Is Holden Caulfield Reliable

The narrator of a story is an essential component to a story’s credibility. Who tells the story determines how believable the story is and how much the reader can rely on the narrator to relay the information correctly and without bias. The reliability of the speaker is important to the success of the work and how believable the events of the story are.
In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is the narrator. This has a huge effect on how the story is told, and how reliable it is. For instance, Holden is an exceptionally opinionated teenager. This causes him to be extremely biased. His opinions on certain things that he mentions throughout the story distort his retelling of past events, and make him a less credible source. The reader can also conclude that Holden is not reliable due to his excessive lying and exaggeration. For example, when Holden

is on the bus leaving Pencey, he tells the mother of one of his classmates that he is on his way to get an operation, which is obviously a lie; he says, “It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain” (Salinger 58). Holden lies and contradicts himself numerous times throughout the novel, which is proof that he is not a reliable source.
Another reason that the reader may feel as if they cannot trust Holden is the effects of his childhood.

Due to past happenings, Holden can no longer be considered mentally stable. The reader can come to this conclusion when Holden explains the events that took place in his past; he says, “…they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage” (Salinger 39). The obstacles that Holden faced in the past cause him to react differently from others and, in some cases, exaggerate more than usual when encountering particular circumstances. For example, when Holden spends the night in the home of one of his previous teachers, he is awakened by his teacher standing near him and admiring him. Holden explains, “I know more damn perverts than anybody you ever met, and they’re always being perverty when I’m around” (Salinger 192). Knowing that Holden has experienced troubles in the past that cause him to be very defensive, the reader cannot be sure whether Holden is being reasonable or over exaggerative. Because of this, Holden cannot be seen as a reliable

narrator.
Holden’s incredibility is important to the success of the novel because it provides the reader with an insight to Holden’s past and personality; his views on specific events show the reader Holden’s different characteristics and habit, which is very significant to the plot of the story.
Similar to Holden, Miles Halter, the narrator of John Green’s Looking For Alaska, is also an unreliable character. However, he is not reliable for different reasons. Being a teenage boy, Miles is naturally biased. Although Miles seems logical and unbiased in the beginning of the novel, he becomes more opinionated as the story evolves.
After Alaska’s death, Miles often reflects on her life. He informs the readers about her personality and her past often. However, this information is not reliable because of Miles’s feelings for Alaska. His emotions cloud the way he sees her. The reader can clearly see that Miles’s interpretation of Alaska after her death is wrong when Colonel says, “‘Christ, Pudge. Do you even remember the person she actually was? Do you remember how she could be a selfish bitch? That was part of her, and you used to know it. It’s like now you only care about the Alaska you made up’” (Green 165). This shows that due to grief and infatuation, Miles does not give the reader an insight to who Alaska really was before she died.
Overall, Miles’s biased opinions and descriptions of Alaska contribute to the plot of the novel because it allows the reader to feel connected to Alaska as a character. The reader does not see much of Alaska’s true identity, as the book is focused mainly on the events that occurred after her death. Miles’s unrealistic thoughts on Alaska give the reader a chance to relate to his altered version of Alaska, which is important because the reader does not see Alaska’s real personality much in the story.
All in all, Holden Caulfield and Miles Halter are both unreliable narrators for many different reasons. Although this affects how believable the story is, it also contributes to the story in terms of characterization and insight to how the narrators think and act given certain circumstances.