Sexual confusion is another of the consistent themes in The Catcher in the Rye. It is not unusual for any of us to be concerned about sex as adolescents, but Holden is especially so. He has the usual biological yearnings but has mixed feelings about how he should respond to them. Although he is a romantic, he still admits that he is sexually driven. It is to Holden's credit that he respects what girls say when they ask him to stop making advances, even though he has heard the usual rumors that they don't always mean it. When a girl says she wants to stop, Holden stops. "No" means "No" for Holden Caulfield. Unfortunately, Holden seems to think this is one of his weaknesses. During the encounter with Sunny, the prostitute, Holden decides that he simply does not want to go through with the act of sex. While talking later with Carl Luce at the Wicker Bar, Holden wonders if he needs psychoanalysis because he has difficulty being intimate with a girl unless he really cares about her. Luce, who likes to pose as a sophisticate, lacks the maturity or good sense to tell Holden that these feelings are admirable.
On the other hand, Holden is unusually concerned about homosexual males (whom he calls "flits"). He thinks that all homoerotic behavior is "perverty," lumping it together with bestiality (or at least accepting the fact that Carl Luce has this view).
