The Holden Caulfield in all of us

                Holden Caulfield is quite an interesting character. Today many people have said the charter is truly a portrayal of teenagers and adults. Holden appears to be a brutally honest, harmless, average person. I feel that Holden displays what all of hide sometimes: ourselves. Even though Holden is a contradiction to his contradictions he is the youthfulness and childhood in all of us. Holden is a young man who doesn’t have the picture perfect family life with the white picket fence, dog mom who cooks dinner everyday and dad who comes to all of his baseball games, but really who does?! Holden whines about this at the beginning of the novel and we can all be sympathize with him, but I feel that he just highlights what all of us feel sometimes. Holden has trouble identifying with others and this is because he can’t identify with himself. He is searching for the “lack of phoniness” and the person who is “true” to themselves and what they believe in but he himself doesn’t reach these standards. He is quite like us today we have such high or maybe low expectations that when we don’t get what we think we should then its wrong, when the truth could be we just aren’t willing to except something different.

                One thing I like about Holden is loyal no matter what. Holden protects and cares for the people he wants to shield from the phonies and this I appreciate. Holden adores his sister (Phoebe) and Jane for reasons. He likes that they seem to be innocent and loving. Because they are so blameless they haven’t had the opportunity to be corrupted by the evil doing and doers of the world. Holden can also be very judgmental towards others at times or as I like to call it a “special critical analyst of charters and characterizations”. But, I feel this is only Holden’s personal right, he judges people based on what he feels is right and goes on that. This is very understandable, we all do it we judge the teenage girl who’s pregnant, or the 45 year old woman who isn’t married, or the weird girl who despises pop music and wears blue lip stick. That is how we get to know people, we make assumptions and we guess and then we choose whether we like people or not.

                The “Holden” in all of us comes out everyday. We can all relate to him even his despises for liars when he is almost a professional liar, or his lack of respect and approbation for school. Holden’s character is a small piece of reflection peering back at us from the pages of The Catcher in the Rye. So, judgmental, opinionated, selfish, shy, concerned, over-protectors, whiners LET THE HOLDEN IN YOU OUT!