Reminder that if you think Holden is a pretentious douche...

Reminder that if you think Holden is a pretentious douche, then you're a phony normie who doesn't belong on this website.

I'll just repost this here.

I've read The Catcher in the Rye 10+ times and the reason why I like the book is that I really enjoy Holden's banter. He is a whiny fag, but he's a pretty observant guy. I remember some of them very clearly, I'll give you an example. He talks about a poor boy, his roommate, who didn't have money to buy a really good suitcase. Holden would always hide his own suitcase (which happened to be a premium leather one) so his roommate wouldn't feel insecure about it. Turns out the boy would put the suitcase on Holden's bed and pretend he actually owned it. This is a pretty funny remark to make and a powerful one, too. Holden also talked about how he got 'blue as hell' when he saw two nuns begging for money with a wicker basket. He also got moved when the prostitute came up to his room and stuff.

People say Holden is obnoxious, but when I think of these examples I can't help but truly relate to this guy. Yes, he likes to call people phony, complain about minor stuff and act like a retard towards Sally Hayes. But he also cares about his little sister. He loves a girl and yet will refuse to hit her up, preferring to feel jealous as fuck for his friend and remember when they used to play checkers. I guess what I'm trying to say is: if you can somehow get past Holden's assholeness, you will enjoy the book a lot more for these touching moments.

From the way people talk about him I was expecting to really hate him. He's a tragic figure that doesn't understand it because he's so immature. He doesn't realize how depressed and lonely he is so he just keeps chugging along. I genuinely felt bad for him when he explained why his hand is all messed up.

Pretentious isn't quite the word for it. He wanted people to be more playful and to take more interest in him. His big mistake was thinking he could get people to do those things by constantly complaining.

He's 17.

I think a lot of people who hate him are just projecting

Of course the losers here would relate with him

So I'm with a girl and she has on one of those pointy goddamn sad little cone bras and she asks me to take off my goddamn shirt before we make out. So I do, and know what the hell she does? She laughs at my back acne for chrissakes, just point and laughs right there in the bedroom and all. So I call her a phony and get up to leave the goddamn room but she grabs me by the arm and looks at me with these big ol' wet movie starlett doe eyes. Christ, that always kills me. It really does. So I make up my mind to stay. and she's giddy and beside herself and all and we start to make out but then I get this feeling, like way deep down in my stomach, this queezy feeling, and I remember jane gallagher in her red and whtie sweater and I realize what I'm doing is just wrong and phony and all and I just up and walk out of there. And then, on the train home, wouldn't you damn well know it, it just starts up and raining and I feel like gods up there, but not with the apostles, just alone, and he's judging me for what ive just done. But I couldn't help it. That phoebe is just so sexy. She really is.

>That phoebe is just so sexy
Holden no
Holden stahp

Holden's the Shinji of lit. Will always be misunderstood as a worthless whiner by lazy teens.

16 I believe.

Most of the people complaining about the behaviour of a 16 yr old are fucking 22 yr old college students are have such a complete lack of perspective that they hold him to the same standards they hold themselves. But the great irony of it is that they speak as if shitting on Holden is a brave and "cut-through-the-bullshit" type belief, when it's actually just lazy and not insightful.

Tfw I'm 23 and still as immature as Holden. How do I grow up?

He’s 17 and his brother died.

Stop being a fag

>have always really felt a connection to Holden
>Not because I empathize, but because Holden was literally me around age 15

Its hard to talk about why I like this book to normies without outing myself as had being a really whiny depressed shit for most of my teen life

Good post

Holden is a retarded schizo and the book is shit.

I dont get the reddit hate. I liked this book. Not as some sort of super huge literary work but as a nice little book.

didn't he rape his brother? i don't remember the details

No

who got raped?

It's (heavily) implied that Holden was molested. No one was raped.

Holden rapes his sister, Phoebe.

Holden didn't just rape his sister. He also rapes and dismembers the prostitute and her pimp.

You have to read between the lines but there's no doubt about it. Holden is a much more unreliable narrator than most people realise.

american psycho before it was cool... check em

I was just listening to a talk William Faulkner gave at the University of Virginia and he said that TCITR was one of the best modern novels and that the essence of Holden's character is that fundamentally he just wants to join humanity but whenever he tries there doesn't seem to be any humanity to join. This isn't the whole truth but there is a lot of truth in it.
Most importantly, you get the strong impression that Faulkner *likes* Holden.

Fuck Faulkner.
And fuck Holden too.
Couple o' bitch ass hoes.

>I flunked Oral Expression, though. They had this course you had to take, Oral Expressions. That I flunked.

It's the little things that make me love this book.