Holden Caulfied

Scoot said:
Well, his little brother who was the most important person in his life did die, I would think that would make you pessimistic and ever weary

freckle said:

exactly. i think that's part of the reason the book became so popular. everyone sees it in themselves (or in someone they know), even if it is a bit naughty. and that's also part of the reason the book is hated.

bean said:
He's alright

[Edited on Jul 18, 2004 by bean]

Lemonkid said:

Holden's not like me at all, he's a whiny milquetoast who won't even have sex with a hooker he's hired. Although if he's really hot I could potentially see myself "in" him. I'll have to wait for the movie and hope he's played by the actor who's in Bertolucci's "the Dreamers" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."

freckle said:

there's no point in lying, i've met you dear

The hero-narrator of The Catcher In The Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caufield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.

The boy himself is at one too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing to say about Holden is that he was born into the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it.

There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices - but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining tremendously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain an pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.

Lolita said:
i loved the book, it captured the persona of the 'fucked up kid', I found the story interesting and engrossing.......
however.......holden? yeah, one fucked up soul, holden captures what every sociopath went through as a teen, as far as behaviors and thoughts. it captures the sociopath when he is still worthy of compassion,
and I have to ask, since people posting here actually read the book and I am interested.......do you think Holden was in love and/or had sexual feelings for his little sister? pages were dedicated to how she was ''perfection'' and he visited her in her bed before he left, salinger in my opinion alluded to him molesting her.
AT first I thought I was over analizing then I read Salingers short story ''bananafish''
***shudders***