Belonging Is a Basic Need and We All Need to Belong in Some Way

Once human beings have met physical needs such as for food, warmth, and safety, the need for creating a personal identity comes strongly to the fore. The intensity of this urge to create a personal identity is remarkable considering that personal identity is rather abstract.

Surprisingly, the urgency of the question "who am I?" is actually due not so much to the importance of defining who an individual is as to the importance of determining the structure of the group. Because human survival depends so much on social groups, the personal identity of individuals takes on life-and-death importance as it shapes the dynamics of the group.

This search for identity seems to be the case in JD Salinger’s novel. Through settings in the novel and symbolism, Salinger illustrates that while the main character, Holden Caulfield, needs the support of the environment around him; the environment also needs Holden as a person. Holden Caulfield is out of place in any environment in which he is placed. At Pencey, his school, Holden gets excluded from the activities of his classmates. At the very beginning of the novel, Holden becomes expelled because his grades are not up to Pencey’s standards and also because he does not feel like he belongs there. The sameness of human beings, considered honestly, overwhelms any desire to be unique. Holden separates himself from his classmates for the most part by not becoming involved in the school. Although Holden is the equipment manager of the fencing team, he distances himself from his companions by losing the equipment, showing that he does not fit in, and he really does not want to.

Personal identity, which we can define as the precise location of an individual within the structure or network of relationships in a group, is the electromagnetic force that holds the group together and determines its behaviour. Holden didn’t feel the electromagnetic force at Pency Prep. Salinger uses Pencey as a mock society of some sorts. Holden does not...