The Catcher in the Rye

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses suicide and anti-gay prejudice, and it uses stigmatizing terms about mental illness which are reproduced only in quotations.

Holden Caulfield is the narrator and main character of the book; though he is not necessarily an unreliable narrator, his viewpoint is highly subjective, and it is informed by several factors that linger in the subtext of his thoughts: his younger brother Allie’s death; witnessing the death by suicide of a dormmate at his previous school; and his own discomfort with adult sexuality are constant pressures on him, driving him toward a mental health crisis. The narrative implies that most of his actions and obsessions should be filtered through these lenses. Because of the nature of the book’s subjective point of view, the characters must be understood through the perspective of Holden Caulfield; several major characters never appear except in Holden’s memory.

Holden is highly idealistic, and this often manifests as his disdain for the people he sees as phonies. However, he is still empathetic toward the individuals in his life, even the ones whom he has labeled phony, and he often stops the narration to tell a story about one of his peers that humanizes them. His idealism gets him in trouble often and makes him uncomfortable with his place in society as a child of the upper class.

That discomfort is magnified by the fact that he’s at a turning point in his transition into adulthood. He is stuck between the adult world, which he finds largely despicable, and the world of children, which is embodied by his love for Phoebe. He frequently desires to run away from society, either by retreating into childhood or through fantasizing about an idealized version of solitude.

Holden represents the disillusionment and crisis of masculinity taking place in midcentury America. While his brother, D. B., is a veteran, there are numerous parallels between Holden’s experiences and those of World War II veterans. He is traumatized by witnessing death: that of his brother Allie’s death and his classmate, James Castle. In Allie’s case, Holden is inconsolable with grief, and his ensuing outburst means that he is unable to attend the funeral or properly mourn his brother. In James Castle’s case, Holden sees a kindred spirit and is troubled by the fact that he didn’t get to know him; he’s also troubled by the fact that James died wearing an article of Holden’s clothing, which makes him a kind of stand-in for Holden. Holden therefore considers suicide, and Salinger uses suicide imagery when portraying Holden’s interiority. Throughout the novel. Furthermore, Holden frequently imagines himself with a gunshot wound that he hides from the public, which represents an emotional wound.