Escaping Reality Holden Caulfield sees himself as different compared to everyone else because he sees himself as the only person that is true to themselves and is not a phony. Ever since he lost his brother, Allie, he has been lost. His family sent him off to boarding school shortly after Allie’s death and Holden has constantly avoided having to grieve because he has no one to rely on or to help him. Throughout The Catcher In the Rye, Holden constantly made up excuses to avoid having to spend time with anyone that he knew well before Allie died. Instead of spending time with his family and old friends, like Jane, he makes up excuses and spends time with people that do not know him well, people that will make him feel like he is getting a fresh start. Running away from his problems and having old ones come to the surface and not dealing with any of them will ultimately lead to him having a breakdown and needing professional help. …show more content…
“ He had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn’t too crazy about him, to tell you the truth” (Salinger 19). While everyone is at the game, Holden stays in his dorm because he is not a big fan of any of his peers. One of the only other people in his dorm is Ackley, who Holden claims to dislike even though he finds company in Ackley. He tries to deny the fact that he likes Ackley’s company because at first, he did. For example, after fighting with Stradlater, Holden goes to Ackley and still tries to act as though he is annoyed even though he was the one that approached Ackley. A flaw that Holden has is that he is so afraid of getting hurt that he is always trying to convince himself that he dislikes everybody and their