Catcher In The Rye Holden's Flaws

In The Cather in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden is very judgmental as he describes many people in the novel. He is a sixteen-year-old who been expelled from his school and does many things before planning to tell the news to his parents. When he leaves, he visits his teachers, prostitutes, nuns, old friends, and his sister Phoebe. While on this journey, Holden depicts men and women differently. He depicts women like Jane, Phoebe and the nuns as his “gravity”. However, he depicts men like Stradlater, Ackley, and Maurice as selfish and careless. The people he knows well are Phoebe and Stradlater. Though, he presents them very differently. At the end of the novel he takes Phoebe to go on a carousel. While phoebe is riding

He has just met both of them but there is a clear difference. The nuns are people he have met and had breakfast with them. He gives them ten dollars as a donation to the Salvation Army. One of the nuns ask him about English and Holden tells them about Romeo and Juliet. Holden says, “I said I'd enjoyed talking to them a lot, too. I meant it, too.” You can see that Holden doesn’t think of them as phonies. He see them in a heroic way, they are collecting money to help. The two nuns are one of the few people in the book that Holden actually cares enough about to donate ten dollars to. Not only does he enjoy talking to them but he does something unexpected. When they are about to leave Holden accidentally blows smoke in their face. Holden says, “By mistake I blew some smoke in their face. I didn't mean to, but I did it. I apologized like a madman, and they were very polite and nice about it, but it was very embarrassing anyway.” Holden would only regret something that much was if the people he did something to meant something to him. He admires the nuns and sees them as an inspiration. Also something very important was the ten dollars he donated to them. When he gives Sunny ten dollars but he is furious and immediately regrets it. This also leads on to Maurice. Maurice is a “pimpy” elevator guy. He helps Sunny, the prostitute, get jobs by hooking up with guys. He lies to Holden about the price and Holden agrees. When Sunny comes, Holden changes his mind and doesn’t want to do anything with Sunny. He refused to give Sunny the ten dollars she asked for and Maurice came back. They stole another five dollars from him and Holden says, “"You're a dirty moron. You're a stupid chiseling moron, and in about two years you'll be one of those scraggy guys that come up to you on the street and ask for a dime for coffee. You'll have snot all over your dirty filthy overcoat.” This shows how Holden views