Character Study of Holden Caulfield

Holden is a unique character. We see him in many different situations that show many different perspectives of him. He is against phonies, and gets extremely angry as well as sarcastic. He is a very troubled person that doesn't see life the way most do. He has been kicked out of schools and put into undesired situations. He's a madman, skinny, smokes, drinks, and jokes. He says things to act macho and cool, but he just says them and he doesn't act upon what he says because he's a yellow coward. He becomes depressed, lonely, lacks communication skills, and has a compassion mainly for his family. There are many things he dislikes and there are only a few things he does like.

He doesn't really know what to say to people, but he does have a large vocabulary. Even though he has strong English skills, he lacks communicational skills. At Pencey, he had only passed his English class, while failing the rest. He constantly curses and frequently says words such as "goddamn," "son-of-a-bitch," "bastard," "chrissake," etc. He enjoys leading people on by "shooting the bull" (making up things> lying). He sometimes doesn't care when people are talking to him because he won't be paying attention to them and his head will be in the clouds.

He is mainly compassionate for his family and he still misses Allie. His friends are usually nice to him because even though he doesn't really care for some of them, he usually acts somewhat compassionate for them. Sometimes he's just saying things and other times he really means them. He was also compassionate for some outcast kids at Pencey, such as Ackley (an annoying pimply faced kid).

He hates many things because they just aren't they way he wants them to be. He has had many bad experiences with school and he has been kicked out of several of them. He usually calls his teachers and schoolmates "phonies." He doesn't generally like teachers, but there are only a few that he does. He likes horsing around and having a good time, but not everyone else he encounters does, so Holden is also very obnoxious at times.

When things aren't going his way he becomes depressed and lonely. At Pencey he felt lonely because he felt as though he was the only one of his kind there. He usually felt stupid because he wasn't one of the bright kids in his family. He became depressed when he got kicked out of Pencey because he didn't want his parents to find out. He had decided to leave Pencey early and go to a hotel until Wednesday, and when he did, he became extremely lonely. He didn't know anyone and he was traveling on his own. He went to a few bars, old friends' homes, old teachers' homes and he encountered many bad situations, such as the one with Maurice, and the one with Mr. Antolini petting him on the head while he was trying to sleep at his home. His drinking and him not liking phonies made him depressed and lonely.

Holden doesn't know how to fully express himself, and how to get along with people, but he tries his best. Maybe all these bad things about him are really good things in disguise. He seems to try to make people be "real." The things he does usually seem bad, but maybe they really are good. It seems as though he leads people on only to not hurt their feelings. He wants the world to be the way he wants as opposed to the way it is. As a character, he's a liar, but when he tells the story as an author; he's very honest.

Source: The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger. 1951.