diri sendiri, tidak dapat bergaul dengan orang lain, tidak berdaya, krisis identitas, menderita gangguan emosi dan selalu mempunyai perasaan bersalah. Sedangkan pada The Catcher in the Rye, alienasi digambarkan pada sakit jiwa yang diderita oleh Holden. Holden menceritakan semua cerita dalam novel dari rumah sakit jiwa. Lebih lanjut, dia mempunyai kualitas sebagai orang yang teralienasi yaitu tidak dapat bergaul dengan orang lain, krisis identitas, menderita gangguan emosi, selalu mempunyai perasaan bersalah, tidak mempunyai tujuan hidup, mempunyai perasaan kosong, datar dan hampa serta jauh dari tuhan. Meskipun demikian, anak-anak pada kedua novel tersebut mempunyai faktor yang sama yang mampengaruhi alienasi dan
kekerasan pada mereka. Ketidakpedulian anggota keluarga dan perlakuan masyarakat menjadi faktor yang penting yang mempengaruhi perkembangan alienasi dan kekerasan pada anak-anak. Hal tersebut membuat semua tokoh dalam novel mempunyai jarak dengan keluarga dan masyarakat. Mereka tidak dapat menjalin hubungan secara personal dengan orang lain. Selain itu, alienasi yang mereka derita mengarahkan mereka untuk melakukan kekerasan secara fisik maupun lisan untuk membebaskan rasa keteralienasian mereka.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
In many countries in the world, the young always have problems in their facet of growing-up. They often face difficulties in adjusting to the environment. The difficulties arise because the young are expected to be mature but in fact they do not have the basic knowledge of how to be mature in the growing-up world, the world that is very strange and full of pretense and hypocrisy. The young are blind and unable to see the complexity of the adult world. They need to see the good picture of the adult world to assist them to face the reality, but when they see that the picture of the real world are not appropriate with their picture about the ideal life, the young will get pain and disappointment. To avoid or fight against the pain and disappointment, they often create their own ideal world based on their ideal interpretation from the poor adult world. Thus, they are alienated from the adult world.
A person who is alienated will have schizoid personality that according to Rollo May in Love and Will means of out of touch; avoiding close relationships; the inability to feel (1969:16). With that schizoid personality condition, the
alienated person usually is not happy with his or her life. It is because, according to Fromm in The Sane Society, in their life he/she will not to be able to accomplish the love, the ability to face reality, the ability to discover one self, and the ability to relate with other people and the world (1955:202). Those inabilities
make somebody unable to accept the reality that happens around him/her. Further, one does not believe anybody and does not want to belong to the parents, peers, adult and society because in one’s opinion they are corrupt people. Indeed, one will find other alternatives to get the feeling of acceptance, belongingness and significance to fulfill his/her basic needs of life, for example by joining in a gang or drugs community.
The writer has mentioned above that an alienated person usually feels unhappy. It can be said that the result of alienation seems always negative. One result that may appear in the alienated person is violence. Rollo May in Coleman’s Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life states that alienation will lead a man to a sequence of identity, confusion, apathy, powerless, and eventually violence (1972:165). Sager added in Coleman’s book, that alienation has close relation with violence such as the relation of crime and mental disorder (1972:165). The alienated person will do violence to achieve his happiness that cannot be obtained as long as he is an alienated person. Violence is something like a tool to release his feeling of frustration toward anything that makes him alienated. Based on that argument, the writer in this thesis is trying to make a link between alienation and violence especially that experienced the young.
children. The first novel is William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. This novel is written in 1954 and it is Golding’s first greatest and famous novel. Golding's experience as a member of the Royal Navy during WW II informs many aspects of his novels. His experience in the battle influences his view of humanity and evils, such as in Lord of the Flies which is full of conflict between good and bad side of human beings. The second is the novel of J. D. Salinger entitled The Catcher in the Rye. This novel is the first novel published in the United States
in 1951. This novel is his first work that is noticed by the critics and the general public in the literary field. After that, this novel becomes popular and is now studied by students in America and all countries in the world. According to American Library Association:
The novel remains controversial to this day; it was the 13th most frequently challenged book of the 1990s. Despite this censorship, or perhaps because of it, it has become one of the most famous literary works of the 20th century, and a common part of high-school curricula across the United States and Canada (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catcher_in_the_rye).
The writer is interested at both novels because, firstly, they are famous novels. Secondly is because both novels are the psychological novels that carry the theme of alienation and violence in their character development.
children. This argument is strengthened by some psychologists such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Atkinson who agree that the character of personality, attitude, and behavior of the parents may be expected to influence the personality, attitude, and behavior of the children. Atkinson in Introduction to Psychology says that children are like the mirror of the parents. The parents will influence children from the beginning years even though the children may not resemble their parents, the children are influenced by them (1983:387-388). Instead of the parents, according to Coleman in Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life, the sibling models and emotionally supportive relationships may have highly beneficial effects upon development and may even go far toward compensating for other family deficiencies (1972:157).
face stress, frustration, anxiety and guilt. These conditions lead the young to get big problem of mental illness such as alienation and violence; some of them may face the worse such as killing and suicide.
Alienation and violence are thus of psychological phenomenon. Since the writer analyzes literary work in this thesis, it is better to know a brief about the relation between psychology and literary work. Coleman in his book Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life describes the function of literature in psychology
science:
Literature cannot provide either the theoretical or practical basis for understanding and treating specific cases of abnormal behavior, but it does complement psychology in giving a different kind of understanding of such behavior. Literature yields valuable information, for example, about the concept of personality dynamics, about mental disorders prevalent during a particular historical period, and about the inner experiences of the author as well (1972:7).
imagination in his/her phantasy-life. He makes his/her imagination become real in his/her work. Further, even the work of the artist is so real, but it is only the reality of imagination. Meanwhile, an artist can use psychology to tight their sense of reality and sharpen their powers of observation toward the real human being (Warren, 1956:93). Psychology, indeed, cannot solve the problem in the literary work, but it can be a good reflection and a good critic to the readers about the human life condition and the possibility problem that may arise in the real life. The value that exists in the work may open our mind and hopefully will enrich our quality of life. To make it clear, Kalish summarizes that writers can use the understanding provided by psychologists to enrich their stories, and psychologists can gain in their understanding of human behavior by drawing from the deep sensitivity of good authors (1973:8).
From the explanations above, the writer sees that the children are very easy to be the victim of the adult treatment. The treatment of the adult can make the good or bad result depending on the factor that influencing their development. Indeed that literary works can be the good teacher to understand the children’s behavior including the behavior of alienation and violence. Therefore, by analyzing both novels of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye in alienation and violence term, the writer is trying to make a portrayal of
Moreover, the relationship of the children with the adult in their family and society is not always having a good result for their personality development. They often gain mental illness precisely from the people who love, care and secure them and even the people who are trying to make them happy. The family and society ought to make them healthy and happily physically and psychologically.
B. Problem Formulation
The writer formulates two research questions as follows:
1. What are the qualities of being alienated related to violence depicted in the characters of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye?
2. What are the causes of alienation in the characters of both novels?
C. Objective of the Study
In this thesis, the writer will focus on the alienation and violence of the characters in the novel of William Golding Lord of the Flies and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Both novels have the same theme of alienation and
analysis by finding out the causes of alienation and violence of the characters in both novels.
In the first problem, the writer is to identify the theme of alienation and violence in the characters of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The depiction of the theme of alienation and violence in both novels will be described by analyzing the qualities of alienation and the relation with violence in the characters. The advantage of identifying the theme of alienation and violence is to find out the differences of alienation and violence in both novels. The depiction theme of alienation and violence will be useful to support the analysis on the problem formulation number two.
The second problem formulation is to find out the way of alienation and violence appears in children and adolescence in both novels. The writer will analyze the possible factors causing alienation and violence.
D. Definition of Terms 1. Alienation
According to Coleman in his book Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life, alienation is a lack of authentic relationship with others, a confused sense of
2. Violence
Wilson in Abnormal Psychology: Integrating Perspectives says that violence is the act of physical aggression such as slapping, pushing, shoving, and kicking that result in physical injury requiring medical attention (1996:545). Violence is not only limited to physical abuse, but also
includes verbal and psychological abuse
(http://www.comune.torino.it/novasres/newviolencedefinition.htm).
3. Character
According to M. H Abram in his book A Glossary of Literature Terms, characters are persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as seeing endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed a what they say-the dialogue and what they do-the action (1981:20).
4. Family
Lerner & Spanier quoted in Noller and Fitzpatrick’s Communicatioin in Family Relationships says family as the social unit which accepts responsibility
for the socialization and nurturance of children (1993:5). Sociologists quoted in Social Experience: An Introduction to Sociology have traditionally viewed the
(Zanden, 1988:337). The family in this definition is categorized as extended family which has the member of father, mother, children and or relatives.
5. Society
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
This chapter provides overviews on critics and comments on William
Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The first
comment comes from Hodson in his book, William Golding: Writers and Critics
who says that William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Salinger’s The Catcher in
the Rye are novels that give a picture of youth and society in opposite way:
There is also an element of the modish in it but more generally what is at stake is the opposition between the pictures of youth and society that these two works give – Salinger’s with his Holden Caulfield, innocent until corrupted by society which is phony through and through, and Golding’s with his boys potentially evil at the outset. (1969:33).
According to Hodson, Lord of the Flies has the sense of the potential evil and
potential good in man, suggested basically by the image of child as potential adult
(1969:38). Making people understand their own humanity, which Golding sees as
the basic quality in a writer, can be narrowed down to mean making people
become self-aware and honest with themselves about the condition they find
themselves in, and the kind of life they lead (1969:19).
The story in Lord of the Files obliquely makes the reader automatically apply
the story to adult life (Hodson, 1969:34). The story has the image of child as
potential adult. Margaret Waters in “Two Fabulists: Golding and Camus” said that
Lord of the Flies was much about the adult world than about boys. She considers
that Golding succeeds in uniting idea, character, and situation, particularly by his
ironic references throughout to the world of adults (Melbourne Critical Review,
vol.4, 1961).
Besides, F. E. Kearns places The Catcher in the Rye in the tradition of the
innate goodness of man until corrupted by society and Lord of the Flies in the
tradition of the insuperable depravity of human nature which makes all human
effort at justice or order futile (qt. “Salinger and Golding: Conflict on the
Campus”, America, 26 January 1963).
Lord of the Flies is influenced by the author’s childhood experiences that
brings the shadow of darkness and contaminate his happiness. Moreover, Gerald
says that Golding's novels are often termed fables or myths. They are laden with
symbols, usually of a spiritual or religious nature, so heavy in significance that
they can be interpreted on many different levels
(http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/golding-william-gerald).
Further comments and critics are about The Catcher in the Rye. Eric
Lomazoff’s comment about Salinger's portrayal of Holden which includes
incidents of depression, nervous breakdown, impulsive spending, sexual
exploration, vulgarity, and other erratic behaviour, have all attributed to the
controversial nature of the novel (http://www.levity.com/conduroy/salinger1.htm).
While Davis in Contemporary Literary Criticism gives comment that Salinger
in The Catcher in the Rye has skills in mockery of verbal speech. The structure of
the novel personifies Holden's unstable state of mind. Other comment from Davis
is about the portrayal of Holden Caulfield's melodramatic struggle to survive in
preparatory school. He point out to the fact that Holden has flunked out of three
Pennsylvania prep schools, as a symbol of the fact that Holden is not truly ready
for adulthood (1989:318).
One of the most intriguing points from Kegel in Incommunicability in
Salinger's 'The Catcher in the Rye' in Holden's character, related to his prolonged
inability to communicate, is Holden's intention to become a deaf-mute. So
repulsed is he by the phoniness around him that he wishes not to communicate
with anyone, and in a passage filled with personal insight he contemplates a
retreat within himself. Caulfield is in search of the Word. His problem is one of
communication: as a teenager, he simply cannot get through to the adult world
which surrounds him; as a sensitive teenager, he cannot get through others of his
own age (1963:54-55).
Since the critics and comments about Lord of the Flies and The Catcher in
the Rye do not mention about alienation, the writer of this thesis is going to make
an analysis of alienation and compare their alienation in both novels. She will also
see the impact of alienation trough violence. Next, the causes that influence the
alienation and violence phenomenon in the characters in both novels will also be
B. Review of Related Theories
The theories which will be applied in the analysis are the theories of character
and characterization, alienation, violence, familial and societal influence.
1. Character and Characterization
Character has the important role in play or drama because character will carry
out the action and will make the story life to the reader. According to Bain in his
book The Norton Introduction to Literature, defines that character is a person who
acts, appears, or is referred to in a work (1973:604). Besides, Abrams in his book
A Glossary of Literary Terms states that characters are the person presented in a
dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed
with moral, dispositional that are expressed their dialogue and their action
(1993:23).
Meanwhile, Forster in his book Aspect of the Novel states that the actors in a
story are, or pretend to be, human beings (1974:30). He assumes that the character
in a book is real when the novelist knows many of facts, even of the kind we call
obvious, may be hidden. From the characters in the novel the reader may get a
reality that he/she never gets in his daily life.
Further is about the theories of characterization. Blair and Gerber in Better
Reading to Literature states that characterization is a technique used by the writer
to make the qualities of the character known (1948:52). While Richard M.
Eastman in A Guide to the Novel describes that in depiction characters a novelist
M. J. Murphy in his book Understanding Unseen (1972:173) states nine ways
in which an author attempts to create the characterization of the characters to
make the characters are more understandable to the readers.
a. Personal description
The author can describe a person’s appearance and clothes in detail. The author
has the skillful choice to make the character in details of the skin-color, the hair,
the clothes, the face, or the eyes to help the readers know the character as well.
b. Character as seen by another
The author describes one character through another character’s eyes and opinion
to get the image of one character. The reader is given the impressions of shape,
cleanliness, firmness, smoothness and color of the character from another.
c. Speech
The author can give us an insight into the character trough what the character
says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in conversation with another,
whenever he puts forward on opinion, he is giving us a clue to his character.
d. Past life
The author gives the clue by letting the reader learns about a person’s past life. It
can be done by the direct comment through the conversation of the characters or
through the medium of another person.
e. Conversation of others
The author gives the clue to person’s character through the conversation of other
people and the things they say about him. The way they are talk to the other
f. Reaction
The author gives us a clue to a person’s character by letting us to know how that
person reacts to various situations and events. Each situation and event gives its
own way to direct the person’s character,
g. Direct comment
The author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly. The author
gives the direct comment to give clue for the reader about that character of person.
h. Thoughts
The author can give us direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. The
author tells about the different of the people in thinking. In this way, the author is
able to create something of the character way of thinking that we cannot do in real
life.
i. Mannerism
The author can describe a person’s mannerism, habits or idiosyncrasies, which
may also tell us something about his character. The person’s mannerism is
something that cannot easily to forget, it is about something special manner of the
2. Alienation
The writer found some theories on alienation that will be used in this thesis.
Since the writer sees the alienation from psychological perspective, the theories of
alienation from psychological science are fruitful to support the theory of
alienation. These theories will depict the description of the qualities that adhere to
the alienated person.
Gold in Kalish’s The Psychology of Human Behavior gives the three
interrelated meanings for alienation; there are isolation, feeling of powerlessness
and identity crisis (1973:45). In other words, Kalish depicted an alienated person
as a person who does not feel to belong to one community or who feels that one
cannot relate to a group (1973:44-45). In line with Kalish, Maslow in Personality
Theories describes about the belongingness and love need of the individual
toward the group. In his view, the encounter groups are motivated by this
unsatisfied hunger for contact, for intimacy, for belongingness and by the need to
overcome the widespread feelings of alienation, aloneness, and loneliness
(1981:371). Man who does not belong to the group or community can be
categorized as a person who has the feeling of alienation, aloneness, and
loneliness. Furthermore, Erich Fromm in The Sane Society states that in the
interpersonal relationship of alienated person, friendships are not the basis of
individual liking or attraction (1955:160). Fromm further explains that an
alienated person is not being able to make a personal relationship. The relation
that one makes is only in the surface. The relation is motivated by egotistical
In the alienation world, one is not only estranged toward other people but also
toward the self. Fromm states that an alienated person is out of touch with oneself
as he is out of touch with any other person (1955:120). Kalish in The Psychology
of Human Behavior describes that an alienated person may lack the kinds of
motivation that normal social relationship lead to, they feel goalless and uncertain
of themselves. They are not be able to turn to other and they may turn
increasingly inward (1973:45). Man experiences oneself not as a man with love,
fear, convictions, doubts, but as that abstraction, alienated from one real nature,
which fulfills a certain function in the social system. The sense of one own values
always depends on factors extraneous to oneself (Fromm, 1955:142).
Other theory of alienation comes from Karen Horney and Erich Fromm in
Adolescence and Youth, which state that alienation may also take the form of a
sense of estrangement from what is vaguely felt to be one’s real self. As a result
of unfortunate developmental experience or the demands of society, the individual
may feel that somehow he does is empty, flat, and devoid of meaning. Such
feelings characterize some instances of adolescent depression (1977:554).
Further, Sullivan in Child and Adolescent Psychology takes the fact that the
alienated person lacks a feeling of selfhood and experiences oneself in terms of a
response to the expectation of others, as part of human nature (1969:193). While
Kierkegaard, Tillich, and Sartre in Adolescence and Youth emphasizes the
alienation as the painful estrangement of the individual from God, from other
people, or from oneself (1977:553). One does not experience oneself as an active
on powers outside of oneself, unto whom he has projected his living substance
(Fromm, 1955:124). One must lose almost all sense of self, of oneself as a unique
and induplicable entity (Fromm, 1955:143).
An alienated person feels so much guilty in one life. Man has the feeling of
guilty for being oneself, and for not being oneself, for being alive and for being
automaton, for being a person and for being a thing (Fromm, 1955:205). The
guilty feeling increase unhappiness and suffering in one’s life. One will estranged
from oneself and from other people that make one cannot face the reality of life
(Fromm, 1955: 202).
Another description is that alienation is a kind of mental illness which
unconsciously appears from our mind. Neurotic person can be said as an alienated
person because one has completely lost oneself as the center of one own
experience as one lost the sense of self (Fromm, 1955:124). The action of an
alienated person is under illusion which is separated from oneself and work
behind his/her back. Man becomes strange to oneself like others are strange to
him/her. One will experience the other and oneself not as he/she really is, but
distorted by the unconscious forces which operate in him/her.
In addition, Fromm states that in the alienated world, life is being denied; need
to control, creativeness, curiosity, and independent thought are being baulked, and
the result, the inevitable result, is flight or fight, apathy or destructiveness,
3. Violence
In alienation, the action of the alienated person is unconsciously done. One
has the potentiality to do violence to release the feeling of alienation. There are
some theories that will support the theory of violence.
James V. McConnell in Understanding Human Behavior states that someone
who does violence mostly one who is confused about life and one who has parents
that had not taught the person much about self-control and getting along with
others (1983:97). This kind of person is like a person who gets feeling of
alienation. Bordiga strengthens this argument by saying that violence is one thing
that can be appeared to follow the development of the alienation character
(http://www.marxists.org).
Guy R. Lefrancois in his book Of Children states that violence is simply an
extreme form of aggressiveness (1980:363). Further, Kalish in The Psychology of
Human Behavior says that violence occurs only when it is aroused by
environmental conditions, usually through anger and frustration, although other
forms of stress may be involved. The individual’s ability to cope effectively with
stress is also related to his ability to deal with the motivation to become violent
(1973:162). Moreover, Kalish describes that violent behavior appears to result
from the dynamic interaction between human physiology, the individual’s
background and general environment, and the arousal properties of the specifics
situation.
Gray in On Understanding Violence Philosophically added that the
self-realization and deprivation of freedom is nearly bound to be violent
(1970:29). In line with Gray, Azrin’s theory also states that “psychological pain”
or frustration can be lead to violence as readily as can electric shock (1983:100).
According to Scott, the most important in influencing violence is societal
factors (1983:97). He believes that people will not do away with violence and
aggression until they create societies that promote peace, stability, and positive
interpersonal relationships particularly among disadvantaged young people in all
cultures.
Types of violence:
1. Physical violence
Amadeo Bordiga describes that the physical violence is the violence that use
the muscular strength (http://www.marxists.org). On the other way, Wolfgang in
Kalish’ book describes that violence is used as physical injury to persons and
damage or destruction of property (1973:162). Lefrancois added that violence
implies physical action or movement and possible or actual harm to people or
objects (1980:363). Physical violence exist in the individual who might want to
elude such impositions must engage in a hand-to-hand combat with the other
people individually or collectivity.
2. Verbal Violence
Bordiga says that violence is not only about brutal physical, such as physical
restrain, beating, and killing, but also in the actions of individual coercing such as
Futher, Gray in his book On Understanding Violence Philosophically says that
in the condition of suffering and unhappiness, one uses language as a weapon,
analogous to pistols and bombs, without concern either for its flexibility or beauty
(1970:18). Plato in Gray’s book held that “to use words wrongly is not a fault in
itself; it also corrupts the soul.” (1970:18). Gray adds that language in their
mouths becomes a succession of slogans in the original meaning of slogan as a
battlecry or warcry.
In essence, language can be used as a tool to make verbal violence. The use of
language as a violent act appears from suffering and unhappy person who uses it
to release the feeling of alienation in an alienated person. Verbal violence will
hurt other people not physically but psychically.
4. Familial and Societal Influence
Familial and society are the greatest factors which influence the phenomenon
of alienation and violence in children and adolescence. Since the children and
adolescence associate in the family and society, the atmosphere of family and
society affect the quality in children’s behavior. J. W. Vander Zanden in The
Social Experience says that both family and peer group are important anchors in
children and adolescence’s life (1988:292). Ruth Nanda Anshen in The Family
describes the function of family in the child development:
Meddinus in Child and Adolescent Psychology added that the most significant
aspect of the home is the warmth of the relationship between parents and child
(1969:356).
While Watson in Psychology of the Child says that parents are the personality
patters that persist are set by the way in which parents characteristically restrict,
comfort, admonish, instruct, and express acceptance and warmth (1973:230). He
added that although the peer group begins to have some effect on children’s
attitudes during the middle years, the fact that they are still dependent on their
parents means that the latter are still the major influence in their capacities: as
sources of love, as authority figure, as sources of values and as models.
Further, Mary Jo Bane says about the basic principle of how a society ought to
treat its children that the children should receive secure and continuous care; they
should be neither abused nor abandoned (1983:114). She added that Americans
believe that children should be wanted both by parents and by society.
Meanwhile Erikson in Adolescence and Youth states that in successful identity
formation, the community or cultural subgroup give the way of identifying the
individual. This interaction more or less makes the successful in the individual’s
way of identifying himself with others. He added that the studies of children
define that without strong and unambiguous manifestations of parental love, the
children and adolescent has the difficulties in developing self-esteem, constructive
and rewarding relationships with others and a confidence of his or her own
Societal Influence is the influence of peers and school that transmit the values
of the society to each succeeding generation of children. The social interaction
occurring within the school through its personnel, attempts to guide and facilitate
the personality development of its pupils. Nursery school and teacher are the
various aspects of school experience that influence the child’s development of
personality (Medinnus, 1969:434).
According to Fromm in The Sane Society, man is a social being with a deep
need to share, to help, to feel as a member of a group (1955:140). One needs to
make the interaction with others to be a part of the society. Kalish in The
Psychology of Human Behavior gives the description about the children who are
not happy with their family or parents consider having stress. They may get
frustration, conflict, guilt and anxiety even with their own parents. For example:
children will get frustration when parents have established such high standards for
academic achievement that their children cannot possibly live up (1973:140).
The feeling of unhappiness about the family and society will be the motive
of the difficulties in children and adolescence’s achievement of self identity. They
C. Theoretical Framework
The contribution of the reviews and theories will be needed to support the
analysis. Review of related studies and theories is needed to analyze problem
formulation number one that is about the description of the qualities of alienation
related to violence in the characters in both novels. Those theories will be used to
analyze problem formulation number two that will describe about the causes of
alienation in children.
The writer will analyze alienation and violence in the characters from
psychological perspective. The analysis will also be seen from the familial and
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The objects of this study are the novel of William Golding entitled Lord of the
Flies and J. D. Salinger’s entitled The Catcher in the Rye. Lord of the Flies is
Golding’s first novel published in 1954. The novel that is used as the source for
this study is the one published by Faber and Faber in 1962. This novel contains
264 pages which is divided into 12 chapters with the introduction and notes to the
book by Ian Gregor and Mark Kinkead Weekers of the faculty of Humanity,
University of Kent at Canterbury.
The second novel is The Catcher in the Rye. This novel is the first novel of
J. D. Salinger published in 1951. The novel that is used in this analysis is
published by Bantam Books in 1981. This novel has 214 pages which divided into
26 chapters.
B. Approach of the Study
This Psychological approach is used in this study. The psychological approach
attempts to understand the alienation and violence in the characters development
in literature works as well. Atkinson in Introduction to Psychology says that
psychological deals with a work of literature primary as an expression, in fiction
form, of the state of mind (1983:263). According to Freud in Fromm’s The Sane
Society, the function of psychology is to discover the self, to understand the
individual, to find the “truth that makes you free” (1955:168). Psychology as the
way to understanding human behavior in the real life can be fruitful in analyzing
the character behavior in the novel.
Since the alienation and violence are part of psychological science, the writer
decides that psychological approach is appropriate to be used as a tool to analyze
the psychological aspect of the characters in both novels.
C. Method of the Study
The writer uses library research or desk research and internet research as
method of the study. It is very helpful to find some relevant theories that support
the analysis.
The writer does some steps to answer the questions in problem formulation in
this analysis. The first step, the writer reads and rereads the work of William
Golding’s Lord of the Flies and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye to
understand the story in the novels. The writer is interested in the characters in
both novels that have the same portrayal about alienation and violence. Instead of
that, both characters in the novels are youth that will make the analysis will
deeper about them.
The second, the writer tries to find some theories that support the theory of
alienation and violence in psychological perspective. The theories are needed to
understand the meaning, concept and causes of alienation and violence in the
characters. The theories will be the basic knowledge to make the analysis in this
The third is making an analysis of alienation and violence in the characters.
The analysis will be divided in two sections. The first is the analysis on the
qualities of alienation related to violence in both novels. The main theory of
alienation that will be used is the theory from Erich Fromm in his book The Sane
Society. The main theory of violence that will be used is the theory of Amadeo
Bordiga from internet research (http://www.marxists.org). The second is the
analysis of the causing of alienation in both novels. This analysis will use the
theory of family and social influence from George Mead in his book Adolescence
and Youth. Meanwhile, the theory of character and characterization from
M. J. Murphy in his book Understanding Unseen will be used in analyzing the
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this chapter the writer will make an analysis on, firstly, the qualities of
alienation and the relation with violence in Lord of the Flies and The Catcher in the Rye. The analysis of alienation will be focused on the characteristics of alienation which is needed to describe the alienation in the characters and to
decide whether they are alienated or not. The analysis on violence will discuss
whether the alienated person has a probability to do physical or verbal violence.
The second is the analysis of the causes of alienation in both novels. In this way,
the reader will know about the connection or relation between alienation and
violence and what causing them alienated characters in both novels.
A. Alienation
1. Alienation in Lord of the Flies
The story in Lord of the Flies is about a group of school boys age 6 to 12 that is isolated in one empty island. The adventure of the boys in the island is begun
when their plane which evacuates them is shot down in the tropical island. It
forces them to face the bitter experiences in the empty island. This condition
makes them far from their former society and cannot make any relation or
communication with other person outside the island. At the first time they came in
the island, they are described as being happy. They consider the island as their
own by saying, “This belong to us” (Golding, 1962:31) and “All ours” (Golding,
1962:32). But after all the experiences that they have with their new friends, they
realize that they feel unhappy. “Things are breaking up. I don’t understand why.
We began well; we were happy. And then___” (Golding, 1962:89). They feel
unhappy because everything that is going on is not in the right way so it raises the
conflict between them.
Their physical appearance also has changed. They are described as school
boys who wearing the uniform. During the life in the island, they are described as
the boys who are uncivilized. Their skin is darkening and their hair is long as they
can tie it up. They are also half naked or even naked. It gives the picture of their
agony in the island.
In this case, the pilot is dead, so that they live in the island without any adult.
The boys are alienated as a group from the world outside. They are also alienated
with other group in the island. The boys are divided into two groups; the group
who wants to make a fire to be rescued and the group who always wants to hunt
pig. They always argue about the important thing to be done in the island; making
fire to make a smoke or hunting to make a food. “You hunters! You can laugh!
But I tell you the smoke is more important than the pig, however often you kill
one” (Golding, 1962:88). In further development, the hunters being savages and
they want to destroy other group and other boys who do not want to join the
hunters. The boys are not only alienated as a group, but some of them are also
alienated as an individual. In the island, they are alienated from their new society.
They face their alienation in the island for several days until they have been
Further, the writer is going to show the qualities of alienation to have a clear
depiction about the alienation condition in the characters. The boys face their
alienation in different way. They have one or more qualities of alienation in their
behavior. The qualities of alienation that will be applied or identified in this
discussion are isolation, being out of touch with the self, being out of touch with
any other person, powerless, experiences identity crisis, being neurotic, and
undergo guilty feeling.
1. Isolation
The plane which is shot down brings them to the empty island. The boys live
in an empty island with no adult stay in. “We’re on an island. We’ve been on the
mountain –top and seen water all round. We saw no houses, no smoke, no
foot-print, no boats, no people. We’re on an uninhabited island with no other people on
it” (Golding, 1962:35). After all the exploration in the island, the boys find that no
body has been in the island before. The island is far from the civilized world. In
the island, there are only “dark blue sea and the darkness of the forest” (Golding,
1962:10). They are isolated from their former society, their family and siblings.
“Perhaps they knew where we was going to; and perhaps not. But they don’t
know where we are ‘cos we never got there.” “The plane was shot down in
flames. Nobody knows where we are” (Golding, 1962:37). Thus they are
2. Being Out of Touch with the Self
The life in the island that is uncivilized is totally different from the life in the
children’s former civilized life. Sooner or later, the island forces the children to
change their behavior to adjust the environment. They have to survive in the
strange and wild place. The life in the forest which is hard and difficult makes
them cannot control their action. In the island, some of them even being savages
and kill human. Unconsciously, the children are alienated with themselves. Their
behavior has changed from the school boys to the savages. They come to the
border that they cannot recognize themselves anymore whether they are still
human or not. “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? (Golding,
1962:99). Their action is not their own but influenced by the circumstances of the
island and by other boys.
3. Being Out of Touch with any other Person
All boys have just met in the island after their plane was attacked. They meet
in the island by accident. They do not mind to staying in the island. They are
strange with other boys in the island because they do not know each other before
the evacuation. Meanwhile, whether they are in the same boat in the island, they
only make an artificial relationship. They do not notice the others. The missing of
one boy is the evidence of their lack of relationship. “That little’un ____” gasped
Piggy___” him with the mark on his face, I don’t see him. Where is he now?”
(Golding, 1962:51). No one knows where he is until they have been rescued by
They are alienated toward other boys because they cannot make personal
relationships. They make a distance with the others. The relation between them is
only in the surface. The boys are motivated by egotistical interest as Jack does
toward other boys by forcing other boys to join his tribe. They do not have
solidarity with other boys. It makes them cannot cooperate between themselves.
They cannot work together in order to be rescued. It is shown when Jack who has
in charge to keep the fire on, let it out. He does not have solidarity toward other
boys who want to be rescued. He even considers that other boys are not human
being but as an animal that can be hunted or killed.
Further alienation appears in Simon’s behavior. He is the boy who cannot
make personal relationship with others. He prefers to be alone in doing what he
wanted. He often wanders the island alone. He is also uncertain to himself. He
wonder how Ralph can speak to an assembly, apparently, without that dreadful
feeling of the pressure of personality or he can say what he wants as though he is
speaking to only one person (Golding, 1962:113). Simon turns increasingly
inward. Simon is often thinking about himself. He is in daydreaming when he
does something. He is busy with his own personal mind. Thus he is unable to
make a relation with others.
Other alienation appears in Ralph. He does not recognize the hunters as his
friends which he meets at the first time they came to the island. “I’ve got pax,”
laugh lightly and sleep among the others? Pretend they were still boys, schoolboys
who had said “Sir, yes, Sir”___and worn caps?” (Golding, 1962:205). Since they
is isolated by the hunters because he is the only boy who does not want to join the
tribe. After the death of Piggy, he is alone in the struggle against the savages of
the hunters. “He knelt among the shadows and felt his isolation bitterly”
(Golding, 1962:205). He feels absolutely alone especially when the hunters want
to hunt and kill him like a pig. “He could not bring himself to be specific at first,
but then fear and loneliness goaded him” (Golding, 1962:209). He cannot find the
reason why they want to kill him. He cannot cooperate with the hunters since they
become savages. He feels strange to them. He does not know whether they are
human or not.
Further Ralph’s alienation toward the tribes is shown when the hunters painted
their face that make him cannot recognize them anymore. They are like a thing
that can speak. “A painted face spoke with the voice of Robert” (Golding,
1962:194). He even sees the painted face as a thing who has the voice like his
friend. He is really alienated with the savages. “He had even glimpsed one of
them, striped brown, black, and red, and had judged that it was Bill. But really,
thought Ralph, this was not Bill. This was a savage whose image refuses to blend
with that ancient picture of a boy in shorts and shirt” (Golding, 1962: 202).
4. Powerless
One boy who has the powerless feeling is Piggy. He feels that he is different
with others. It is because he has fat body, asthma and he is wearing glasses since
he was three. With his fat body he cannot make an attractive activity such as
this” (Golding, 1962:26). He is only in charge in accounting the name of the boys.
While his asthma makes him does not allowed doing physical activity such as
swimming or gathering the logs for fire. “If I pull logs about, I get my asthma bad.
I wish I didn’t, Ralph, but there it is” (Golding, 1962:179). Further, it is obvious
that Piggy is useless without glasses. Without his glasses, he is almost blind. It
can be seen when the hunters steal his spectacles. Since he cannot see, he cannot
make any kind of activities. He becomes weakest than before. “You can take
spears if you want but I shan’t. What’s the good? I’ll have to be led like a dog,
anyhow” (Golding, 1962:189). He feels very sad and powerless and useless in
group. It makes him alienated toward other boys in the island.
The feeling of powerless appears also in the twins, Sam and Eric, who are
forced to join the tribe. They cannot make a struggle of the hunters when they
forced him to join the tribe. They are very afraid of the brutality of the hunters
who will kill everybody who does not want to join the tribe. Because of their
weakness, at last, the twins join the hunters. “Samneric were part of the tribe
now” (Golding, 1962:206). In fact they join the tribe in order to avoid Jack’s tribe
savages. They do not want to make a trouble with the hunters. “You don’t know
Roger. He is a terror” (Golding, 1962:209). Other evidence of their powerless is
shown when the tribe beat him because he is talking to Ralph. They cannot
against the tribe because they are afraid of them. They must obey the hunters with
5. Experiencing Identity Crisis
Two boys, Ralph and Jack, as the leader of the groups show the most
prominent behavior in their identity crisis. In the case of Jack Merridew, he feels
very disappointed when he is not chosen as a leader of the boys. “… the freckles
on Jack’s face disappeared under a blush of mortification” (Golding, 1962:24). He
thinks that he is the best to be the leader of the group, “I ought to be chief,” said
Jack with simple arrogance (Golding, 1962:23). It is just because he can sing C
sharp. Since he is not chosen as the leader he faces identity crisis. He gathers the
choir to make his own tribe and he declares himself as the leader of the hunters to
overcome his identity crisis.
Another Jack’s identity crisis is shown when he needs the paint as a mask to
cover his identity. He paints his face to hide from shame and self-consciousness,
so that he will not be recognized by other boys when he does the bad thing. “We
could steal up on one__ paint our faces so they wouldn’t see__ ” (Golding,
1962:59). By using the mask he feels that he is not Jack anymore but something
stronger that can do anything even the wildest thing to stick his authority. “…
..You know-dazzle paint. Like things trying to look something else____”
(Golding, 1962:68).
Further identity crisis shown in Ralph's behavior when the group does not
hear what he said. He always saying, “I’m a chief” when he thinks that the group
is uncertain about his leadership. He needs to make sure that other boys still see
about his leadership. The hunters do not want to admit his leadership. “Hands up,”
said Jack strongly, “whoever wants Ralph not to be chief?” (Golding, 1962:140).
6. Being Neurotic
The unstable condition in the island makes the boys get the symptom of the
neurotic person. They make an illusion of the beast. They see everything that is
moving or shadowing in the night as the beast. They see the parachute of the
death pilot as the beast. They see the parachute like a monster that should be
destroyed. They also see the shadow of Simon as the beast. It causes Simon’s
dead because the boys beat him with their bare hands until he is dead. They even
imagine that the beast will come out from the forest, sea and air. They create a
creature that will influence their mind. And their mind will be haunted by the
beast during their live in the island. Meanwhile they believe that the figure they
have created is real. In fact, the beast does not exist. It is only exist in their mind.
Ralph even tells to other boys that he has seen the beast on the mountain. “The
beast had teeth,” said Ralph. “and big black eyes” (Golding, 1962:137). Actually,
they only see a thing or a shadow that resemble as a great ape and suppose it as a
beast. “.. Before them, something like a great ape was sitting asleep with its head
between its knees” (Golding, 1962:136). Hallucination is a kind of mental
disorder. Their action is under their unconscious mind. They start to be alienated
from their own mind.
The second illusion is shown when Simon hears the voice a pig’s head on a
the voice of Lord of the Flies. He is alienated from his own mind. He believes that
Lord of the Flies will help him to be rescued and he should not to be worry about
it.
“There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast.”
“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?” (Golding, 1962:158).
The quotation above show the voice of the Lord of the Flies and contain a
message that the beast actually doest not exist in the island. Lord of the Flies tries
to tell Simon that the real beast lies in the heart of human being. The boys who do
savages and violence are the real beast.
The other boys who have the neurotic mind are Jack and Roger. They force all
the boys to join the hunter and if they refuse to join they will kill him. They only
think about the power and authority. They are not aware that their action makes
the agony toward the others. The important thing for them is to show that they are
the strongest boys in the island. Their action is controlled by their unconscious
forces which work behind his back. Their mind is full of hatred and savagery.
They want to destroy Ralph and other boys in order to make them become the
strongest tribe. They have killed Piggy and Simon, further they even want to kill
Ralph too.
“The chief and Roger___” “__yes, Roger___”
“They hate you, Ralph. They’re going to do you.”
They make a preparation to hunt Ralph, Roger even sharpen his stick at both ends.
They want to hunt Ralph as if they are killing a pig. The conscious action of
killing other is an act of an insane person. An insane person is absolutely an
alienated person.
7. Guilty Feeling
Man who is alienated will have much feeling so much guilty. Ralph feels
guilty when he has joined the hunters to hunt a pig. He cannot accept himself of
joining and hunting the pig and being savage.
He notices Ralph’s scarred nakedness, and the sombre silence of all four of them. He sought, charitable in his happiness, to include them in the thing that had happened. His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink (Golding, 1962:76).
In his opinion, the most important thing is the fire. It is needed to make a
smoke as a sign to be rescued. He feels very sad when the hunters let the fire out
in the time of a ship passes the island. “Ralph said no more, did nothing, stood
looking down at the ashes round his feet” (Golding, 1962:79). Ralph as the leader
has the responsibility to bring the group to be saved and to be rescued.
He looked round guiltily at the three boys standing by. This was the first time he had admitted the double function of the fire. Certainly one was to send up a beckoning column of smoke; but the other was to be a hearth now and a comfort until they slept (Golding, 1962:179).
No body understands about the fire especially the hunters. They only think
smoke signal and they will never be rescued. They perhaps will stay in the island
until they die.
2. Alienation in The Catcher in the Rye
The story in The Catcher in the Rye is begun after the main character, Holden Caulfield, has been kicked out from his school Pencey Prep. He has been kicked
out from several schools and the last is Pencey Prep. Holden is about seventeen
year old with six foot two and a half high and gray hair. He is described as an
unhappy person who always has a trouble in his life. He is a drunker and heavy
smoker. After he leaves his school, he makes a journey in New York City. The
story in this novel is flash back before Holden gets mental disorder. He tells the
entire story from the mental hospital. He is an alienated person. In New York, he
meets some interesting characters that increase his alienation.
In order to make a clear comprehension about alienation, the writer will point
out the qualities of alienation to recognize the alienation phenomenon in Holden’s
character, there are being out of touch with any other person, experiencing
identity crisis, being neurotic, undergo guilty feeling, goalless feeling, empty, flat,
and devoid feeling, and estrangement from God.
1. Being Out of Touch with any Other Person
Holden has been kicked out from several schools because he does not like to
be there. He thinks that his schools are the school that is full of corrupt people.
His only reason why he leaves the school is just because there are full of phonies.
