Free Essay Holden Caulfield: His Goals, Traits and Tendencies

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Holden Caulfield: His Goals, Traits and Tendencies

Holden Caulfield, the main character of The Catcher in the Rye, is hovering between adolescence and adulthood. Holden is on the edge of the cliff trying to hold on to his youth for as long as possible. He is in the middle of an identity crisis; he can only be described by his traits, goals and tendencies to change.

Holden can be characterized by his traits. Throughout the novel, Holden is judgmental of everything and everyone. He criticizes and philosophizes about people who are just too typical or boring or most importantly phony. At times Holden displayed just as much phoniness, meanness or shallowness as anyone else in the story. For example, when he met Ernest Morrow's mother on the train; he told her, "Ernest is the most popular boy at Pency Prep and would have been elected class president if had let the other boys nominate him." Not only was that a lie but Holden also told her he is leaving school early because of a brain tumor operation. Holden does this because he is uncomfortable with his own weaknesses so he deters the attention to Ernest instead of himself. Holden is also phony with Sally Hayes, a girl that Holden used to hang out with. He does not like her very much because she is fake but he meets her anyway.

Holden can further be characterized by his goals. Holden had two major goals in the novel. To catch children before they fall off the cliff into corruption. He also wanted to go west and get away from the world. His goal to save children from corruption is what partly drives him to near insanity. Holden chooses to not have sex with the prostitute because she is young and innocent. Holden also scratches out f*ck you in the bathroom at the school so the children would not see it and wonder what it means. Then eventually someone would tell them furthermore they would be corrupted. Throughout the novel, Holden tries to further fulfill his goal.

Holden can finally be characterized by his tendency to change. By the end of the novel, Holden does not undergo a significant change from his experiences but in the end he does realize that sometimes you have to let kids learn for themselves. This is a same change from his idea of sheltering children from the world so they are not corrupted.

Holden underwent an identity crisis throughout the novel. He can be described by his traits, goals, and tendency to change. Holden had an extreme adventure throughout New York. He witnessed much of what is wrong with society like prostitution, violence, drugs and hate. This made him realize that he must save children before they are corrupted. He also realizes that it is impossible to shelter the children from all the bad that goes on around them. I feel that Holden is a character that people can relate to in some way or other and that is why Holden is such a popular character.