Quotes

'Better is one's own duty imperfectly carried out than

following perfectly the law of another.

Better is death in the fulfillment of one's own law,

for to follow another's law is perilous.'

-The Bhagavad-Gita

Holden is always trying to live his "own duty." He goes against authority, he "shoots the crap" with everyone, he gets kicked out of schools, he seems not to care about anyone's rules but his own. 


The quote that I found that I think relates to Holden is from John Green's book Looking For Alaska:

“When adults say, "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail.” 

-John Green

I think that this quote relates to Holden because he is definitely in the mindset that he is invincible.  He doesn't seem to care at all about his future. He gets kicked out of school and barely bats an eyelid. When asked if the has any "qualms about leaving Pencey," he replies: "'Oh, I have a few qualms, all right. Sure... but not too many. Not yet. I guess it hasn't really hit me yet.'" (p. 14) He doesn't think think that he'll really be affected by anything, so he doesn't really care. 

Chapters 8-11

The main example of Holden lying to character in the book is when he was talking to Ernie's mom on the train. Nothing that Holden said in that conversation was truthful. He lied about who he was, about where he's going, and mostly about her son.

It's a lot harder to find examples of when Holden lies to us because obviously he doesn't say that he's lying. I think he was kind of lying- or at least not telling the whole truth- when he started talking about the closest he got to necking with Jane. In the actual story it doesn't seem that they actually got very close to necking, just that Holden was comforting her and kissing her to comfort her, and it didn't seem that there were actually any romantic feelings, which is what Holden led us to believe by saying that they "got close to necking."

I think that Holden lies to keep things interesting. He would get bored if he told the truth all of the time, so he spins lies over everything to entertain himself with little regard for how those lies will effect other people.

Chapter 5

Holden obviously is still dealing with a lot of grief over his brother's death. It's especially hard because it sounds like Allie died very suddenly and it was at a very young age, and Holden was very young as well when it happened. I think that the essay that he wrote was a part of his working through Allie's death in his mind. It seems like Holden still has a lot of pent-up feelings about Allie (which is very understandable) and the fact that he had brought Allie's mitt with him so long after Allie's death is evidence of that.

"Old Allie's baseball mitt. I happened to have it with me, in my suitcase..."

To me Holden is a lot more likable when he is talking about someone that he loves. He is fairly one-dimensional when he is just teasing people and lying, but when he slows down and starts talking about memories of his family or of Jane, I really feel like we are seeing the real Holden. He seems more comfortable when he is taking about the few people he cares about rather than talking to people who are just acquaintances. I enjoy his writing a lot more when it is about his loved ones because you can tell that he cares and it that shows in his writing; the words seem to come easier to him and he goes for long stretches without starting new paragraphs. He seems to be thinking less and it feels much less forced.

The Catcher in the Rye Chapters 2-4

Holden to me seems like a pretty typical angsty teenager. He pretends not to care, but really he does more than he likes to admit. Sometimes this shows through, like with Jane Gallagher:

"How's she happen to mention me? Does she go to B.M. now? She said she might go there. She said she might go to Shipley, too. I thought she went to Shipley. How'd she happen to mention me?" I was pretty excited. I really was.

I dislike his constant complaints about everything; he seems to have a very negative attitude. I like him when he started to talk about Jane. He seemed to genuinely like her and enjoy her company. His attitude seemed to completely change when he started talking about her, and I loved the little details about her that he remembered.

I think that I mostly sympathize with Holden. I can see where he's coming from, even if he is occasionally too whiny for me.