Holden Caulfield

1. During his encounter with Mr. Antolini, Mr. Antolini does make some valid points about the importance of education but when saying goodnight he calls Holden handsome, which, in my opinion, isn’t very appropriate despite the fact they have known each other a long time. I definitely do not think Mr. Antolini sitting at Holden’s bedside stroking his hair is appropriate at all. No matter how long you know someone these things are not the norm. In my opinion I think Mr. Antolini was coming on to Holden and Holden was not imagining things because when I read it I thought it sounded like he was coming on to him. 2. I think the death of James castle was so significant to Holden because it was probably traumatic to see someone you knew dead on the ground especially in such a gruesome way. Holden said that they did repulsive things to James before he jumped out the window and all they got in punishment for basically killing a boy wad expulsion. I think the injustice got to him as well; the fact that all they got was expelled. The death of James could have also tied back to some feelings about his brothers death and that would definitely be significant to him. 3. Holden is a terribly confused young man who believes he is very mature but in reality masks his immaturity and mental troubles with drinking and smoking to appear more grown up and normal. On his date with sally his immaturity flag flies big time when he randomly says he loves her and wants to run away with her and claims his feelings are true when he has been calling her fake and saying he doesn’t even like her the whole time. His immaturity especially shows when he goes from “loving her” to being so angry at her at the first sign of rejection. I think her rejection of him is what causes him to get so angry and it is hard for him to control it and ends up scaring sally because of this. 4. Holden’s talk with Carl Luce shows a lot about both of them. In Holden’s case we see how truly lonely he is that