Catcher 3

Holden Caulfield (who is the main character of the book) seems to be a very pessimistic person. In my reading of the catcher in the rye i have been noting every use of the words "phony" and "depressing" (or depressed). Now, the books story is being told like it is Holden in the future (relative to the story) telling of the past (relative to the "future" story telling Holden)

He uses the word "depressing" in contexts like when he is in an empty hotel lobby, or in New York City when he is walking alone and he can hear people laughing with their dates. The word is usually used along side "lonesome".

He uses the word "phony" like when he is alone walking in NYC and he can hear guys with their dates "laughing like hyenas" about something that isn't even funny. That to him is a phony thing to do. Or giving a phony polite handshake or giving a phony name like "Jim Steele" just for the heck of it.

The question then is, is Holden pessimistic or realistic?

The Catcher in the Rye 2

Robert Ackley. Nobody ever calls him Robert, just Ackley. It even says in the book that "if he gets married, his own wife'll probably call him Ackley". Ackley is a very vivid character in the Catcher in the Rye. He is described as having bad hygiene because he was never seen brushing his teeth so they always looked "mossy and awful". His dorm room always smelled funny and he had pimples all over his face. "He had a terrible personality" too.

When you first read about him he barges into Holdens room uninvited and starts making small talk as an excuse for attention and walks around as Holden is trying to read a book. Holden tries to ignore that he is there for as long as he can until he realizes that he has been reading the same sentence over and over. Ackley was just walking around looking through all of Holdens stuff. But not secretly. It says that Ackley picks up a picture of Holden and a girl and he always puts it down in the wrong place on purpose. Ackley seems to want attention a lot. We all have a little Ackley in us. Ackley isn't even all bad. You can hang out with him every once in a while as long as there is someone else around. People like Ackley need to be Loved. Everyone has a liar inside of them as everyone has good intentions in them.

the Catcher in the Rye 1

So far the Catcher in the Rye is about a boy named Holden who was kicked out of his boarding school school for failing a bunch of classes. One of his teachers named Mr. Spencer who lived in a house near campus wanted to see him before he left. Holden is a pretty pessimistic kid with a reasonable bit of an attitude. Mr. Spencer or as Holden called him "old Spencer" was an old man around 80 who taught history.

Spencer heard that Holden was leaving because he failed all but one of his classes (including Spencers history class). It seems that Spencer wanted to give Holden a life lesson of sorts before he left. Spencer seems like he was being condescending to Holden (to the best of his ability because he is a sick and frail old man) in the way he talked to Holden and what he expected of him.

Spencer seems like a stereo-type old man nearing death and aware of his mortality who wants to almost make himself feel better by showing people things about the life that he lived and telling people life lessons. He was that sort of lecturing kind of man. At a point he says to Holden, "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game one plays according to the rules." Where Holden responds "Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it" and in his head Holden says "Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot shots are, then its a game, alright ill admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then whats the game about? Nothing. No game."

You can see that Spencer is easy to disagree with because he is old and he bases his opinions and life advice on the life that he remembers he lived. He seems to be the kind of person that somebody who has authority issues would not easily get along with. He uses "phony" words like grand. Which IS a phony word. I almost feel sorry for Spencer because the book describes him as very sick and his whole room was covered in tissues and you know, stuff for sick people. He is an old man and death is nearer to him than it ever was before so he deserves a little respect.

The whole 'meeting' he speaks condescendingly to Holden saying this with a tone and showing his teacher type authority.