How Is Holden Caulfield Alike

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield, is a troubled teenage boy. In both the novel and the article, Holden’s behavior reflects off of Salinger’s behavior and actions as well, which is what makes them so similar. In the article, the author expresses Salinger’s dislike for school and how he also drops out and is shipped off to military school. Once involved with war, Salinger develops PTSD, which is post-traumatic stress disorder and Holden begins to dislike the war, which helps readers understand the relationship between the two. In the article, the author compares both Salinger’s and Holden’s school days. The author presents numerous examples of their similarities based off of the fact that they both were

The article states, “Despite his apparent intellect, Salinger — or Sonny as he was known as a child — wasn’t much of a student”. Salinger had never been much of a good student, as he was always switching schools and universities, which also caused him to struggle with fitting in. JD Salinger was very similar to Holden in this case because Holden was also not a very great student and also moved around a lot. Another example of a similarity between J.D. Salinger and Holden Caulfield was that they both dropped out of school. Salinger and Holden’s parents were very similar as they both knew that their parents would have severe consequences for dropping out of the school they were attending. For Salinger, he had flunked out of school and was eventually sent away. The article states, “After flunking out of the McBurney School Side, he was shipped off by his parents to Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania”. Salinger had failed to apply himself and fully committed to doing the work needed to graduate. Similar to Salinger, Holden was almost the

If there’s ever another war, I’m going to sit right the hell on top of it. I’ll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will” (156). Holden expresses his honest opinions on war, which is that he does not ever want to be involved with war and he does not know what he would do if it ever came down to him being forced to go. JD Salinger expresses, “I don’t think I could stand it if I had to go to war. I really couldn’t”(154). Salinger’s trauma from the war was a major factor in Holden’s opinions and how he spoke about the war. JD Salinger experienced a variety of trauma and this reflects off of Salinger and becomes a part of who Holden is. Holden Caulfield is a clear reflection of JD Salinger. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield, is a troubled teenage boy. In both the article and the novel, Holden is a clear reflection of J.D. Salinger because of both his actions and overall behavior, which is what makes both of them very similar. In the article, the author expresses Salinger’s dislike for school and how he also drops out of his school and is shipped off to a military