Holden's Feelings About Stradlater example essay topic

In J. D Salinger's book The Catcher in The Rye the question "Who was Holden Caulfield's antagonist, was a question that struck me, and was a question that was not really emphasized on in the book. It was unsure of who it actually was until you thought about his relationships with his teachers, friends and peers through out the book. In the dictionary, antagonist is defined as one who contends against another. I believe Holden is his own antagonist. Holden proved through out the book that yes, indeed the antagonist can be yourself. Through Holden's experiences, the reader was able to learn how Holden dealt with a lot of his problems, although they weren't always handled rationally or the way he wanted to, they were done and after each one of these you knew he was only critical on himself and was only mad with himself.

The first conflict dealer with Stradlater. Stradlater was Holden's roommate at Pencey, the school he was attending at the time. Stradlater was looked at as a womanizer, always able to get the girls. Although it might not say exactly this, you could tell that Holden was very jealous of him and his accomplishments and his reputation of being the tough rich guy.

When he went out on a date with Holden's good old friend Jane, he became very jealous and took it to offense because he knew that Stradlater would most likely use her or corrupt her in some way. Holden really Jane. The fact that it was her that he was going on date with killed Holden even more. Holden was always very critical of Stradlater.

Always trying to find all of his faults, even if there wasn't a problem with them, he was still able to point out every negative thing about him. You can tell with Stradlater's relationship that Holden is one to criticize other people, to make himself look better and feel better. Holden never really felt good about Stradlater. Holden always seemed to look down on him, thinking of him as the cruel womanizer who would corrupt all the girls he went out with, especially Jane.

He knew that Stradlater was what he always wanted to be, but would never be able to achieve. A quote that described Holden's feelings about Stradlater is on pg. 44, "That's just the trouble with all you morons. You never want to discuss anything. That's the way you can always tell a moron. They never want to discuss anything intelligent".

He brings all these problems on himself because he always looks at himself as the better person, he never wonders, could I be the one making the problems and am I bringing them all on myself. Ackley, the roommate next door to him at Pencey, was not one of the coolest people, he most likely had a lot of trouble making friends and wasn't very social. Holden would always put Ackley down and act superior to him, even though sometimes, it was as if they had the same social status anyway. Holden gave Ackley a lot of grief and made him feel bad about himself a lot. They both stayed home on weekends, didn't go out much and didn't participate in social activities. Once again, Holden was putting Ackley down to feel better about himself, because Ackley was a weak person and he sensed that.

So with that in mind, he jumped all over Ackley all the time, making fun of him, using him, and making Ackley feel less superior to everybody around him. Sally, was an old friend of Holden's. They used to be very close but they began to drift apart and rarely talked. One night when Holden was very drunk he called her up and began talking to her again. This was the start of their once again friendship.

Holden and Sally decided to go out on a date one night and the fight began when Holden would start criticizing her about the guys in her life, how she is doing and everything and about her being "phony". He was always calling everybody else phony, but then he tells us on page 16, "I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life". Basically he is coming across as a hypocrite and is really describing himself a lot in the book. Through out the date with Sally he was not being respectful or honest with her. The reason he seems most mad with her is because Sally is a very pretty girl, it mentions that in the book and she has a lot of male friends that she knows in the city. One night, Holden went back to his hotel room and on the way up to his room the bell man noticed Holden not in the greatest mood.

Maurice (the bell man's name) suggested he sent up a female prostitute that night. Holden agreed to it and was waiting in his room for Sunny (the prostitute) to arrive. The conflict with Sunny and Maurice began when Maurice had told him a different price then Sunny had. Sunny had arrived up in his room, however, when she got there, Holden decided that the whole idea of losing his virginity to a prostitute made him feel kind of bad and didn't really amuse him. Holden told Sunny he just wanted to talk, nothing more. When asked what Sunny did during the day, it sounded like she didn't have a full time job, so being a prostitute just about got her the money to keep her going, and going to the shows and everything.

When Sunny was about ready to go, she asked for the 15 dollars that had been expected all along. When Holden didn't pay her with all the money, and only gave her a 10 for the night she stormed out of the room, calling him a "crumb-bum". Through out this chapter, you are able to understand Holden a little better, and realize some of his sensitive side. Even though it seems as if he was being a phony and really just wanted somebody to talk to, he got rejected and yelled at.

When Maurice and Sunny confronted him about not receiving all the money, he got very scared and was unsure of what to do or say. He began crying when Sunny went into his wallet and took the other 5 dollars she wanted all along. Although, this was not kind at all, Holden pretty much brought this all on himself, having her sent up and everything. That is another reason to say that Holden's antagonist is really himself. Mr. Antolini, Holden's English teacher at one time, had been called by Holden the night he went to his house to visit Phoebe, his little sister at home. Mr. Antolini seemed like a great guy and welcomed him even though it was very late into the night.

Mr. Antolini was trying to help Holden out, with school and with all of Holden's other problems. It almost seemed if Mr. Antolini treated Holden like his own son. He was a very good listener and seemed to have good advice for Holden also. He handed Holden a piece of paper that said " The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one". He states that these are wise words and that once he figures what that means, it will help him out a lot. Mr. Antolini was just a nice guy who thought he could help Holden out a lot with his kind words and everything, the night was then blown out of proportion when Holden woke up to Mr. Antolini patting his head.

Holden took it as a "gay" pat, and got too scared about it and left. Holden seems to take things out of proportion to much. He always looks for the bad things in a person when they are truly just trying to help him out. In conclusion, Holden is the kind of person that wont admit to his own faults because in his world, he just doesn't have any, or so he thinks. He turns to the weaker, more non sociable people in his life to make him feel better about himself. When he is able to let someone down or catch them when they are doing something wrong and make them feel a tad bit worse.

When he is able to do this, his problems in his life don't seem to be so bad, but then in the long run, it just makes things all for the worse. He doesn't realize that he causes a lot of the problems for himself, and by doing this he is just being his own antagonist. No one really picks on him but himself. He's always noticing his peers, his families, his friends and his own mistakes and faults rather then being nice about things.