The most real literary character I've read from the novel
The Catcher in the Rye. JD Salinger, the author of Catcher himself, often referred to Holden as a
real person, saying things like, "No, Holden wouldn't like that."
Depressed throughout the novel, he takes jabs at the injustices around him, calling many people and things "phony," and while usually true, stating this only made him more depressed.
People he liked included his dead brother Allie, his kid sister Phoebe, and Mr. Antolini, a teacher at a former school of his who cleaned up the dead body of Kevin Castle after he killed himself by jumping from a dorm window.
Some quotes of Holden Caulfield:
"Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell."
"High school's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the
football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques."
"Sex is something I just don't
understand. I
swear to God I don't."
