Holden Caulfield Character Analysis Essay

Holden Caulfield, the most troubled kid ever. A person can never be “phonier” than Holden. He hates his life, he hates everyone around him. He judges a book by its cover. That’s wrong, he must look at himself before criticizing others. He doesn’t seem to understand that he isn’t any different than the people around him. In fact, he worst than them! No 17 year old should be experiencing what he goes through. He must be messed up in the head. Holden is a very mysterious person, very moody. He could be smiling then he’ll start crying. If he likes something, he’ll start hating it once something happens. He calls other “phony”, but he doesn’t realize what he’s doing. Sometimes he’s real and expresses himself like a normal human being, but most of the time he a fake person surrounded by fake people. One example of Holden being weird and fake is he says he hates movies, but then he goes on a date, he takes his girl to watch a movie! Some people think that he’s normal and that’s what every teenager goes through but in reality Holden is just
a hypocritical sick person. Holden’s moodiness doesn’t stop here, one time a guy named Maurice, offered him some fun.
Holden said yes and lied about his age. The when the prostitute came to his room, he changed his mind and asked her to leave. Another example of Holden’s hypocrisy is that he criticizes people but still asks them to sit down and have a little drink and talk! The only good thing that he does is that he visits his sister Phoebe once in awhile. He says she’s the only person he truly loves. It doesn’t stop here, he made numerous mistakes throughout the novel. One mistake he made is, when he was kicked out of Pencey, he didn’t tell his parents and when the found out that he was kicked out, he got in more trouble. Thinking before making a decision is a good thing to do. Another example is when Sally was crying, he started laughing for no reason, and that made Sally feel even worst. He needs to think about the consequences before doing something
stupid.
A big problem Holden also faces is being lonely. When he was a Pencey, he had no friends. Stradlater, his roommate isn’t his friend even though they have no problems. Ackley, the guy next door also isn’t Holden’s friend. In fact, Holden hates them both! Holden’s opinion in women is also sort of complicated. He keeps saying bad things about them when he talks about women. After all, Holden is a really negative person, and always has a negative point of view.
In conclusion, Holden is person that faces many troubles, he could solve his problems but he chooses to go the hard way. He doesn’t seem to understand people truly. He is also hypocritical and doesn’t know how to make his mind. The mistakes that he made also play a big role in his story. There is no wonder why is in a mental hospital when he wrote his story. Holden is the definitely the worst character I’ve encountered.