Holden Caulfield is a young boy who has recently flunked out of his latest school. He is the main character in this book and he is also the narrator. Holden is a boy who is interested in many adult things such as smoking, drinking, and having sex even though he has never had sex. He drinks very often unless the waiter asks him of his age in which case he prefers a Coke. He is a well-rounded kid and he knows what he likes and what he does not, which is most things. Everyone and everything is phony and he does not think that people are real and believable. Holden is afraid of growing up though. He wants to stay a boy and be treated like an adult. He wants to drink and smoke but he does not want to get stuck in the same day to day activity that many adults who have constant jobs have to endure. He does not want to be a phony and when talking with his sister about what type of job he may like he says "How would you know you weren't being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn't."(Salinger,224).
Holden does not seem to have many people he likes other than his sister Phoebe. He talks about people that the reader may interpret as a close friend but then he goes on to call them a bastard and you know that he does not have any friendly feelings for that person, most likely because he thinks they are phony, or what we would call two-faced, or playing both sides of the fence. He needs some close friends because if he were to be with them when they began to grow up and act more maturely maybe it would rub off on him and encourage him to do the same. Even his little sister is more mature and has a better understanding of her future than Holden and she knows that she can not stay a kid forever.
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print
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