Free Catcher in the Rye Essays: Confused Holden :: Catcher Rye Essays

The Catcher in the Rye Essay Confused Holden J. D. Salinger presents an image of an atypical adolescent son in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden is much more than a troubled teen going through a phase. Indeed Holden is a very special(a) boy with special needs. He doesnt understand and doesnt wish to understand the world around him. In fact most of the book inside information his guilty admissions of all the knowledge he knows but wishes he didnt. Though his innocence regarding issues of school, money, and sexuality has already been lost, he still hopes to protect others from knowing more or less(prenominal) these adult subjects. Holden, unlike the usual fictional teenager, doesnt express normal rebellion. He distrusts his teachers and parents not because he wants to separate himself from them, but because he cant understand them. In fact there is little in the world that he does understand. The only people he trusts and respects are Allie, his deceased brother, and Phoebe, his jr. s ister. Everyone else is a phony of some sort. Holden uses the word phony to identify everything in the world which he rejects. He rejects his roommate Stradlater because Stradlater doesnt value the memories so undecomposed to Holden (Allies baseball glove and Janes kings in the back row). Even Ernie, the piano player, is phony because hes too skillful. Holden automatically associates skill with dignity (from past experiences no doubt) and thus cant separate the two. Even Holdens most trusted teacher, Mr. Antolini, proves to be a phony when he attempts to fondle Holden. Thus the poor boy is left with a cluster of memories, some good but most bad. Yet because of these memories, Holden has developed the unique ability to converse candidly (though not articulately) about the people he meets. Though he seems very skeptical about the world, he is really just bewildered. His vocabulary ofttimes makes him seem hard, but in fact he is a very weak-willed individual. Holden has no concept of pain, and often likes to see himself as a martyr for a worthy cause. This is proven after the fight with Maurice, after which he imagines his guts spilling out on the floor. The end of the book demonstrates significant growth on the die of Holden. Although at first Holden is quick to condemn those around him as phony (like Stradlater and Ackley), his more recent encounters with others prove that he is becoming more tolerant and less judgmental.