The World Wars, among the most important events in history, changed society and created the modern world we know Today. The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger, is a critique of the new modern world created after the war. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, judges and criticizes almost everything around him. JD Salinger uses Holden's critical thoughts to demonstrate the harm that a class-driven society can cause. Holden feels trapped and tries to escape the prep school lifestyle, but ends up at another school in the fall. Holden judges the quality and price of the suitcases of those below him, even at an elite prep school, and considers everyone who is socio-economically above him to be fake while everyone who is below him are depressing to him. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayMarxism is the idea that “all war is class war”; conflicts in society all arise from the separation between people based on their wealth. There is no social class distinct from economic class. Holden and his family belong to the upper socio-economic class, meaning they are part of the social elite and are economically wealthy. Holden, a naive teenager, knows that he is different from others, because he is less cool or younger than them, but he fails to see how much he looks down on others because of their economic class. Holden talks about the quality of a roommate's suitcases he hasn't seen in years. It’s telling that he remembers such a small product and associates an entire person with it. Holden reduces his roommate, Dick Slagle, to the suitcases he took to school. Holden even says, "It's not important, I know," but goes on to say that he "hates it when someone has cheap suitcases" (page 13). Holden associates himself with his suitcases which "came from Mark Cross, and they were real cowhide and all that crap, and I guess they cost a pretty penny" (page 13). Despite the fact that Holden didn't do well at all in this school, he considers himself superior to his roommate over something as small as his suitcases. This is linked to Marxism because an important belief in this theory is, firstly, that people belong socially to the class in which they find themselves economically, and also because of the idea of ​​sign exchange value. The exchange value of signs is the idea that “the value of a commodity lies in the social status it confers on its owner” (Tyson 59). Holden attributes a sign-exchange value to these suitcases and thus oppresses his roommate. A critical investigation at the University of Chicago connects the capitalist society in which Holden lives to the economic struggle represented by these suitcases. The critic declares: “Only a few can hope to have suitcases, at the expense of the majority, and to benefit from this, one must ignore the conscience of the majority. Moreover, even a few are somehow prevented from enjoying it by the antagonistic effort required to secure one's suitcases” (Ohmann and Ohmann). Holden doesn't focus on how much he enjoys his suitcases, but simply on the conflict caused by those who wish to have them. This is how a society focused on social class and sign exchange value, as in the theory of Marxism, manipulates people into separating themselves from each other. JD Salinger, through Holden and his suitcases, shows how relationships between people, even unconsciously, can be manipulated by theirsocio-economic classes. In addition to exploring Marx's ideas about how capitalism affects relationships between people of different socioeconomic classes, Tyson explores how Marxism attempts to analyze people of these classes and how their class affects their life. Tyson implies that a Marxist critique would evaluate Holden's negative thoughts and judgments based on his class and his feelings about being in that class. This is because Holden is a critic of others around him, but also of himself. He criticizes the situations he puts himself in even more than those he doesn't put himself in. Holden chooses to hire a prostitute and chooses not to pay her the extra five dollars she demands. Holden puts himself in this situation, where money (socioeconomic class) is the central force behind this interaction between him, the pimp, and the prostitute. But yet, even though he caused the situation and is capable of resolving it, which would put him in control, Holden feels trapped. He uses language to imply this in the scene, saying, “He stood almost over me” (page 44). Holden also implies that his actions were not under his control when he says, “All of a sudden I started crying. I would give anything if I hadn’t done it, but I did” (page 45). Holden even stays on the ground, after the pimp hurts him and leaves, saying, "Then I stayed on the ground for quite a long time, kind of like I did with Stradlater." Only this time I thought I was dying. I really did it. I thought I was drowning or something. The problem was, I could barely breathe” (page 45). Although Holden is in control, both because he could have given the pimp and prostitute money before they harmed him and because he is physically in control of his own body, Holden feels trap. It is also evident that he feels trapped in his lifestyle as a member of the upper socio-economic class in the way he tries (and fails) to escape the prep school lifestyle. A literary critic from the University of Chicago points out that this relationship, between Holden and the school, is important in seeing his relationship with the rest of society. The review says: "The school is the agent by which America, more than most countries, consciously socializes the immature into approved adult activities: and thus a boy's relationship to school becomes a microcosm of the relationship of the individual to his society. » (Way) » (Ohmann and Ohmann) Holden even goes so far as to say that he is going to move west. He says his plan is to “start hitchhiking out of the West.” What I would do, I thought I would go down to the Holland Tunnel and do a ride, and then I would do another, and another, and another, and in a few days I would be somewhere out West where it was very beautiful and sunny and where no one would know me and where I would find a job” (page 110). Holden was kicked out of four boarding schools, due to his own actions, and chose to go West. This would separate him from the upper-class prep school lifestyle that he's obviously trying to escape, but it doesn't. Holden returns to a prep school in the fall and never goes out West to escape it. This is because Holden is trapped in his socioeconomic class; despite being part of the privileged class, Holden is still oppressed by this societal structure. Lois Tyson explains this phenomenon: "The family unconsciously carries out the cultural 'program' in raising its children, but this program is produced by the socio-economic culture at the.