Unlike my last article, praising all of the smart things that have fallen from "The Catcher in the Rye's" Holden Caulfield's mouth, there are many things about Holden that are deemed hateable. He can come off as a regular teenage boy, which is why even though he is a well-known character, he's seemingly also a disliked character. Here are some character traits that prove that.
1. He's whiny
All throughout the novel we see him complaining about the tiniest things. Whether it's from the fact that Pencey serves steak on Saturday's, or how bad the movies suck, there is always something that Holden can find wrong with in the world. But it's okay, this is reason enough to dislike him alone, as most of us don't complain just as much on a day to day basis about the most mundane things. Just Holden.
2. He's hypocritical
There are many times in which Holden says he hates one thing, and does exactly that, another. He complains about how much he hates shows, yet he sees around two of them in three days. He always ranks on other people, and yet, he's seen conversing with many different personalities throughout the novel. Naturally, this makes him the world's biggest hypocrite, and a terrible character all around, because no one person has ever been the slightest bit hypocritical at times either.
3. He's pessimistic
It's very clear from the start to see he's very angry at the world, and absolutely wants nothing to do with it. He makes many remarks that show how sad he is with his life, and how annoyed he is to have to deal with all thing things around him (people and school being the two obvious). However, this is just because he's an ungrateful, rich boy who has no understanding of the real world. His depressive attitude has nothing to do with the fact his younger brother died of cancer at a young age, and he witnessed his own schoolmate commit suicide. Events like that can only traumatize someone as young as Holden so much.
The thing about Holden Caulfield, is that you are allowed to hate him. You can be annoyed by him. He's a normal human, and he does many normal human things, but it seems that many people don't recognize that. It's just tiring to see people dumbing him down to this simple, pessimistic and childish character without realizing that Holden is not as black and white as he seems. He's confused, lonely, depressed, and angry. He wants so badly to connect with someone, and he tries constantly to do so in the book, only to end up feeling even more lonely after his attempts. He doesn't fully understand the world he hates because he is so young and naive, and all he really wants is to protect the innocence of kids from the harsh realities of the adult world that he actually does understand. Holden is a great character (my personal favorite), and next time you want to scream about how whiny he is, and how he spends the whole book being a baby about everything, just look deeper.
