Free Catcher In The Rye Essays: Holden Caufield

The Catcher in the Rye The entirety of the novel The Catcher in the Rye is told from the point of view of a sixteen year old boy named Holden Caufield, where he nostalgically recalled what happened one winter. The novel begins with him leaving his prep school Pencey and going on an eventful and insightful journey before returning home to tell his parents that he flunked out of school yet again. Throughout his journey, he comes across several internal and external conflicts, including his mother versus himself, him versus himself, and his deceased brother Allie versus himself. In the novel, Holden briefly discusses his mother. The only dialogue she has is considerably less than most characters who spoke in the novel. Event hough the reader does not get to hear much about the mother, Holden heavily implies what conflict he holds against her.

Allie is described as, “ the most intelligent member in the family,” and, “the nicest, in lots of ways.” (21). Holden obviously cares deeply for Allie and loves him; his death has affected him for the worst. Holden’s actions and feelings for the world are likely due to the death of Allie because once Allie died, Holden probably felt empty, sad, and angry at the world. He is shown to have empathy towards young children because of his deep connection with Allie. Although Holden gets along with children, he has trouble fitting in with society. He often shows many dissatisfactions with the people he knows and points out their flaws. He is skeptical of adults because they are not “innocent” anymore. Since Allie’s death, Holden went through a great deal, such as his older brother D.B. leaving to Hollywood to become a writer for movies (which Holden detested) and abandoning Holden, among other things. Holden bears an emotional attachment to Allie which causes him to think differently and see the world differently; Holden is very lonely and becomes sick as a