Final+Draft

26 October 2009
**Catcher in the Rye Partner Essay**

A phony, pervert, and screwball are words used by Holden Caulfield the main character in the novel //Catcher in the Rye.// These words are how Holden refers to people he associates with that he either dislikes or doesn’t care for. All of Holden’s thoughts are very critical towards other people, which makes his chances at developing friendships and relationships with others difficult. Stradlater, Holden’s ex-roommate at Pencey, is described as a phony person who is a secret slob and dates girls that he doesn’t care about. Holden does not get along with Stradlater since he is a phony. This dislike for Stradlater makes it difficult for Holden to become friends with someone like him. An attractive girl named Sally Hayes, who Holden dates, is another person who is the definition of phony. She is not someone Holden would ideally date because she attempts to become more distant towards him. Holden’s thoughts about her are critical and eventually their relationship crumbles. Holden describes Mr. Antolini, an ex-teacher of Holden, as a pervert. At first, he connects with Holden well, however after Mr. Antolini strokes his head, he thinks he is perverted and makes him leave. Holden’s connections with all these people fell apart after Holden realizes they are phony. Holden’s critical mind destroys his chances at making a friendship with someone awkward.

Holden is very verbal to people he does not like such as Stradlater. Stradlater was roommates with Holden, but Holden didn't like him very much because he was a secret slob. “You remember I said that Ackley was a slob in his personal habits? Well so was Stradlater, in a different way. Stradlater was more of a secret slob” (Salinger 27). In Holdens view, a secret slob is someone who appears clean and gets all the girls, but when they are alone, they have dirty habits such as using rusty old razors. Stradlater also only cares about himself, and as people meet him they develop in their mind that he is a phony. “Stradlater was putting on his tie, in front of the mirror, when I got there. He spent around half of his goddam life in front of the mirror” (Salinger 33). Holden is trying to say that Stradlater only cares about himself and nobody else. Stradlater is the kind of person who would date a girl he doesn't even care about and then dump her. “I'll still say he's a sonuvabitch. He's a conceited sonuvabitch” (Salinger 24). Holden isn't the only kid who thinks of Stradlater this way, Ackley another student at Pencey that Holden is friendly with, sums up Stradlater in those words too. As Holden begins to acknowledge his final moments at Pencey, his feelings towards Stradlater have changed. He hated the way he acted towards Jane, a girl Holden happened to like. Lastly the way Stradlater disrespected Holden’s schoolwork, which happened to be about his dead brother Ally and his baseball mitt.

Holden doesn't like to be lonely, so he likes to go on dates. As soon as he left Pencey he called up his old friend Sally Hayes to see if she would like to go on a date with him. Sally is a very attractive, but she is not someone Holden would want to date. Since he is desperate, he would date anyone. All Holden wants is for someone to be by his side, preferably a girl. On their date Holden expresses his love to her, and doesn't keep in mind that it is only the first date. During the date Sally starts to become more distant with Holden, as he starts to get closer Holden notices Sally's actions and he starts to feel that Sally is a phony. “The terrible part, though is that I meant it when I asked her. That's the terrible part. I swear to God O'm a madman” (Salinger 134). As soon as Holden told Sally to run away with him, she became turned off and told Holden to stop. Holden gets offended and tells her she is a pain. Sally gets upset and leaves. Holden decides that Sally is not his type, and realizes his own mistakes in how he makes relationships. Holden only goes for the attractive girls, and does not consider their personalities. This is why Holden always seems to be with the wrong girl: Finally, though the jerk noticed her and came over and said hello. You should've seen the way they say hello. You'd have thought they hadn't seen each other in twenty years. You'd have thought they'd taken baths in the same bathtub or something when they were little kids. Old buddyroos. It was nauseating. The funny part was, they probably met each other just once, at some phony party (Salinger 127). This shows Holden's feelings towards Sally, and others he may meet at a social event. Who ever Holden gets himself involved with, ends up being a phony and having problems. The problem is that Holdens gets to close to Sally. She then starts to feel uncomfortable so she tells him to stop and he calls her a phony. An example of someone Holden considers a pervert is Mr. Antolini, a former teach of Holden. At first, they develop a connection where Holden feels comfortable talking to him. When Mr. Antolini agrees to let Holden stay the night, Holden sleeps on the couch. Later that night, he finds Mr. Antolini stroking his head, which Holden finds to be perverted: “What he was doing was, he was sitting on the floor right next to the couch, in the dark and all, and he was sort of petting me or patting me on the goddam head. Boy, I’ll bet I jumped about a thousand feet. “What the hellya //doing?’// I said. ‘Nothing I’m simply sitting here, admiring (Salinger 192). Holden gets very uncomfortable about this situation, which makes him leave. With this strange occurrence, it is shown that Holden has some fear of affection and perverted people, in this case with men. Holden doesn’t know much about sexuality so when Mr. Antolini was stroking his head, he doesn’t know if whether he was flirting with him or just acting strange. Mr. Antolini has never been mentioned as a pervert before, so Holden might have been over exaggerating. “I know more damn perverts, at schools and all, than anybody you ever met, and they’re always being perverty when //I’m// around” (Salinger 196). Holden has a strong dislike for perverts because he is afraid of intimacy and sex. At school, he tries to avoid them, but Holden finds that they are always doing something perverted around him. His dislike for perverts like when they show affection to others or talk about sex is a way that he might fail at making a relationship with some girl in the future.

Throughout the //Catcher In the Rye// Holden's thoughts towards other people were very critical, which made his chances at developing friendships and relationships difficult. Stradlater was a phony, and a slob that Holden disliked because of his disrespect towards him and others. Sally Hays, the girl he dated, was a phony which represented Holdens difficulty in getting involved with other girls. Mr. Antolini's inappropriate affection also made Holden feel uncomfortable. These characters Stradlater Sally and Mr. Antolini are all people Holden had difficulties with and they all can be summed up in 3 words: phony, pervert, and screwball.