The LAST and BEST Holden blog (maybe)

Is Holden a static or dynamic character?

Yes.

But I know Scalia would never let me get away with a one-worded answer. So, before I perform a little character analysis of Holden Caulfield, I’ll define the question (and provide where I got the definition).

Static Character - a character that does not undergo inner changes or undergoes a little change. (From https://literarydevices.net/static-character/ )

Dynamic Character - a character that undergoes changes throughout the narrative due to conflicts he encounters on his journey. (From https://literarydevices.net/dynamic-character/ )

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Starting way, way back, at the beginning of the book, Holden Caulfield introduces himself curtly and states he simply doesn’t, “feel like going into [where he was born, what his childhood was like, how his parents were occupied before they had him, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap], to tell you the truth.” He doesn’t feel like it so he starts with the day he leaves Pencey Prep. He starts his tale on a Saturday and all 234 pages of (my version) of the book takes place over a span of about two days. Saturday to Monday.

Now, in a way, this introduction to the book creates a static feel that is held throughout the rest of the book. He says he doesn’t want to go into it and he doesn’t; he holds firm to his two day story. He never fully retells another day with as much detail as he does that Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

However, in another way, this introduction creates a dynamic temptation, where the reader gets the feel that maybe they can prove the narrator wrong. He says he doesn’t want to go into it but my mind as a reader starting going to the idea of forcing him to go into detail in facts of his past without fully retelling a story. And Holden does. We learn more about Allie and his intelligence, his compassionate heart, and Holden’s huge admiration of him through his story about punching the windows in his garage after finding no inspiration for writing Stradlater’s composition for English. We learn more about Holden’s mother and her awful smoking habits and her weak emotional status when Holden goes home to wake Phoebe up late one night. We learn more about every person Holden claims he refuses to go into detail on, which shows a change in his telling of the story, agreeing with the idea that he is a dynamic character.

But despite Holden’s outlay of information he, as a narrator, isn’t certain that he’s doing it. J.D. Salinger, as an author, definitely knows he’s doing it -- the genius -- however, Holden Caulfield does not seem to understand that he is giving out the information he previously stated he didn’t feel like going into. Which restarts the loop that is continually traced in my mind, turns my brain to mush, and utterly leaves me confused when it comes to the idea that Holden is a static character. Or the idea that he is a dynamic one.

Throughout this book, Holden essentially remains the same. The first page of the book claims he only feels like telling one story and the last page of the book touches upon that ideal again, bringing up the fact that he doesn’t want to say anymore. And, throughout Holden’s thought processes, many things remain the same. His initial opinion on any one topic usually stays the same after he analyzes it. Like on page 214, Holden is sleeping in a train station, but tells the reader not to ever try it because, “It’ll depress you,” yet he continues through the next paragraph to try to keep sleeping, claiming he was, “more depressed than ever,” in his life. Which adds to the argument that Holden is definitely static.

However, with new information and new pieces of literature, Holden is changing -- in the reader’s eyes at least. With every suicidal reference and every time Holden talks about how depressed he was, we are granted more of a look at his mental instability. So Holden Caulfield changes in the reader’s point of view. The reader goes from seeing a jerk teenager who can’t seem to keep his thoughts in order to a struggling boy who is moments away from hitting rock bottom. But can that be considered dynamic? Holden is undergoing change but the majority of that change is in our perspective.

Holden also seems to constantly think about Jane. He brings her up in his thoughts in almost every chapter yet he always seems to have the same thoughts and the same plan of action. He remains static through his decision to stay motionless when it comes to reentering her life.

On the other hand though, he changes his thoughts from where they used to be JaneJaneJane to where they became PhoebePhoebePhoebe. Even in the second to last chapter, he talks about feeling happy, content, and like he wanted to go home and stay where he was because of how happy Phoebe was on the carrousel. His thoughts in each chapter took a dynamic path because he changed what he used to be thinking about Jane and filled his mind with his kid sister.

Continuing on, Jane is a pretty confusing subject and Holden’s thoughts on her definitely throw me for a loop. From the first time he mentioned her, after learning that Stradlater had a date with her, to the last time he mentioned her, his perception of her didn’t change. She still was the Jane that kept her kings in the back row, the Jane who was always friendly to Holden, the Jane who he kissed everywhere but her mouth. He was static in the sense that he didn’t ever have a new experience that would change her in his eyes.

But what about that time when he actually dialed her phone number? Granted, he got her mother on the line and hung up because he wasn’t in the mood to talk to Jane’s mother, but what can that change -- from not dialing, not dialing, not dialing (despite the billion phone booths he walks into) to actually dialing -- be called if not dynamic? Would it be considered just a blip in the writing? An accidental, unintentional addition to the narrative just to keep the reader interested? No. We know that the author does everything for a reason. Not one thing in this book was done purely for entertainment purposes, not even the names of the characters.

But can one character really be static and dynamic?

Traditionally, I believe that a character can only be one or the other; changing or unchanging. However, Holden seems to fall into a separate category. He seems to write his own literary rules for himself. He isn't a traditional case. I can find and agree with evidence for both sides; yes, Holden is static and yes, Holden is dynamic. Essentially, I believe that Holden can be a new type of character. He has aspects of inner change and lack thereof. Since he is the main character, he can confidently be anything the author wants him to be. An argument can be crafted for just about any metaphor, any analogy, any symbol, any characteristic of Holden Caulfield because this book is left so far open to interpretation. Why else would Mr. Scalia still be excited to learn something new from his students when it comes to reading the book if it wasn’t so open-ended with every piece of information?

I know this perspective might be slightly different than that of the basic yes/no, static/dynamic and I understand that it might seem to be off-prompt. However, I don’t plan to apologize for a different interpretation of the question because it was left open-ended for a reason. I, like J.D. Salinger, carefully thought out every aspect of my argument and article and I believe that, with evidence, this prompt can have a looser guideline.

(Despite my lack of apology I don’t intend any aggression so here’s a heart to make up for it!!)

4 Quirks Concerning Holden

Holden Caulfield is a stagger-minded boy with confusing characteristics.

In ONE circumstance, he strikes up a conversation with one of his schoolmates mothers. Mrs. Morrow, a lady who stumbles onto the late night train and chooses the seat next to Holden, comfortably introduces herself to him and enjoys how he “shoots the crap” with her about her son. However, focusing on Holden himself, he steps into a more “suave” state of mind, as he prefers to refer to it as - we see this state anytime he’s feeling confident, like in Chapter 9 when he prides himself on being “suave as hell,” on the phone with Faith Cavendish. On the train, Holden makes a daringly strange move to interact in an overly-friendly manner with this mother. He estimates her age to be in the forties then continues on to mention how much sex appeal she had. Holden didn’t describe anything about Mrs. Morrow to exactly be traditionally “sexy,” which would probably explain why it came to be such a shock to me that he dug her so much. In his encounter with her, he changes his personality and attitude to keep up with a pace that would more easily match hers, shining light on his tendency to take the personality shape of whoever he’s with.

Overall, I got a glimpse of how Holden really can turn on the charm in instances that are necessary to him.

In a SECOND circumstance, after Holden hits up a group of unattractive women in his hotel bar, he decides he can’t get Jane Gallagher off his brain. He reminisces on the time Jane cried after her booze-loaded father showed up, how she lost eight balls when they played golf one time, how he made her feel comfortable. You get a feeling from this flashback that Holden is happy. Holden truly misses those days. However, he does tie Jane to a negative memory - Stradlater. In essence, I don’t truly believe right now that everything Holden is telling us about how great all his time with Jane was is completely truthful. I think some of what he is feeling and believing has to do with the fact that he wants to prove to himself that he knows Jane better than Stradlater does, whether it’s his subconscious or a completely unrelated coincidence.

I feel like this memory of him with a woman sheds light on who he sees himself as, happy and carefree, when he was with Jane. He seeks the attitude Jane had in all the other women he runs into and is comparing them to her constantly. She makes up his bar of standards for other women. His interactions with her differ drastically from his interactions with, forsay, Mrs. Morrow. Holden has a more caring, cautious, compassionate edge to himself when he was with Jane - or at least that’s how he remembers himself being. Holden turns on the charm, the interesting side, and the lust for Mrs. Morrow.

But despite the differences between Jane and Mrs. Morrow, Holden seeks their similarities. Mrs. Morrow’s motherly features stand out to Holden in a way that reminded him of how Jane treated him. Jane was always soft and kind to Holden and the ability of Mrs. Morrow to include those personality traits when Holden met her added to her sexiness that Holden saw.

In a THIRD circumstance, Holden displays his tendency to not let an idea go once he has it. When Holden got in a cab to go to Ernie’s to spend some time in a nightclub, he asked his cab driver about his recurring misunderstanding about where the ducks in Central Park go in the winter when the lake freezes over. Holden doesn’t seem to understand that his question isn’t completely similar to anything else a cab driver would hear and heats up an argument on his way to the nightclub. The weird thing here, though, is Holden’s behaviour is why he had his cab driver so frazzled yet his mood shut down once the cab driver began to question what trick Holden was trying to pull on him. Holden responds by getting more frustrated and more irritated with the argument that begins to brew between him and his cab driver, Horwitz. Holden introduced the random topic then proceeded to get irritated without a justifiable reason when Horwitz didn’t know the answer and gave a questionable response.

Holden’s interactions go straight from genuine curiosity to an irritated state and snarky comments. He creates the tense atmosphere and then snaps when the driver follows through with it. This is a much more different behavioral pattern than the previous two mentioned with the ladies. Holden, rather than being suave and impressive, is irrational and upset.

In the FOURTH circumstance, on his way up the elevator, Holden shows interest in inviting in a prostitute for the night. The elevator guy encourages him and Holden gets a younger woman sent up to his room. Her mannerisms and language were young and childish, contributing to Holden’s uneasiness. Holden felt unsure about his decision from the moment the lady walked into his room and, despite his desire to rip off his virginity like a band-aid, he decides that he’s not in the mood. Holden pays the woman for staying and just hanging out in his room for a couple minutes and leaving. But, personality-wise, Holden keeps changing his mind on how he’s feeling. In one night, he goes from looking at Mrs. Morrow’s sex appeal, to taking a bus to a hotel, to wanting to go to the bar to pick up a chick, to going back into a cab and arguing, to walking back to the hotel and wanting a prostitute, to no longer wanting attention.

His interactions are touchy and based solely on who he’s with. He’s a hard puzzle to put together.

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.