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Isolated And Victimized In J.D. Salinger’s, “The Catcher In The Rye” Holden Caulfield’s exclusion from the people around him greatly affects him throughout the narrative. From the first few pages of the book we learn that Holden isn’t attending the big football game between Pencey Prep and Saxon Hall. Despite being an event of great school importance and tradition, Holden isn’t in the bleachers and socializing with his fellow classmates but instead he is sitting atop a hill looking down on everyone criticizing their every move. Holden tries to justify why he isn’t there calling everyone below “phonies” or “crooks” saying how he doesn’t want to be bothered by them. Holden is extremely judgmental and overly analytical of his fellow human beings throughout the novel. In his excessive whining he often tries to find humor in his “obviously” inferior peers. At first Holden keeps his distance from others because he believes he is better than them but as the book progresses there are many cases where we learn that this is nothing more than a façade and Holden is truly lonely inside. The three reasons Holden is alienated and lonely was best stated by Whissen, “He is alienated from others, sometimes be