Catcher in the Rye- Question 4

The questions I will be answering are “Who is the "hero" in this book and what are some of his/her traits? What does he/she accomplish, and how is he/she portrayed? Does the hero represent an abstract idea such as goodness, truth, courage or evil?” from the book Catcher in the Rye. I can’t exactly say that there was an obvious “hero” in the book but there was defiantly and obvious protagonist and that was Holden Caulfield. He was the biggest character in the book because the book itself was all about him. Throughout the book he accomplished many small goals that here huge to him. He had a very hard time at school and dealing with people through most, if not all, the book. In the beginning Holden gets expelled from Pencey Hight School because he was failing most of his subjects. He accomplished the small struggle of having to leave that school knowing that he really didn’t make any mark for himself and be able to move on. He also struggles with the fact that he is worried about being a failure in his parent’s eyes. As much as he normally doesn’t care about what people think, or so he says, his parents are the one huge exception. One thing he accomplishes out of how he acts is his ability to act alone in just about all aspects of his life. He is totally independent, which a trait that many people strive to have. In the book he is kind of portrayed as a confused and lonely teenager who needs someone. "Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it - the same night, as a matter of fact." (Salinger, J.D. pg 63) This is just a small passage that in a nut shell shows exactly what I said before, that he is a confused teenager. He represents more of the abstract idea of being lost. He is lost in his own little world and his own reality.



Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown and Company. 1951.