Holden

I think that in the book the Catcher in the Rye the main character is Holden Caulfield. I think Holden is the main character because he is the narrator of this book. Throughout the book we see things as Holden sees them and we learn everything through him. When we are introduced to Holden, he is sixteen years old and has been recently kicked out of school. Holden was expelled from school because he failed, but he is still seen as intelligent. The way Holden tells this story is very cynical because he hates the ugliness of the world so much it is intolerable. At some points in this book Holden displays just as much superficiality as everyone in this world that he was originally mad at. Holden has to pick between returning to school and saying goodbye to his sister Phoebe to go and travel the world. He faces this conflict for some time before he decides the best thing to do is to return to school.

Holden thinks in such an interesting way. He thought about how nothing ever changed in the museum. When you would go there, you would see things like Indians weaving a blanket like he saw. Overtime you would visit multiple times, but nothing ever changed. The Indian would always be weaving the blanket, and the people in the boat would always be paddling. Their facial expressions would never change. They were just statues, but they looked so real. This part of the story got to me. This passage is so true. It is not the museum that changes it is the person looking at it. This is true with so many things in like as well. An example is friends. As we get older we think people we care about change when really it is us.

Holden is a really complex character because he has so many issues. He is depressed with obviously makes him complex. I think Holden relates to many readers because he doesn’t like people and school. Lots of us hate that.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. Print.