Holden Caulfield

Essay, Pages 3 (678 words)

Views

Holden Caulfield is a teenager who goes through the relatable challenges of growing up. Holden is a 17-year-old male in the book “The Catcher in the Rye” written by J.D. Salinger. He runs into many problems throughout the story as the main protagonist and narrator of the story. Holden has very unique character traits that influence his response to the many conflicts he faces in the story.

Holden begins to express his sensitivity when he introduces the difficult times he experienced as a young boy.

Don't use plagiarized sources. Get your custom essay on

“ Holden Caulfield ”

Get custom paper

NEW! smart matching with writer

I know this because he touches on how he is suicidal and the death of his younger brother Allie. This is important because his brother's death contributes to shaping who he is. For example, he says, “After Old Sunny was gone, I sat in the chair for a while and smoked a couple of cigarettes. It was getting daylight outside. Boy, I felt miserable. I felt so depressed, you can't imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie.

I do that sometimes when I get very depressed” (Salinger End of the book). I think this is a great example of Holden's sensitivity because of how important Allie was to him and how it still affects him.

Another one of Holden's trait that I believe makes his character is his intelligence. Even as a young boy Holden shows a level of intelligence and wit that is above others which allows him to handle situations better than others. For example, he states, “The thing is, it's really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs - if yours are really good ones and theirs aren't.

You think if they're intelligent and all, the other person, and have a good sense of humor, that they don't give a damn whose suitcases are better, but they do” ( Salinger Middle of the book somewhere). This is a great example of Holden’s early intelligence as he was able to understand that most people will be jealous of someone else's possessions if its better than theirs even though it shouldn't be that way.

The final trait that I believe develops Holden's character is how cynical he can be all through the story. Holden continues to prove this by showing and telling us how little faith he has in people. For example, he states “Lawyers are alright, I guess — but it doesn't appeal to me', I said. 'I mean they're alright if they go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don't do that kind of stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hotshot. And besides, even if you did go around saving guys' lives and all, how would you know if you did it because you wanted to save guys' lives, or because you did it because what you wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the back and congratulating you in court when the goddam trial was over, the reporters and everybody, the way it is in the dirty movies? How would you know you weren't being a phony? The trouble is you wouldn't.” ( Salinger between middle and end of the book ). This shows that even though you may save innocent lives you may be doing it for the wrong reason without even knowing it's the wrong or right reason which doesn't sit well with Holden.

All together these traits make Holden a great main character in “The Catcher in the Rye”. After looking back on Holdens traits I can that he is a fairly predictable character that has many traits but I believe these three are his most prominent. They all add totraits shaping who Holden Caulfield is today in the story. Which then influenced his response to the many challenges and conflicts he encounters throughout the book.