/lit/ - Literature

>>5548456
It is less than tenuous. Claiming that it is the most important interpretive point of the novel is tenuous. Holden experiences sexuality as a system of rape because he's unable to abandon the rye-field of childhood and fall off the cliff, his stuck inability to concretise his desire and his wish for transcendental reality
("I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.") is far more important. But the sexuality being hidden is important to the extent that Holden's psycho-analytical resistance to admitting he raped Phoebe, and was raped, and as a child engaged in sex play against other children's will; his resistance to sexuality is part of his resistance to adult culpability. He ain't going home by christmas.

{{sniff}}