*** Welcome to piglix ***

Holden Caulfield

Holden Caulfield
Holden Caulfield.png
An interpretation of Holden Caulfield on the cover of the 2012 book The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy by Heather Salter and Keith Dromm.
First appearance "I'm Crazy"
Last appearance The Catcher in the Rye
Created by J. D. Salinger
Information
Gender Male
Occupation Student
Family D. B. Caulfield (brother)
Phoebe Caulfield (sister)
Allie Caulfield (deceased brother)
Nationality American

Holden Caulfield (born c.1933) is the fictional teenage protagonist and narrator of author J. D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. Since the book's publication, Holden has become an icon for teenage rebellion and angst, and now stands among the most important characters of 20th-century American literature. The name Holden Caulfield was used in an unpublished short story written in 1942 and first appeared in print in 1945.

Although it has been conjectured that J. D. Salinger got the name for Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye when he saw a marquee for Dear Ruth (1947), starring William Holden and Joan Caulfield, Salinger's first Holden Caulfield story, "I'm Crazy," appeared in Collier's on December 22, 1945, a year and a half before this movie was released.

Holden is naive and at the same time resentful of the adult world. One of Holden's most striking and quintessential qualities is his powerful revulsion for "phony" qualities, a catch-all term for the perceived hypocrisy that irritates Holden. It is this cynicism that causes him to distance himself from other people, despite wanting connection as well. Holden is very much a character of contradiction; at seventeen years of age he is six feet two-and-a-half inches (189 cm) tall, and already has some grey hair – though he himself admits that he sometimes acts more like a 13-year-old than an adult. He continually fails classes.

Holden Caulfield is the narrator and main character of The Catcher in the Rye. The novel recounts Holden's week in New York City during Christmas break following his expulsion from Pencey Prep, a preparatory school based loosely on Salinger's alma mater Valley Forge Military Academy. Holden Caulfield tells his story with surprising honesty from a hospital in California in a cynical and jaded language.


...
Wikipedia

...