I Wanna Dance With Somebody- By Whitney Houston

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

10. I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston- If I were to make a movie of The Catcher in the Rye, I would play this song in the scene where he is in the Lavender Room. This song reflects Holden’s occasional desire to dance. 

Clocks strikes upon the hour

And the sun begins to fade

Still enough time to figure out

How to chase my blues away

I've done alright up 'til now

It's the light of day that shows me how

And when the night falls loneliness calls

Like in the the lyrics, when Holden is in the in The Lavender Room, he feels upset, lonely, and depressed. He is looking for some way to cope with these depressing feelings. 

Oh! Wanna dance with somebody

I wanna feel the heat with somebody

Yeah! Wanna dance with somebody 

With somebody who loves me

Holden wants to dance with somebody that’s a great dancer. He danced with Bernice, and could’t stop raving about her terrific dancing. In fact, she was such a good dancer, he said he fell half in love with her. Another scene where this song is appropriate is when he danced with Phoebe, and had a ball.

Under Pressure- By Queen

Under Pressure

9. Under Pressure by Queen- Holden is under a constant pressure the entire book, he is stressed out by it and it almost drives him insane.

“Pressure pushing down on me

Pressing down on you no man ask for

Under pressure that burns a building down

Splits a family in two

Puts people on streets”

The pressure that Holden undergoes does put him “on streets.” The pressure builds up on Holden throughout the book until he finally can’t take it anymore, and decides to run away.

“It's the terror of knowing

What this world is about”

Holden is continuously haunted by his idea of the world, that all adults are phonies. This idea that he had drove him into hating everyone and put enormous pressure on him. 

Talking to Myself- By Eminem

Talking to Myself

8. Talking to Myself- This song is all about loneliness. Throughout the book, Holden is lonely and struggles to find companionship with anybody he comes across. 

“Is anybody out there?

It feels like I'm talkin to myself

No one seems to know my struggle

And everything I come from”

Holden struggles the entire book, but nobody seems to notice his troubles. This also reminds me of the scene at the pay phone, where he spends 20 minutes trying to reach out to someone for help, but can’t think of anybody.

“You're lying to yourself, you're slowly dying, you're denying

Your health is declining with your self-esteem, you're crying out for help”

This pertains to how Holden, towards the end of the book, gets physically weak, and starts sweating and feeling "sick as hell" from all the stress he underwent the past few days.

My Immortal- By Evanescence

My Immortal

7. My Immortal- This doleful song expresses the feelings one has when losing a loved one. When listening to it, You can’t help but think of the pain Holden went through after Allie’s death.

“I'm so tired of being here

Suppressed by all my childish fears

And if you have to leave

I wish that you would just leave

'Cause your presence still lingers here

And it won't leave me alone”

Holden is still haunted by Allie’s death throughout the whole book. His trouble of getting over Allie’s death is shown by his inability to move on, and grow up. Allie was one of Holden’s favorite people in the world, and losing him was one of Holden’s worst experiences.

“You used to captivate me

By your resonating light

Now I'm bound by the life you left behind”

Again, this reminds us of his love for his brother and his brother’s role in Holden’s inability to move on.

Basket Case- By Green Day

Basket Case

6. Basket Case- This song mirrors Holden’s character in a surprisingly accurate way. 

“Do you have the time

To listen to me whine

About nothing and everything

All at once”

All Holden does throughout the book is whine and complain about meaningless things, like how annoyed he is that everyone he encounters seems to be a phony, but to him, it’s a big deal.- “Nothing and everything”

“I am one of those

Melodramatic fools

Neurotic to the bone

No doubt about it”

If this doesn’t sum up Holden, I don’t know what does. Holden is definitely Melodramatic, meaning he exaggerates on a lot of things, and he is “Neurotic to the bone,” meaning he is very sensitive, and gets obsessive about things, like when he could’t stop thinking of what happened between Jane and Stradlater.


Also, the song mentions that he "went to a shrink," and "went to a whore." Both of which, Holden did in the book.

Use Somebody- By Kings of Leon

Use Somebody

5. Use Somebody- This song can easily relate to Holden’s efforts to find a girl to connect with. On many occusions throughout the book, Holden attempted to make a relationship with a girl. He called up one girl, danced with another, and tried running away with a different one, etc. 

I've been roaming around, I was looking down at all I see

Painted faces fill the places I can't reach

You know that I could use somebody

He does this because of his desire for somebody to listen to him, and it also seems like he is interested in having a girlfriend, as many kids do at his age.

Jumper- By Third Eye Blind

Jumper

4. Jumper- Although the lyrics of the song itself do not seem to fully pertain to the book, if you ponder the idea of the song, it makes a lot of sense how I thought captures Holden’s character well.

“I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend.”

This entire song is saving someone from jumping of a “ledge” which very much relates to one of the main themes in the book. What is Holden? What was did he say he want to be? The Catcher in the Rye. It’s the name of the book! Holden wants to save little kids from falling of a "cliff," which symbolizes the path to adulthood

Help!- By The Beatles

Help!

3. Help!- This song perfectly describes Holden’s situation throughout most of the book. It also can relate to how he feels at the end, where he literally gets help.

“Help! I need somebody, Help!” 

Throughout the book Holden was seeking companionship, but most of the time he got turned down. His inability to make connections was one of the reasons he was so depressed.

“When I was younger so much younger than today

I never needed anybody’s help in any way.”

Holden’s problems started when Allie died, before that he was not such a troubled child. After Allie’s death, Holden had difficulty dealing with moving on, and that we what triggered all of his problems throughout the book.

I Hate Everyone- By Get Set Go

I Hate Everyone


2.  I Hate Everyone- This song portrays Holden’s hate for everyone around him. This is a reoccurring theme throughout the book, how he cannot stand all the people around him, because he sees them all as phonies. 

“Some stupid chick in the checkout line

Was paying for beer with nickels and dimes”

In one scene in the book, Phoebe points out how Holden just hates everything. Although Holden denies this accusation, we know there is truth to it, which is why Holden was so offended when she said it. Although he never states it in the book, we can tell by the narration that he gets fed up with everyone no matter what they do.

“All I wanted to was buy some cigarettes

But I couldn't take it anymore so I left

I hate everyone”

Holden can't stand his surroundings, and they aggrivate him to a point where he gets upset at everyl little thing that someone does.

Hailey's Song- By Eminem

Hailie's Song

1. This song shed’s light on Holden’s many struggles, and how Phoebe is the one person who helped him recover, and gave him hope for the future. In this song, Eminem sings about his struggles in dealing with life and how his daughter helps him cope through everything. 

“Sometimes I think there’s nothing to live for, I almost break down and cry”

-Here we see similarities in their struggles, how Holden sometimes feels like giving up, and gets depressed.

“Sometimes I think I’m crazy, I’m crazy oh so crazy.

Why am I here am I just wasting my time?

But then I see my baby, suddenly I’m not crazy

It all makes sense when I look into her eyes.”

-This perfectly depicts one of the last scenes in the book. Holden was struggling so much with his life he decided to run away, but after talking with Phoebe, and seeing her reaction to him leaving, he realizes that he should’t leave. All of a sudden Holden felt better, and we saw hope for him to move on, and grow up. Phoebe means everything to Holden.