by NikoRad

Created on: October 24, 2009

There is a quote in The Catcher in the Rye that reads, "Alienation is both the course of Holden's strength and source of his problems."

There's our starting point - let's dive into the dissecting the main character with that very important detail in mind.

The main character, Holden Caulfield, is a character worth sitting down and looking at. He is a seventeen-year-old boy, with an overall negative attitude to most anything. He is a loner and we see a deep desire in him to mature, though he refuses outwardly to let himself. For the main part of the book, we are able to see an almost minute-by-minute recollection of several days in spends in New York, away from his room mate and normal life. His thoughts and wants are opened up to the reader, and we see that he is a generally forlorn individual. His character is unique however, in the way that so much can be learned of him through his actions and how he talks. He has that defining teenage speech, being hesitant with his words and using a lot of phrases repeatedly through the book, not choosing to spice up his speech with word variety-for example, saying, 'That just kills me,' almost seven times every page.

With these details in mind, the negative side of his alienation is evident. But how is the same habit a source of strength to him?

We also see a well-developed sense of opinion and a strong standing in his personal beliefs and views, a result, most likely, of his refusal to be around mostly anyone. This strong sense of opinion helps move Holden through the story. He wants the reader to believe him as well, as if he is right in the matter at hand and we should know. Numerous times throughout the book, he ends statements with, 'I swear to God,' as though trying to convince us.

Yet, I believe his alienation is more negative than positive. It's a bit funny, because Caulfield has an undying hate for people he calls 'phonies'. He describes these as people who act different than what they feel. Throughout the book, we see him single out many different 'phonies', and he doesn't soften the blow for how much he despises them. He makes snap judgments, another branch of his strong opinion. But, the ironic thing about his hate for 'phonies' comes when we see him lying to people he meets, making him a real hypocrite in the reader's eyes. On the train to New York, he starts 'shooting crap' to a lady who has a son that goes to Caulfield's school. He tells her what a good student he is, even though the hates the kid's guts.

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