Academic Review 2024

7 ACADEMIC REVIEW 2024

stubborn, childlike manner, repeatedly saying ‘ No ’, telling Maurice to ‘leave [him] alone’ and to ‘get the hell out of [his] room’, then bursting into tears (pp. 113-115). Salinger’s repetition of the single word ‘ No ’ and his use of the lowly cuss word ‘hell’ make Holden’s response reminiscent of a child refusing to listen to reason. The struggle Holden faces as he tries to compose himself is indicative of how he had initially wanted to prepare himself for adulthood, yet now realises that he wants to preserve his innocence after feeling repulsed by Sunny’s mistreatment at the hands of society. Holden’s childish sense of righteousness is provoked by his feeling of injustice. By underlining Holden’s persistent protests against handing over his money, Salinger conveys how Holden refuses to conform to adulthood and society. Thus, it is through Sunny’s interactions with Holden that Salinger reveals the extent of his anger and disappointment toward society which contributes to defining how he thinks and behaves throughout the rest of the novel. Salinger subtly accentuates Sunny’s significance in the novel by placing an abundance of repetitive phrases, precisely chosen vocabulary, and irony within Holden’s narrative voice. Alongside his neatly composed metaphors and structural parallelism, Salinger heightens the significance of Sunny’s interactions with Holden throughout the novel, allowing their interactions to reveal Holden’s loss of innocence. “ It is her interactions with him that ultimately define his beliefs and attitudes towards society throughout the rest of the novel. ”

to consider prostitution in order to survive, and for failing to spot and support a young girl in need. Therefore, it is Holden’s interactions with Sunny that reveal why he begins to harbour this spark of deeper anger and disappointment toward society. Moreover, Sunny’s interactions with Holden provide him with his first ever experience of the gritty realities of society. Her interactions with Holden reveal the extent of his hurt and distrust toward society, as he realises that adulthood is more complicated than he had ever imagined. Salinger conveys this as Maurice and Sunny return to Holden’s hotel room. As Maurice demands Holden to give them another five dollars, Salinger portrays Maurice as representing the deceit and greed of society, describing him as having a ‘big fat hairy stomach’ (p. 113), reflecting the beliefs of the era that equated gluttony and greed with fatness. Maurice threatens Holden with physical consequences, yet Holden refuses persistently in a Conclusion In The Catcher in the Rye Sunny’s interactions with Holden have a greater significance within the novel than one would expect. Sunny’s interactions with Holden reveal his loss of innocence as he gains knowledge and experience of sex, his emotional tendencies, and the superficiality of society. Sunny dispels Holden’s previous misconceptions about sex and leads him to identify what sex truly means to him, her interactions with him influencing his eventual efforts to preserve his innocence via his virginity. Salinger also shows Holden’s emotional development during his interactions with Sunny, as she exposes his contradictory “adult” act of emotional toughness and his deeper sense of loneliness, leading him to realise that he is not emotionally “ready” to cross the threshold from adolescence to adulthood. Additionally, Sunny allows Holden to explore why he harbours such intense hatred and distrust for society, providing him with his first direct experience of the gritty realities of adulthood. It is her interactions with him that ultimately define his beliefs and attitudes towards society throughout the rest of the novel. If the scope of this essay were to be expanded, it could be further extrapolated that Sunny’s interactions with Holden reveal his loss of innocence via societal issues such as misogyny.