I met Holden yesterday, and I didn't really enjoy the encounter. He seems
like the entitled white boy, accompanied by a
lot of teenage angst. His language is rather crude, speaking in short frank
sentences loaded with unnecessary curse words.He seemed to make it his mission to find some fault with
everything and everyone he encountered. Holden seemed extremely indifferent- he
didn’t seem to care about his fencing team or his grades, and threw the word
moron around without a care in the world. What irritated me most was probably
this aura of superiority I felt surrounded him. He constantly called other
people phonies, which seemed pretty obnoxious. Who even asked for Holden’s
opinion in the first place? Why do people even want to be liked by Holden? I
definitely did not find him likeable.
But is he a good person?
Now that we've read more into the book, I will definitely say he is good at heart. The way he protects Jane, the girl from his childhood, and Phoebe, his sister, is almost (excuse me for my lack of refined words) cute, in a puppy-eyed kind of manner. Jane is constantly on Holden's mind, and his musings of Jane seem different from Holden's thoughts of anyone else. Whenever Holden thinks of Jane, he fondly recalls childhood memories, such as the way she looked when she got excited about things, or the time they went golfing and Jane lost eight balls. On the contrary, Holden constantly judges other people on a surface level- literally. He emphasizes Ackley's pimply face, and Stradlater's impressive physique. Although Holden briefly mentions Jane's appearance on not being "strictly beautiful", he still focuses on experience. Holden even mentions that he got to know Jane "quite intimately", but not by means of sex. For me, this display of affection stands out in stark contrast to Holden's indifference towards nearly everything else, and makes me think that he actually has a heart.
Another thing we might explore is Holden's affinity of calling things "phony". As I mentioned earlier, I initially looked at it as Holden being unreasonably bitter. Yet after getting a glimpse into Holden's protective side, using the word "phony" might be Holden's way to protect his own pride.
We know that Holden, like Stephen Dedalus, is a loner. He sits alone at the football game and doesn't seem to connect with many people. Everyone who rejects or offends Holden in some manner is bound to be a phony. Whether it be the girls in the Lavender Room or Ackley in his own room, they're all phonies to Holden.
I feel as if that is Holden's defense mechanism- he might be trying to make himself feel better when he's rejected. So what if the girls make him pay for their drinks? They're phonies. He tries to convince himself that he's high and lofty and out of their league, instead of facing the fact that he is lonely.
The first chink I saw in Holden's armor was the affection he displayed towards certain people. For someone who doesn't give a single shit about a lot of things, it was a bit surprising. These observations bring me to say that Holden is good, but not likeable. His defense mechanism of finding fault in others doesn't really scream, "I'm a nice, friendly person:". But likeability is shallow in regard to character, and I do believe that underneath Holden's mask is indeed a heart.
*This was written earlier in the week but after class discussions my opinion has shifted!!
Holden does seem pretty hypocritical, but I feel like everyone is a little meaner inside their heads, so it's not like people are asking his opinion about being phonies. He mostly calls things phonies in his own head. But yeah I do agree, he's every obnoxious on the outside as well.
ReplyDeleteHow Holden feels about Jane really does seem to be un"phony" and kinda makes him seem like a good person. And since we are getting unfiltered access to his mind, some things he says can be sorta excused (as we also sometimes think mean/weird things). On the other hand, if Holden's habit of calling people "phony" and trying to make himself feel better is a defense mechanism, it still doesn't really seem excusable in terms of niceness. And for me, for someone to be a good person (and perhaps not strictly morally good, but just some sort of personal idea of goodness), they should also probably be nice and empathetic, which doesn't seem to be Holden's strong points?
ReplyDeleteHolden seems tough on the outside and likes to play that up, but on the inside, which we see, he is pretty emotional. He tries to seem older than he is, but we notice that his heart is stuck at age thirteen, when his brother died. Holden tells Ackley before he leaves that he thinks Ackley is a good gentleman, which shows that he recognizes the good in Ackley, too. I think that being a "tough guy" is part of Holden's character, but he really has a more emotional side to him that only we see, especcially when it comes to Jane and Allie.
ReplyDeleteHolden comes on very strong in those first three chapters, and he seems like such a hater (and he is *good* at hating, with some really funny burns of stuff that displeases him), but the more time we spend with him, we realize that this apparent misanthropy is at least partly a form of idealism. He has high expectations for people, and they often disappoint him, but when he *likes* someone or something, he's quite intense in his endorsement and affection. As Maggie notes above, he can almost always be relied upon to acknowledge the good in someone along with the bad.
ReplyDelete