Sexuality Comparisons

As we finished The Bell Jar, I made some general connections between it and Salinger's works. The main thing that I noticed was that there were issues and confusion of sexuality in Catcher in the Rye and The Bell Jar. In Catcher in the Rye, Holden has multiple experiences in which he wants to do something sexual but then doesn't or just seems to be confused about it in general. When Holden is staying in a hotel, he notices a couple squirting water at each other in another room and kind of playing around and he also notices a guy dressing in women's clothes. He says he doesn't like that kind of stuff but ends up watching it anyways. Also, when he meets Sunny the prostitute, he doesn't want to get started right away and wants to get to know her first. In The Bell Jar, Joan is discovered to be a lesbian and Ester becomes uncomfortable at first about being around her.