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Holden Caulfield Catcher in the Rye character analysis
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Holden caulfield analysis
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Holden Caulfield is a major hypocrite. His actions, words, and thoughts frequently go against things that he has said and done. Earlier in the novel, Holden says that he hates people who just sit around and get drunk. Quote. But as the novel progresses, Holden is caught sitting around at a bar, and he claims he will just sit there and become a drunk bastard. Quote. Holden Caulfield can also be labeled a hypocrite when he says that he doesn’t like people like Stradlater. People who just date a girl just to hook up with them. However, when Holden is in the hotel by himself, he calls a girl that he barely knows and asks her if she wanted a couple of drinks. After he hangs up he admits that his plan throughout the call, was to try to bring her
Holden struggles with himself mightily and cannot fulfill his responsibilities. One of Holden’s struggles is that he has a bad attitude towards everyone. For example, at the school he goes to, he hates his roommates and his teachers. In addition to not liking anyone, Holden
Since Holden was isolated from his family, in order to not get hurt again he tries to find hypocrisy in people to stop himself from trusting others. Holden feels isolated after being sent to a boarding school that “was full of phonies” by his parents (Salinger 90). Salinger’s message to the audience with this quote is that when
Holden's idealism is first brought forth when he describes his life at Pency Prep. It is full of phonies, morons and bastards. His roommate, Stradlater, " was at least a pretty friendly guy, It was partly a phony kind of friendly..." (26) and his other roommate, Ackley is "a very nosy bastard" (33). Holden can't stand to be around either one of them for a very long time. Later, he gets into a fight with Stradlater over his date with Jane. Holden is upset because he thinks that Stradlater "gave her the time" and that he doesn't care about her; 'the reason he didn't care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron' (44). Holden not only sees his roommates as phonies and bastards, but he also sees his headmaster at Pency Prep as a "phony slob" (3). This type of person is exactly what Holden doesn't want to be. He strives to be a mature adult; caring, compassionate, and sensitive.
He disregards most people because he thinks they are ‘phonies’ - materialistic, shallow and insincere people. To Holden, almost anyone who falls under that category is a phony and isn’t someone he wants to spend time with. However, because of Holden’s trauma, the reader can’t quite trust him. He sees the world through so many layers of protection, he is an unreliable narrator.
Holden alienates himself by believing he is better than everybody else. Every time Holden meets or talks about someone he is judgemental. Even when he is talking about someone he spends time with, he cannot help but ridicule them, “I never even once saw him [Ackley] brush his teeth....he had a lot of pimples. Not just on his forehead or his chin, like most guys, but all over his whole face. And not only that, he had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn't too crazy about him, to tell you the truth.”(Salinger,14 ). Ackley is probably the closest thing to a friend Holden has. Yet he criticizes him is a very nitpicky way, convincing himself he does not like
Nobody is perfect. This makes it easy to judge people around us. In the book Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, the main character, Holden Caulfield, is extremely harsh when judging others. Judging people is a natural thing to do, however, you should not judge people so critically. Before judging others people should look at themselves. Holden is often pushing people away because of the unrealistic expectations he has. He doesn’t look at the problems he has, but instead looks at everyone else's problems. Holden judges people by their appearance and every little action they do. I do not admire Holden and his beliefs.
Holden often talked about how phony people in his life were, however, he was also a phony, which made him a hypocrite. Holden would often mention things he hated that someone did, but sooner or later Holden was guilty of doing the exact same thing. In chapter one Holden is hypocritical towards his older brother, D.B. He says “Now he’s out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute.”(Salinger
This leads him to call others phonies and morons without second guess of judgement or evaluation on his thoughts to come to such conclusions. This may cause readers to indirectly see genuine nice people as miserable suckers because Holden sees them that way when in reality, Holden is a cynical and problematic teenager going through tough times causing pessimistic thoughts and opinions. A perfect example of this is how Stradlater is portrayed in “The Catcher in the Rye”. Stradlater’s portrayal in “The Catcher in the Rye” also brings up Holden’s obsession with sex, a constant topic of interest all throughout the novel. It seems as if all Holden wants to inform the reader about when talking about Stradlater is his sex life and how he gets girls left and right. However, is it okay to trust this young man enough to tell us about his fellow classmate? Is it possible that Stradlater could just be an average joe that isn’t such a moron that cares about nothing except for smashing and dashing? The reader will never know due to the corrupt information that we are given on this mysterious student. Consequently, the limited information we are given about Stradlater is all we can judge him by and therefore, the reader most likely to see Stradlater as a bad man who objectifies women and sets up one night
Holden not only lies to make others feel better, he also respects girls when many guys don‘t. Holden says regarding how men treat girls is, “It stinks if you analyze it. I think if you don’t really like a girl, you shouldn’t horse around with her at all, and if you do like her, then you’re supposed to like her face, and if you like her face, you ought to be careful about doing crumby stuff to it, like squirting water all over it.” Holden doesn’t like it when guys play around with girls they don’t like. The point is that, in his moral code, boys shouldn’t treat girls badly. He has respect for them.
While Holden is in the city he recalls that “[a]t the end of the first act we went out with all the other jerks for a cigarette. What a deal that was. You never saw so many phonies in all your life” (Salinger 164). Meanwhile Holden is doing the exact same thing, he is calling other people fake for doing, proving that he is equally as flawed as everyone else. No one is immune to Holden’s view of how people should act, and how they actually do, not even his family.
A human society is often described as a group of people involved in persistent personal relationships, or as a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory. People tend to believe that doing what everyone else does, is the only correct path for life. If someone dares to break the pattern, does what he wants, or wears different clothes from what everybody else wear, he would frequently be seen as a strange or weird person. This is not it, every little thing someone does that differs from what it is “normal”, is seen as bad or bizarre. Holden Caulfield, of “Catcher in the Rye” is a character who stands out from common people. Holden doesn’t believe that he needs to follow what everyone else does. Contrary to that, Holden does what he wants and acts how he likes. By acting like this, Holden is not considered as a normal teenager, but as a unique one. Caulfield has often trouble fitting in society. Holden won’t fit into society because he doesn’t want to be a part of it. Hints displaying Holden not wanting to be part of society are his constant failing at school, his powerful revulsion for “phony” qualities, and his distancing himself from people.
Holden has a respect for women that he views as unnatural. He feels that his sexual desires should be similar to those of his roommate Stradlater and peer, Luce. Holden shows his confusion by saying, "The thing is, most of the time when you're coming close to doing it with a girl, a girl that isn't ...
Many of the times that Holden criticizes people, it is something he does himself. (Pg 13) “. one of the reasons I left Elkton was that I was surrounded by phonies.” Holden himself is many times what he refers to as a “phony”. He knows that he lies and pretends to like people that he would rather not be with.
Holden doesn’t like Stradlater’s attitude and reasoning for many reasons. When Stradlater comes back to the dorm and asks Holden to write a english composition for him, Holden states, “ [Stradlater] was always asking you to do him a big favor. You take a very handsome guy, or a guy that thinks he's a real hot-shot, and they're always asking you to do them a big favor. Just because they're crazy about themself, they think you're crazy about them, too, and that you're just dying to do them a favor,”. This statement shows Holden’s disdain for handsome people/people who think they are a “hot shot”, and since Holden classifies Stradlater as both of those, he therefore does not like him. Stradlater pictures himself as amazing and handsome and as
Holden doesn’t like the complexity of life and relationships. This is why he distances himself from his family and friends. After Holden is expelled from his school, he tries to stay away from his parents for fear of their reaction, even though learning of his expulsion is inevitable. He visits his sister Phoebe in their home multiple times throughout the novel because due to her young age, his sister and his relationship is simple. "For instance, within Holden, the desire to reject others conflicts with the desire to be accepted by others: he doesn't want to lend Stradlater his coat, but his overt actions belie this covert, warring want: he despises Ackley, but he invites him to see a movie; he hates movies, believing them to foster phoniness in society” (Mitchell). Holden struggles to “catch” others because he believes he is not accepted by others.