Reasons for Holden's outlook in "The Catcher in the Rye".

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The Catcher in the Rye Thesis Essay

Holden Caulﬁeld is a mind-boggling character. He is the protagonist and narrator of The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. Holden tells of his weekend in New York after he had been kicked out of another school. Holden is different in numerous ways, but most of his traits aren’t great ones. Holden calls everything phony, compares everyone to his dead brother Allie, and makes terrible decisions. Holden is the way he is because of his experiences at Pencey Prep, the death of his brother Allie, along with how he chose to live his life from there on.

In the beginning of the novel, Holden tells of how he was kicked out of Pencey Prep. Holden describes everything there as phony. Holden probably feels this way since the things there are completely fake. Holden tells of why he thinks things there are phony. He states: “They advertise in about a thousand magazines, always showing some hot shot guy on a horse jumping over a fence. Like as if all you ever did at Pencey was play polo all the time. I never even once saw a horse anywhere near the place.” (Page 4) Since Holden never saw any of these things at the school, he is convinced that they ought to be a phony. Holden’s obsession with calling everything phony grows when he digs deep to find any reason whatsoever to call something phony. He adds: “We always had the same meal on Saturday nights at Pencey. It was supposed to be a big deal, because they gave you steak. … What a racket. … They were these little hard, dry jobs that you could hardly even cut.” (Page 40) In these lines, Holden talks about how the school was phony because of the food quality. Holden goes on and finds the little things to call something phony. After leaving Pencey Prep, Holden was negatively influenced by these things he did in Pencey Prep and continued to call everything and everyone phony.

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Before Holden leaves Pencey Prep, he tells the reader about Allie. Allie was Holden’s younger brother. He was two years younger than Holden, but more intelligent. Allie had a variety of traits that made him special to Holden. He was left-handed, red–haired, emotional, and wrote in green ink. Allie stood out to Holden and they became great friends. When Holden was thirteen, Allie had gotten Leukemia; he died on July 18, 1946. Holden states: “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it.” (Page 44) Holden was heartbroken when Allie died. Allie had been one of the only people Holden thought wasn’t a phony. After Allie died, Holden couldn’t forget him. Holden’s way of remembering Allie was to compare everyone to Allie. If someone wasn’t like Allie, they were a phony. An example of when Holden compares someone to Allie is when Holden tells the reader Jane was the only person he showed Allie’s mitt. He says, “She was the only one, outside my family, that I ever showed Allie's baseball mitt to, with all the poems written on it. … but I told her quite a lot about him. She was interested in that kind of stuff.” Holden thought that only Jane was “compatible” to observe Allie’s mitt. Due to this action, Holden continues to compare people to Allie, and call them phonies.

After Holden left Pencey Prep, he had a date with his old friend Sally, snuck home to meet Phoebe, and to visit his old teacher’s house. Holden had made very bad decisions after leaving Pencey Prep. These decisions have influenced how he acts and his future actions. The two major actions that affect Holden are his date with Sally and his visit to his teacher’s house. He writes: “‘C’mon, let's get outa here,’ I said. ‘You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth.’ Boy, did she hit the ceiling when I said that.” (Page 148) In these lines Holden treats Sally like a phony. If Holden had remained being casual, he would have had a better turnout. For example, he might have had a solid relationship with someone who isn’t Allie or Phoebe. Afterwards, Holden continues to make awful decisions. He writes: “‘What's the matter?’ I said. ‘The front door!’ she said in this loud whisper. ‘It's them!’” (Page 195) When Holden finds out that his parents are home, I believe that it would have been better to have gotten caught. If Holden where to get noticed, maybe he would have gotten punished. But he would get to stay home with his family, especially with Phoebe. Before leaving, Holden had called Mr. Antolini and he said he could come over. Holden gladly came over, but didn’t stay very long. Holden says, “He was sitting on the floor right next to the couch, in the dark and all, and he was sort of petting me or patting me on the goddam head.” When Mr. Antolini touched Holden’s head, Holden shouldn’t have overreacted. If Holden had thought it had something to do with the drinks or just because Mr. Antolini had felt sorry for him, he would have had a place to stay. If it weren’t for Holden’s terrible decisions after leaving Pencey Prep, his life could have been much better.

Most of Holden’s traits aren’t great ones. Holden calls everything phony, compares everyone to Allie, and makes bad decisions. Holden is the way he is because of his experiences at Pencey Prep, the death of his brother Allie, along with how he chose to live his life from there on. All of these factors affect Holden’s relationship with people and life in general. If Holden had had better experiences at Pencey Prep, if Allie had not died and he wasn’t a terrible decision maker, then he would have had a better life overall.