Essay, Research Paper: The Catcher In The Rye

Holden Caulfeild is more of a disturbed person, compared to many other people. To me, he is very similar to my cousin Chris. The characteristics that urge me to identify Holden with my cousin are they way that both have terrible habits, are young and smart ( but don't apply themselves), and their ability to be kind at times. Chris smokes, but I'm sure that's not all that he is underage to do and does it. Holden was only 16 years old in the book, and my cousin is not much older right now. Holden didn't seem to care too much about his schooling, but more depended on his thoughts to lead him through life. Like Chris also, both are spare of the moment people. By this I mean that if any idea or thought comes up in their head, they deeply consider doing it.
By giving Holden more controversial characteristics than the normal story hero, Salinger makes him more believable. Holden is not the regular innocent person, yet he can't jump over a building in one leap or even fly, and this too makes him more believable as a person. He has his faults and he also has good traits. The author was very descriptive and whenever Holden would get off the point he was trying to make, it wouldn't matter because another thing out about Holden would be discovered. Holden had his own personality, and everything he did was different from the way anyone else in the book would have, or at least that is the idea that I got. The author gave everyone their own personality, and they even had their own vocabulary and speaking style. Phoebe did not talk like Holden, Holden did not talk like Mr.Antolini, etc The way Salinger had Holden use his surrounding settings made Holden more realistic too.
Having the setting in a bigger city is important for this story. What if it was set in a small rural farm community? The only bar where Holden could've gone to would be a hick bar built in an old, termite-eaten barn. Maybe I am exaggerating a little, but really, where would he get a drink, especially without a car. He also would not have the opportunity to get a sleazy hotel and meet a pimp in an elevator. This too could have been possible, but the chance is much more likely in New York.
Obviously many things would not have been possible if the setting was changed, and things would change again if the year has changed. In the first place, Holden's parents would be notified right away when Holden failed out of school again. Also because the schools have a tighter hold on the children and what they do, they would have known ASAP about Holden missing the next day. The drinking, too, would be a lot harder, because it seems that bars are being harder on minors drinking. Holden would need much more money, more than eight dollars that Phoebe gave him, to get him by for even one day in the 1990s. The only things that may have been easier for him would be getting a prostitute and smoking, which is more acceptable to certain extents today.
J.D. Salinger must have thought a lot about Holden's personality, since it flows very well, and it is always consistent. By this I mean that Holden is the same person throughout the whole story, he doesn't change back and forth between two personalities. Holden is constantly traveling, so Salinger doesn't have many descriptions for the streets and places Holden passes, although Salinger pretty well describes the houses, bars, and hotel rooms.
The point of view that J.D. Salinger wrote in was first person, from Holden's point of view. If this were from Phoebe's point of view, the story would be totally different, and most of the story would not be included. Only a small portion of Holden's story would be included, since Phoebe was not there for a lot and was not told a lot by Holden. This is as much for Phoebe as anyone else in the story too, because everyone else was not throughout the whole story, as where Holden was, since it's about himself.
Throughout the story, Holden did not have many biases or prejudices. He seemed to keep his mind open to things. There were some things that he seemed worried about though. In a sense, he seemed to care about people, even absolute strangers. This was displayed when he was thinking about jumping out of the window of the hotel room but thought that he would want someone to cover his body up so people wouldn't have to see it laying there all gory. He also liked to see people happy, like Phoebe for example. At the end he explained that he liked to see her go around and around on the carousal and seeing her happy. Holden seemed to always have a open look onto life, because he was coming up with new ideas, like moving west by himself.
Besides having an open look on life, Holden also had positive outlook on life, or at least his actions seemed that way. He didn't mind too much when he got kicked out of school, or when he was hit by Stradlater. He almost seemed careless. Holden also appeared not to care about his health to much, seeing that he smoked cigarette after cigarette and was sober only 75 percent of the time. This could be a reflection of J.D. Salinger's own views of life. In a way, Salinger could have been reflecting onto his own adolescence when he wrote this book. Maybe this didn't all happen to Salinger, but it might resemble his thoughts.
If Salinger's and Holden's thoughts and experiences were similar, I don't know if I'd like to know either of them very much. I would not mind knowing Holden, but we would not have anything in common. I am not that outgoing and actually rather shy, and do not participate in any of the habits he is engaged in, such as getting overly drunk and chain smoking. But since he could be pretty nice in the story at times, he would not be the worst parson to know.
If I did get to know Holden, we would most likely coexist as acquaintances for the same reasons I just mentioned, we don't have much in common, our personalities clash, and he also appeared to be a rotten friend to have. I think this for a few reasons. In the story he didn't have any friends, just Sandy who he didn't really appreciate that much. He must not be a very adaptable person if he has no friends that he appreciates and they appreciate him in return. He also is very judgmental since he was always thinking something about somebody, although he has a mind open for suggestions.
J.D. Salinger may be telling us that we should live our lives fully and take advantage of every moment we can in life. Holden goes from one situation to the next, he is living life fairly fully and is getting a lot of experiences from his life, which is why I mentioned that Salinger may be meaning to tell us that we should live life fully. If this is what Salinger meant to say, he has done so by displaying a young man's life and how he took advantage to live a life maybe not that pleasurable to anyone else, but pleasurable to himself.