The Catcher in the Rye – Holden Character Paper Essay

One common question asked since M. D Salinger wrote and published the book The Catcher in the Rye is, is Holden Caulfield a great sympathetic or unsympathetic character is this individual a protagonist or a great antagonist? I think Holden is actually a sympathetic figure that just has a strange way of expressing his feelings and may include emotional and psychological problems. Even though Holden has had problems expressing him self and a few challenges in life that doesn’t produce him a great unsympathetic or maybe a bad person.

Personally, I really believe Holden merely is literate and wasn’t afraid to speak his head although some with the negative issues he would declare would outweigh the positive items he said and most visitors would concentrate or remember the bad points. In this newspaper I will demonstrate everyone Holden’s emotional side and sympathetic aspects in life. For instance one circumstance, where Holden shows a good amount of sympathy and makes you feel sympathetic for him at the same time can be whenever Holden talks about his younger buddy Allie. Allie Caulfield, Holden’s younger buddy passed because of Leukemia in Maine about July 18, 1946. Allie was a very important person in Holdens life and I will guess that he was Holdens the majority of favorite person in the world.

Holden would usually speak thus highly of Allie. I actually read Holden say better things about Allie in one paragraph than this individual said about everything else genuinely in the remaining portion of the book. ” God having been a nice youngster though. ” (Pg. 38) The loss of life of Allie seems to be the main reason why Holden is at this point out of depressive disorder and I feel if Allie were with your life so many factors and incidents in Holdens life would’ve been different.

For an assignment Holden was performing for his roommate Stradlater he went into detail regarding one of Allies old snowboarding gloves, which usually shows his intelligence and uniqueness. Following Allies moving Holden seemed to have lost beliefs in himself and everybody around him which can simply make you empathize for the passing of somebody so near him. Through the entire book Holden gives several pretty unforgettable quotes in the life with out Allie, which in turn shows authentic sympathy. ” I slept in the garage area the night he died, and I broke all the goddam glass windows with my own fist, simply for the hell from it. “(Pg.

39) This reveals how Holden sympathized for Allie and missed him so badly and he is a sympathetic person but just doesn’t know how to express it. “Boy My spouse and i felt gloomy. I sensed so stressed out you can’t imagine, what I did, My spouse and i started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. “(Pg. 98) This once more shows Holdens sympathy to get himself and creates the emotion of sympathy from you to Holden.

Also this quote shows that Holden doesn’t know how to exhibit his anger. ” But I retain thinking about it in any case, when I get very depressed”. (Pg. 98) Once again you cant support but have a pity party for a child he cannot get his brother Allies death out of his mind and he doesn’t know manage it maybe Holden has to have a psychiatrist to aid control his emotions. ” I can nonetheless like him though can’t I? “(Pg. 171) From this quote Phoebe told Holden he couldn’t like Allie if he’s dead although he still feels that even though Allie is deceased he can still like and talk about him. Last but not least in all of the of Holdens Allie recommendations in the book was “Allie don’t let me fade away.

Allie don’t let me go away. “(Pg. 171) Holden would talk to Allie whenever this individual needed direction or experienced troubled about something like Allie was to some degree his mom or dad angel. Persons may have got a common supposition that Holden only displays sympathy when it came to a touchy subject like his buddy but that’s not true. Holden showed compassion in other facets of life of course not as much but he even now shows his sympathetic aspect. ” Persons never notice anything”. (Pg.

9) Even when Holden tries to display sympathy or does something positive no-one ever sees anything. ” She thanked me and everything when I got it tightened for her. Your woman was a excellent, polite very little kid. ” (Pg. 119) This shows Holden’s compassion for very little kids like how this individual just tightened a boot for a young daughter which a straightforward sympathetic touch. “Don’t ever tell anyone anything. If you, you start missing everybody”. (Pg. 214) This kind of last estimate sort of sums up everything Holden is definitely sympathetic yet has trust issues.

To conclude Holden Caulfield is a sympathetic character that just contains a weird method of expressing his feelings and may have emotional and mental problems. Holden does have concerns psychologically therefore he does have problems expressing himself nevertheless that doesn’t mean this individual isn’t sympathetic. Sometimes not merely with Holden but in our lives each of our negativity mostly outweighs the positivity. But once you have a different sort of outlook on Holdens lifestyle you see he was a very sympathetic character.

From this paper I use showed you Holdens psychological and sympathetic side.