How Is Holden Caulfield A Complex Character

Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he

Holden Caulfield, the main character of The Catcher In the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is a depressed teenager. He goes through the grieving process because of the death of his younger brother, Allie. He shows his grief by the way he handles school. He finally does make some progress with the grief by making himself feel happy as he watches Phoebe go around on the carousel. Holden Caulfield experiences many aspects of the grieving process through Allie’s death, school, and watching Phoebe on the carousel; by the end he finally reaches some closure.

Holden Caulfield is the main character & narrator. He's insecure, emotionally stunted, very bitter and has a cynical view about he world around him. He is a mentally ill 16 year old who views the world around him with bitterness with a longing for the world around him to never change. He is extremely judgmental about others. He is in a psychiatric hospital months after the events of the novel take place.

Holden wants to be the catcher in the rye and save the children from falling off the cliff. This cliff, however, is the real world, and Holden himself is afraid of it so he wants to protect children from it. This is also demonstrated when Holden visits his sister 's school and sees swears written on the wall. This makes Holden very mad, "It drove me damn near crazy. I thought of how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they 'd wonder what the hell it meant…But I rubbed it out anyway, finally"(201). Holden was able to protect the children for a short while but a few moments later he sees the same thing written on the wall again. Only this time it is scratched in with a knife or something and Holden is unable to rub it away like before and realizes "It 's hopeless, anyway…it 's impossible" (202) he indicates here that growing up and facing certain reality is inevitable. Holden finally realizes that he can 't protect the kids from the real world when he watches Phoebe ride a carrousel at the zoo. "All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring…this thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let

Allie’s death greatly affects the way Holden thinks and acts. He values children above everyone else and detests those his age and older. This is because, to Holden, children are always honest and innocent. This is shown through Holden’s interactions with those around him. Throughout the novel, Holden is seen either abandoning or getting abandoned by adults and kids his age. For example, after dropping out of Pencey, Holden visits an old history teacher. He wants to say goodbye and be done with the conversation, but he ends up getting lectured while surrounded by the horrid smell of Vick’s Nose Drops. He describes the situation, stating, “Boy, I couldn’t’ve sat there another ten minutes to save my life… I just couldn’t hang around there any

The death of Holden’s brother also take a significant toll on him and his innocence. The death of his brother sparks off the road to the loss of Holden’s innocence, and Holden starts realizing the phoniness in people. Holden labels everyone who is “corrupted” and not pure to themselves as phonies. Holden depicts almost everyone as fake and not true to themselves, except Allie and Phoebe. When describing Allie Holden says “it wasn’t just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest …. God, he was a nice kid, though”. In Holden’s eyes Allie represents innocence and this confuses Holden because how can something so innocent die so young? Another death that changed Holden is James Castle a boy that committed

Holden wants to keep Phoebe's innocence and youth safe by participating in childlike activities, which satisfies her and his inner child. He desires to protect the innocence of Phoebe because he does whatever Phoebe pleases, whether he wants to or not. Holden’s love and protectiveness for Phoebe prevent him from seeing the damage he causes her and that he needs to let her mature and grow. All things considered, while Holden's childish behavior indicates that he wants to avoid adulthood, he engages in adult behaviors such as dreaming of running away to a new life, drinking alcohol, and smoking cigarettes. Holden commits several adult acts in front of children, indirectly exposing them to the terrible realities of adulthood, though he is trying to protect the children’s innocence and purity.

Re- reading The Catcher in the Rye, the readers learn in fifty pages in that Holden Caulfield’s revered younger brother, Allie Caulfield, has died of leukemia. To worsen this tragedy, Holden saw Allie as the smartest, happiest kid alive. Holden not only lost the brother he loved but he saw Allie be in every way the better of the two. What a burden for an adolescent. We don’t have to look beyond this to understand Holden’s

Holden Caulfield, a name synonymous with rebellion, alienation, and cynicism, is the protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Throughout such novel, many problems plague Holden, one of the largest being his inability to reach closure over the death of his younger brother, Allie. To Holden, Allie represents an ideal persona that he subconsciously looks for in people. Allie was an intelligent, enthusiastic young boy who Holden admired, in a way. When Holden talks about Allie, he only ever has positives, heaping praise upon his brother. All to mention that he had died of Leukemia at a young age. Holden responded at first, saying, “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just

Holden and Phoebe share a lot of the same experiences because they are family. They both experienced the loss of their brother Allie, who died of leukemia. Holden describes Allie as the “most intelligent member of the family... also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody.” (Salinger, 38) However, Holden takes Allie’s death much harder than Phoebe does. Holden grieves and even cries over Allie, even though Allie had died a whole three years ago in the story. It is also what made Holden begin to go mad, but seems to have little effect on Phoebe all these years later. Holden even says that “they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don’t blame them. I really don’t. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the

In J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, undergoes an immense psychological change where he transforms from youth to maturity. The major conflict in the novel which held Holden back from progressing into adulthood had to do with the death of his younger brother, Allie. The way Holden expresses himself and all of the decisions he has made can all be related back to that experience which he has never been able to cope with. As a result, Holden spends the majority of his time alone which only further hinders his ability to find comfort. Finally, his unprovoked animosity towards adults and extreme uncontrollable emotions are a testament to his immaturity. It is not until Holden is watching Phoebe at

Authors have many different ways of revealing the secret depths of human nature, but one of the most powerful is exposing the faults in our society’s morals and expectations. Through characteristics like class, we are shown how the world will alienate and outcast people seen as different. J.D Salinger’s poignant character, Holden Caulfield, is an example of someone alienating himself from his class because of a divergence in ideas and opinions. Holden’s harsh and candid critiques on how the upper-class functions as a society gives us an unexpected inside look at what human beings truly valued (in that era).

When the reader looks back at Holden’s history they can make assumptions as to why Holden wants things to stay the way they are. The general assumption would be because Holden is very distant to people who are dear to him. He mentions his younger sister, Phoebe frequently but cannot connect with her in any way due to Holden’s enrollment in a relatively distant school. Holden also recalls his two brothers, Allie and D.B., whom he is exiled from in result of Allie’s tragic fate and D.B.’s migration to California. The death of Holden’s favorite person, Allie, results ultimately in the unstable mental condition that controls Holden. Holden’s fascination with children and their mentalities is driven from Holden’s mourning of Allie’s death. While Holden tries to resist changing, he is identifying himself with Allie. Critic, Hermit Vanderbilt, agrees that, “Obviously despairing at the cosmic injustice of such an early death, Holden falls into a schizophrenic disorder interested in keeping him from growing up and keeping the role of Allie alive.” (Vanderbilt 299). In addition to the laments of personal loss, Holden also desires a stagnancy of time because of his fear of losing his moral purity. This is shown when Holden speaks about how his older brother, D.B., has lost his moral standards in the pursuit of fame. Holden feels D.B. has strayed far from his truly respectable writing when D.B. “sold himself out” to the expectations of Hollywood. Holden refers to D.B. as a

    Holden Caulfield, the main character in J.D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher In The Rye, feels that he needs to protect people around him, because he failed to protect his brother Allie from death. Holden feels that he has to care for those close to him. He watches over Jane, Phoebe, and even Mrs. Murrow when he meets her on the train. Holden tries to shield these people from distress. He does not want to fail anyone else.

J.D. Salinger 's "The Catcher in the Rye" portrays a troubled teen in New York City. Over the few days the novel depicts, the boy displays his critical and unhealthy mindset. Eventually he has a mental breakdown. Through psychoanalysis of Holden Caulfield, one may suggest that Allie 's death, social development, and an identity crisis are large contributing factors in Holden 's mental breakdown.