My Current Analysis of Holden Caulfield - Catcher in The Rye

Holden is a very unique piece of the story to figure out -- I still have yet to more thoroughly characterize him. However, in reading these seven chapters, I got a slightly different insight on his personality each time, which chronologically built up to my current general understanding.

In the first chapter, there’s a subtle draw to the words Holden is saying. It sounds almost like you have a complete glimpse into his consciousness and he is telling you his thoughts immediately as they run through his head. However, he didn’t have quite a traditional start. He states in the very first sentence, “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all of that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” An introduction so much different than anything I’ve seen before. He goes straight into what’s happening in his life in “the now,” without spelling out his roots. As he continues in the chapter, he gives off a carefree attitude toward just about everything anyone else in his life would value; a nice school, a family, friends/roommates, a crowded game. Holden isn’t interested in any of that.

Which leads me to question, as I started chapter two, what is Holden interested in? Well, he ran to one of his teacher’s houses, Mr. Spencer’s, despite his lack of breath from smoking, which puts a sense of urgency into his action. It brings me to a premature conclusion that Holden cares about certain people that had a positive effect on his life, since a teacher could realistically be a positive force on anyone’s life. He was going to his house to say goodbye, almost like he knew if he didn’t say it right then he wouldn’t have a chance to say it at all. However, once he arrives, gets into his teacher’s house, and begins to have a conversation, Holden can’t wait to get out of that house, stating, “The minute I went in, I was sort of sorry I’d come.” He completely melted apart my first conclusion on his character throughout the rest of the chapter through his immediate and strengthening desire to escape that house. He does remain respectful throughout his entire visit but he starts to feel the same sense of urgency he felt when he ran to Old Spencer’s house, crafting an understanding for me that Holden isn’t interested in positive influences, he may even actually despise them to an extent.

In the third chapter, Holden introduces us to a boy who he shares the showers with, his room and roommate with a connecting room on the opposite side, giving him a slightly confusing description, through insight on how he is always barging in on Holden, “eighty-five times a day,” through the shower curtains yet, “He was also sort of a nasty guy.” Holden connects a nasty guy to a symbol of cleanliness, the showers, which is a strange tie to the reader. Throughout this chapter, Holden develops his sense of dislike for this showermate, Ackley. Ackley’s personality immediately gets Holden riled up, without even saying one word. However, Holden seems to tolerate Ackley to an extent and almost appreciates the seemingly unwanted attempt at a bad friendship from him. Which gives me the thought that maybe Holden just doesn’t like to be alone.

In my continuation to the fourth chapter, Holden introduces the reader to his roommate, Stradlater, and seems to have a pretty good connection to him. Holden follows his roommate to the bathrooms where his roommate is getting ready for a date to hold a conversation. Into the conversation, Holden discovers her name and immediately recognizes it.

“‘What’s her name?’ I was pretty interested.

‘I’m thinking… Uh Jean Gallagher.’

Boy I nearly dropped dead when he said that.

‘Jane Gallagher,’ I said. I even got up from the washbowl when he said that. I damn near dropped dead. ‘You’re damn right I know her.’”

Holden takes on a nervous side, and begins to pace around his roommate thinking out loud. He talks about Jane’s childhood, her parents, her obsession with leaving her kings in the back row in checkers. All of his knowledge about her and his immediate change in attitude when he heard her name leads us to believe, maybe he has a thing for this girl. Maybe he digs this girl. However, it was one of the many abrupt and immediate changes in attitude in Holden in the book so far, which leads me to believe his attitude never stays the same for long and his thoughts dictate his actions to a large extent.

In chapter four, Holden’s roommate asked him to complete some homework of his on a descriptive piece of writing. So, in chapter five Holden decides to use his brothers baseball mitt because of all the character and ease of description it has to him. However, despite the fact that Holden is working on an assignment, we are given more information on Holden’s past, including his brother who owned the mitt who died of leukemia in 1946. Holden never outright stated he missed his brother, Allie, but he illuded to that through his statements like “He [Allie] was also the nicest, in lots of ways,” and “I was only thirteen and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all because I broke all the windows in the garage.” He loved his brother so much that the night after he died, he slept in the garage and broke his hand trying to break every window he saw. He didn’t have much of a reason for it, other than being hurt emotionally and reciprocating that pain physically.

In the next chapter, which is still taking place on the same day, Holden’s roommate comes back from his date and Holden is still itching to see Jane and hear about her and talk to her. He asks Stradlater for details on the date and immediately lets anger control him. Holden attempts to strike up a fight with him, a guy twice his weight, over a girl Holden hasn’t seen in years. Holden immediately was pinned down by Stradlater, who kept repeating in his face, “What the hell’s the matter with you?” It made me think twice about Holden as to whether or not everything flowed completely normally in his brain. I was wondering if he had any sort of mental disorder or illness that the reader is unsure about which causes his mind to constantly jump around all the time and force him to make rash, impulsive decisions.

In the next chapter, Holden seeks a conversation with Ackley, seemingly looking for a connection with anyone other than Stradlater. He wakes Ackley up, which gives the air that Holden is a bit needy. He showed off his uncleaned bloody nose and annoyed Ackley until Stradlater went to bed. However, once his roommate was in bed and asleep and Ackley said Holden could not sleep in his room, Holden decided it was time to leave. He finished packing his things that night and rushed out of the corridor, yelling, “Sleep tight ya morons,” as loud as he could down the hall. Chapter seven wraps up pretty quickly, with Holden getting more rash and obnoxious as the day became night.

Overall, Holden has a very jumpy personality. He’s never on one topic for too long and is constantly experiencing different emotions for different events in his life. As my initial read of this book continues, I think Holden is almost lost in his sense of direction and is floundering for a clear cut path. He can’t always tell the difference between the right choice and the wrong choice and doesn’t make a huge attempt to either. However, I cannot shake the feeling that Holden isn’t telling us something. The narrator isn’t being completely truthful in his retelling. But I won’t know if my hunch is correct or whether my initial depiction of Holden is correct until I read more of his story.