Why Holden Caulfield of ‘Catcher in the Rye’ is an entitled, selfish brat
The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel written by J.D Salinger and is often said to be one of the first fiction books for young adults. At the time of its release, it was one of the most controversial novels and was banned in several countries for its swearing, sexual references, suicidal ideation, challenging of religions and rebellion against authority. Growing up is an inevitable part of life and Holden needs to accept this blatant fact. Holden is obviously not a perfect character, which is made obvious in several parts of the book. But he needs to understand that things won’t always go his way, and he can’t just keep blaming people’s ‘phoniness’ on everything. He needs to take responsibility for his actions, as well as realise that he isn’t the only person in the world. The world simply doesn’t revolve around him
As a teenager myself, I really couldn’t relate with the character of Holden. He often seemed annoying, entitled and almost loathsome at certain points in the novel. The plot follows his life after dropping out of Pencey Prep, the school he went to, and him running off to New York. He then experiences setbacks, disturbances and disappointments including meeting the mother of a student that he went to Pencey and talking with some nuns. He meets an old friend named Sally Hayes, who he despises because of her ‘phoniness’, finds a prostitute, gets in a fight with an elevator operator. And after all of that he meets up with his younger sister. A significant part of the controversy was the part with the prostitute, as well as his constant use of words such as ‘goddamn’, ‘crap’, and ‘shit’, as well as infrequent uses of ‘f*ck’ and b*tch. The blasphemy, swearing and sex annoyed many people, causing its ban in several countries in the world.
In my opinion Holden is a selfish brat who only cares about himself and doesn’t know how the world works. He needs to accept the fact that adulthood is inevitable and not everything will go his way. He can’t just blame everything on the ‘phoniness’ of other people and has to accept responsibility for his actions. One of the many evidences of his selfishness is his attitude to learning. After not studying, learning or even making any effort whatsoever at Pencey, his school, he wants us to sympathise with him as if the reason for him being kicked out of every school he went to wasn’t a direct result of him not showing any effort whatsoever to his learning. He can’t expect to stay in the school when he doesn’t even do anything. He needs to get over the fact that people won’t just ignore his foolishness for the rest of his life. He also acts like it’s no big deal. It doesn’t matter to him that he’s wasted he’s parent’s money as well as his teachers’ and classmates’ time. Welcome to the real world, Holden, where your actions have consequences.
He also has an evident lack of sympathy for other people during tragic circumstances. He constantly whines about his brother’s death as if he was the only one who was affected. His parents had just lost their son. Some people lost their friend. Yet Holden doesn’t think about that. He just whines about it without even thinking about the tragedy that the rest of his family is experiencing as well. He then proceeds to go and destroy their garage windows. Death is inevitable, and people will feel grief. But he can’t just destroy their windows out of spite. You weren’t the only person affected, Holden. Stop acting like you are and think of your parents whose child just died and now have another one who has idiotically injured himself. Welcome to the real world, Holden, where the world doesn’t revolve around you.
Holden is selfish and spoiled and the proof of this is scattered throughout the book. He has a privileged life. His parents can afford for him to go to a fancy private school, but he takes it for granted and flunks most of his subjects, and even after being expelled he’s privileged enough to be sent to yet another fancy school. He’s rich enough to afford his big trip to New York, filled with several expensive experiences such as all his good quality meals, the show that he went to, the souvenirs he brought back for Phoebe. Yet he doesn’t acknowledge how privileged he is. He spends his trip whining about how unlucky he is and why he is life sucks. Holden needs to understand how good he has it.
Holden is a selfish, rich, spoiled brat who acts like the world revolves around him and doesn’t know how the world works. This is evident by his negative attitude to learning, his lack of empathy for others and his inability to understand how privileged he is.
