Holden's Character in The Catcher in the Rye

JD. Salinger wrote an almost timeless novel in 1951 when he published The Catcher in the Rye, It is the story of Holden Caulfield’s past year, starting at getting kicked out of school and ending with him telling you he was telling this story from a home of some sort. Many people have problems with it, but those who don’t enjoy every bit of it. The book starts off with the main character Holden Caulfield, telling of what happened to him the previous year around Christmas He begins at his current school, Pencey Prep, which was an all-boys boarding school.

Holden was also just kicked out of school, and was going to visit one of his old teachers. After talking to Mr. Spencer, his teacher, Holden went back to his dorm room. This is where we meet some of the boys he was surrounded by, the guy who was one room over Ackley and his roommate Stradlater. Stradlater asks Holden to write an essay for him and Holden decides to write about, his brother, Allie’s baseball glove.

After spending some time talking with them, Holden decides he can’t wait any longer and decides to head off to New York.

On the train, he meets the mother of one of the boys he went to school with. When he gets off the train he can’t think of anybody to call, so hejust catches a cab. He drives from one place to another for quite a while until he finally arrives in a hotel, where the elevator attendant arranges and escorts for him.

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Holden was hesitant about this but went through with it, because he was still lonely and figured it would be someone to talk to. When she got there, she was surprised when Holden wasn’t too keen on doing too much; they just talked for a bit then he paid her for her time. But then her and the elevator guy came back demanding the rest of the money, which was reallyjust them lying and taking more money from him. After that incident, the next day Holden calls up his old friend Sally and arranges a date with her.

Then Holden is still really bored and goes around doing a bunch of stuff in New York. He eventually runs out of money and misses his little sister Phoebe, and decides to go home to visit her. He gets home and talks with her, eventually his parents get home and he has to leave very quickly, but not before Phoebe gives him some money. Holden then goes to his old teacher Mr. Antolini‘s house, where he intends to spend the night. He wakes up to Mrs Antolini rubbing his head; Holden gets creeped out by this and swiftly leaves. The next day Holden walks around the park and through a school, and museum and saw profane words on the walls and gets very annoyed, and essentially has a mental breakdown after spending the day with Phoebe. He then wraps the story up by telling us he is telling the story from a home The book The Catcher in the Rye faced many troubles in becoming as popular as it has.

The first was making the transition from an “adult” book to one very popular in the teenage populous That was the first hurdle; the second was the book became considered very controversial for its themes. And was contraband in many schools for a long time because of so It eventually was taken off the ban list, exposing even more teens to the book Many thinking Holden was a whiney kid and others seeing it as relatable. This entire book is basically a big flashback, which I think is pretty unique since most books just feature flashbacks of one character or another to give some background on what’s happening. Also the character Holden himself is quite the opposite of unique, he is essentially a blank slate so that it is easy for anyone to relate to him I myself really enjoyed the book because of this, the combination of the character Holden and the way it was written really put this book into one of my favorites of all Lime.

And I think that the book is a classic, because Holden’s blank slate characteristic allows for anyone of any time to relate to him. The only thing I really disliked was that Holden seems to be a little too whiney about everything and the constant use of the word “phony”. Also I really think in Salinger took a risk with the use of certain word that may be seen as unacceptable, by some people. This book was a very enjoyable read, and I would recommend it to anyone who just wants a book to read for fun I have read this book several times, and every time I enjoyed the book more and more and it truly has become one of my favorite books JD, Salinger has produced an amazing story in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden is a great character who is very easy to relate to, but is easy to dislike at the same time All together it is a great book and I think anyone who reads it will enjoy it at least a little.