Blog #42 Character Analysis: Holden (The Catcher in the Rye)

The main character in the story is Holden. I really like Holden. He is a very independent character and he is not afraid to say what he thinks. He seems very smart. Even though he has been kicked out of many schools, he is smarter in life than he is book-smart. In the beginning, I think I got the wrong impression of Holden. I thought he was very negative and mean. Really though, he just sees good things in people, but he focuses on the things that annoy him or make him mad. For example, Ackley goes to his school and is a very nerdy and pimply guy, but Holden treats him well because he knows many other people are easily annoyed with him and do not really include him (Salinger 167). Holden does get annoyed with Ackley because he does not have good hygiene habits (Salinger 22-23), and that is what he mainly focuses on, when really deep down he feels bad for Ackley and tries to include him. Holden struggles throughout the whole story with trying to find himself and what he wants to be. He comes from a pretty successful family (Salinger 172), which adds a little bit more pressure to him. You can tell that Holden does want people’s approval and he does not like to be lonely, but he has a hard time getting close to others and really opening up to them. In the middle of the story, the reader can easily tell Holden is depressed. After he got kicked out of Pencey, he really has no where to go. He leaves two days before he is supposed to because he does not feel like he should be at the school anymore, but after he gets off the train he has no where to run to. His family was expecting him to come home on Wednesday when the winter break was starting (Salinger 177). If he showed up to his house two days early, his parents would automatically know that he got kicked out of the school. So for a weekend he is very independent and learns how to get by on his own. I think during this time he struggled the most because he did not have a lot of people that he could talk to.