Holden Character Development

The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, is about an angsty and depressed, but inquisitive teenage male named Holden Caulfield. Through the duration of the novel, Holden’s characters personality was stagnant. He stayed the same throughout the entire novel, and had little to no character development. Holden was the main character of the novel with a few supporting characters. He encountered many different people on his journey to finding himself. Holden failed to tell his parents that he was kicked out of his boarding school, again. He felt the information was superfluous to others, other than to himself and other people he wanted to know, such as his younger sister, Phoebe.

My critique on this book starting with character development would be negative. The reason it’s negative is because the author completely and utterly skipped this step in the writing process. Holden does not develop throughout the novel, or as a person. It seems as if through the novel, Holden’s self-confidence and self-worth deteriorate through every chapter.What Holden wants seems quite unreachable. He doesn’t state what he wants, or how he wants it. He kind of just drifts through life with no direction. I feel as if Holden doesn’t want anything. As stated before, he’s kind of just, there.

I felt so depressed, you can’t imagine,” Is just a small piece from the text that shows Holden’s attitude, or aura, throughout the course of the novel. I feel as though his depression was really holding him back. He struggles with depression, but I don’t think he really ever overcomes it fully or at least tries to deal with it. Holden is a bigot who has a temper but he will always stay true to himself and I believe that’s what matters the most out of everything and over