My Characterization of Holden Caulfield from "The Catcher in The Rye".

Essay by lisaxoHigh School, 11th gradeA-, March 2003

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Holden Caulfield is the main character in the novel

"The Catcher in the Rye" the reader can see the world through his eyes as he is the one narrating the story in first person. Holden is a young teenager, the age of sixteen who is emotionally disturbed and confused boy who is entering the journey of adulthood. Holden is a typical teenager who is rather irritated and disgusted by the society that surrounds him. To me he comes across as a witty individual because of the way he makes fun of, as he likes to call it the "phony" people in society he comes across with in the novel. He is from a family formed of two parents who seem to be quite wealthy, as they live in an expensive part of New York most people have to be wealthy to live in New York. Holden also was two bothers, D.B.

and Allie, Allie whom is dead at the age of thirteen and he has a younger sister Phoebe.

During the novel we discover that Holden is rather depressed young man because of his past, with the death of his brother and the failings of his grades in the recent schools he has attended to, he has become unhappy which leads him to have a breakdown. It seems that Holden is very dissatisfied with life and has never had any help during his time of confusion so I figure he is rather week and in some parts of the novel he feels like committing suicide.

Holden has a huge sense of moral values, which often seems to interfere with other people's loss of values. Because of other peoples values he gets frustrated and thinks people are "phony". Holden seems to be a rather mean person as you read his feelings...