Analysis of Major Characters
Holden Caulfield - The number of readers who have been able to identify with Holden and make
him their hero is truly staggering. Something about his discontent, and his vivid way of expressing
it, makes him resonate powerfully with readers who come from backgrounds completely different
from his. It is tempting to inhabit his point of view and revel in his cantankerousness rather than try
to deduce what is wrong with him. The obvious signs that Holden is a troubled and unreliable
narrator are manifold: he fails out of four schools; he manifests complete apathy toward his future;
he is hospitalized, and visited by a psychoanalyst, for an unspecified complaint; and he is unable to
connect with other people. We know of two traumas in his past that clearly have something to do
with his emotional state: the death of his brother Allie and the suicide of one of his schoolmates.
But, even with that knowledge, Holden's peculiarities cannot simply be explained away as
symptoms of a readily identifiable disorder.
The most noticeable of Holden's "peculiarities" is how extremely judgmental he is of almost
everything and everybody. He criticizes and philosophizes about people who are boring, people
who are insecure, and, above all, people who are "phony." Holden carries this penchant for passing
judgment to such an extreme that it often becomes extremely funny, such as when he speculates that
people are so crass that someone will probably write "fuck you" on his tombstone. Holden applies
the term "phony" not to people who are insincere but to those who are too conventional or too
typical—for instance, teachers who "act like" teachers by assuming a different demeanor in class
than they do in conversation or people who dress and act like the other members of their social
class. While Holden uses the label "phony" to imply that such people are superficial, his use of the
term actually indicates that his own perceptions of other people are superficial. In almost every
case, he rejects more complex judgments in favor of simple categorical ones.
A second facet of Holden's personality that deserves comment is his attitude toward sex.
Holden is a virgin, but he is very interested in sex, and, in fact, he spends much of the novel trying
to lose his virginity. He feels strongly that sex should happen between people who care deeply
about and respect one another, and he is upset by the realization that sex can be casual. Stradlater's
date with Jane doesn't just make him jealous; it infuriates him to think of a girl he knows well
having sex with a boy she doesn't know well. Moreover, he is disturbed by the fact that he is
aroused by women whom he doesn't respect or care for, like the blonde tourist he dances with in the
Lavender Room, or like Sally Hayes, whom he refers to as "stupid" even as he arranges a date with
her. Finally, he is disturbed by the fact that he is aroused by kinky sexual behavior—particularly
behavior that isn't respectful of one's sex partner, such as spitting in one's partner's face. Although
Holden refers to such behavior as "crumby," he admits that it is pretty fun, although he doesn't think
that it should be.
A brief note about Holden's name: a "caul" is a membrane that covers the head of a fetus
during birth. Thus, the caul in his name may symbolize the blindness of childhood or the inability of
the child to see the complexity of the adult world. Holden's full name might be read as Hold-on
Caul-field: he wants to hold on to what he sees as his innocence, which is really his blindness.
Phoebe Caulfield - Before we meet Phoebe, Holden's side of the story is all we've been given. He
implies that he is the only noble character in a world of superficial and phony adults, and we must
take him at his word. There seems to be a simple dichotomy between the sweet world of childhood
innocence, where Holden wants to stay, and the cruel world of shallow adult hypocrisy, where he's
afraid to go. But Phoebe complicates his narrative. Instead of sympathizing with Holden's refusal to
grow up, she becomes angry with him. Despite being six years younger than her brother, Phoebe
understands that growing up is a necessary process; she also understands that Holden's refusal to
mature reveals less about the outside world than it does about himself. Next to Phoebe, Holden's
