Catcher?! I barely know 'er!

Although only seven chapters into The Catcher in the Rye, we have already been presented with enough information to begin digging into the complexities of Holden's character through his narration of his feelings and thoughts, and physical interactions with other characters.

Within the first chapter, we are informed about Holden's educational dilemma. Holden has expressed total apathy toward his education and as a consequence, has been kicked out of Pencey Prep for failing four out of five of his classes. However, even though Holden has been kicked out of Pencey, he still interacts with and expresses his opinions of a handful of Pencey staff and attendees during his final days at the school.

One of the first significant characters we meet from Pencey Prep is Mr. Spencer, Holden's former history teacher. During chapter two, Holden pays his now sickly teacher a visit before he leaves Pencey Prep. From this interaction, we get our first look into Holden's pessimistic view of life and his harsh criticisms of others around him. Holden seems to hold others at unrealistic standards that he oftentimes fails to meet. One example of this is when Holden explains to Mr. Spencer what Dr. Thurmer told him about flunking. Mr. Spencer agreed with what Dr. Thurmer had said to Holden, saying, "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules." After hearing this, Holden agrees with Mr. Spencer, although saying through his narration, "Game my ass. Some game," before explaining life is only a game when you're on the side with all the "hotshots." Here we see Holden's tendency to say what others like to hear, despite actually believing the opposite to prevent confrontation and further conversation. By falsely agreeing with Mr. Spencer, Holden himself is acting like a phony; in other words, he is putting on a persona that goes against one of his most common criticisms of others. This interaction would eventually end with Holden lying to Mr. Spencer about forgetting his equipment at the gym, so he could cut the conversation short. These actions prove that Holden does not care about his education, that he ignores many of his problems, that he disregards the advice of others when they try to help him, and that he is blind to his own hypocrisy. However, despite all of this, the fact that Holden took the time just to visit Mr. Spencer does reveal that he does somewhat about those around him and that his tendencies to be cynical and ignore his problem are merely done to hide his insecurities and not reveal himself to others.

Holden’s obvious acts of hypocrisy go further than his interaction with Mr. Spencer. Expanding just a bit further, chapter three begins with Holden saying, "I am the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life." This confession exposes Holden’s tendency to lie to others, something you wouldn't ordinarily expect from a character who is known for criticizing others for being "phony."

In chapter three, we are introduced to Holden's neighbor Ackley. Holden first informs the reader about Ackley through multiple unflattering descriptions of his appearance, saying, "He was one of those very, very tall, round-shouldered guys—he was about six four—with lousy teeth," continuing this by saying, "Besides that, he had a lot of pimples." Holden would also go on to describe Ackley as having a "terrible personality" and being a "nasty guy." The fact that Holden chooses these descriptions to introduce Ackley's character displays how he is prone to focusing on negative traits of people and life.

Also during the time Ackley was wandering inside Holden's room, Holden would often do and say things to purposely get under Ackley's skin and not take their conversation seriously. An example of this is when Holden says, "'I think I'm going blind,' I said in a very hoarse voice. 'Mother darling, everything's getting so dark in here.'" Here, Holden pulled a small gag on Ackley, pretending to be unable to see and crying out to his mother for assistance. This is a method used by Holden to not only get back at those he dislikes for bothering him, but to also escape any potentially revealing interactions with others.

Stradlater and Jane's roles in chapter four crossed into each other a bit. Jane's role in the entire story is already rather sophisticated, considering that she never actually appears in the book. However, despite her absence, Jane still means a great deal to Holden and his thoughts about her reveal quite a bit about Holden's character. Jane is the only character that we are aware of that Holden is actually attracted to and because of this, she becomes very sacred to Holden. Like many of Holden's fondest memories, he tries his best to preserve them. One example of this is when Holden couldn't find the strength to throw the snowball he had made because everything he could have thrown it at was, "so nice and white." This urge to preserve innocence has a profound effect on Holden's actions. An example of this is after Stradlater's date with Jane, when Holden explained, "All I know is I got up from the bed, like I was going down to the can or something, and then I tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddamn throat open." Holden became infuriated after Stradlater went on a date with Jane, as he strongly dislikes Stradlater and knows he is sexually active, something he refuses to accept as the truth for Jane as well. This incident was able to drive Holden, an admitted pacifist, to a point of extreme violence with the intent to kill Stradlater. This also goes further into proving Holden's already self admitted hatred for Stradlater.

Upon reading about this incident of violence from Holden, one might take this as evidence that Holden is psychotic, but I do not believe this to be true. For one to be psychotic, they must be completely incapable of feeling empathy for others, forming bonds, and understanding consequences of amoral behavior. The fact that Holden is so defensive of Jane shows great signs of compassion and takes the possibility of being a psychopath out of the question for me. Believe me, I'm no psychiatrist, but as it stands now, I do not believe Holden is crazy—as some have suggested—he may have slightly reserved anger problems, but he does not fit the qualifications to be a psychopath. It's still very early to come to any conclusions of this proportion, but Holden being sociopathic may not be totally out of the question yet. He has suffered from a rough and traumatic childhood which is very likely to have had a permanent impact on his mental health and actions. Then again, this is complete speculation and I could be completely off, but we’ll find out soon enough.

There is so much information presented about Holden's character in these first seven chapters alone, that I feel this analysis barely scratches the surface of many points. The thought of this only being the beginning is both invigorating and slightly horrifying at the same time.