Characters

 

Allie

            Allie is Holden’s brother.  He died of leukemia three years before the start of the novel.  He was two years younger than Holden.  Holden is constantly referring to him in the book.  Whether it is writing an essay about his baseball mitt or telling us about the fact that he hates graveyards (he doesn’t like them because people step on you, and because Allie’s in one), Allie is an influential character throughout the novel, even though he is not alive.

 

D.B.

            D.B. is Holden’s older brother.  He lives out in Hollywood and writes screenplays for movies.  He is an amazing writer.  Holden believes that he doesn’t belong in California working on movies.  This may just be because Holden doesn’t like movies.  He thinks their phony because people pretend to be people their not.  Holden says that he is too talented and should be writing books.  Not that he reads, or goes to the movies, but Holden’s a weird guy.

 

Pheobe

            Pheobe is Holden’s kid sister.  She is 10 years old.    She is a great dancer and is very smart.  Though she is six years younger than him, she understands him more than other people.  Though she is only a child, she comes off at some points as the most mature character in the book. When she questions him in chapter 22 why he got kicked out of school, she comes across a question that is extremely hard for Holden to answer.  “You don’t like a million things….name one thing.”  He is extremely stumped and can’s think of a thing.  In this situation, she knows him better then he knows himself. 

 

Mr. Spencer

 

            Mr. Spencer is a teacher at Pencey Prep.  In the beginning of the book, Holden goes to visit Mr. Spencer.  There, Mr. Spencer tries to push Holden out of the academic funk he has been in.  He is unsuccessful and Holden soon leaves Pencey.

 

 

 

Mr. Antolini

 

 

Mr. Antolini was Holden’s English teacher when he attended Elkton Hills School. Mr. Antolini is now a teacher at NYU. He drinks a lot, which eventually had him patting Holden’s head in the middle of the night.  Holden goes to him in the middle of the night to try to get some help with his recent problems. Mr. Antolini sees that Holden is a danger to himself and tries to help him.  Holden eventually zones out and then goes to sleep on Mr. Antolini couch.  Holden wakes up to find Mr. Antolini touching his head and leaves his home as soon as possible, finishing his night sleep in Grand Central Station.

 

 

 

 

Robert Ackley

 

Ackley lived in the room next to Holden at Pencey.  He is a pimply, disgusting kid with really bad teeth.  Holden think that he makes up stories about his sexual experiences because he can’t imagine a person that would actually sleep with him.

 

Ward Stradlater

 

Stradlater is Holden’s roommate at Pencey.  He is a really jerky guy that makes Holden write his essay for him while he goes out with Jane Gallagher.  Holden does write a report but not one fitting the assignment.  He writes a report about his dead brother’s baseball glove.  When Stradlater gets back, he doesn’t like the report and the two eventually fight.

 

Mal Brossard

 

A student a Pencey who goes out to town in the beginning of the book with Holden and Ackley.

 

Jane Gallagher

 

Jane is an important character in the novel.  Though we never actually see her, through Holden, we get incite on what a relationship with Holden is actually like.  They had this time together one summer when Holden was up in his summer home in Maine.  She is also important because she is one of the few people Holden can actually talk to.   

 

Sally Hayes

 

Sally Hayes is a girl that he used to know that he meets up with when he goes to the city.  They go to see a show and go ice skating.  During the date, he says many times “She is so beautiful, I could marry her now.”  Holden talks about running away into the woods and becoming hermits away from society.  Eventually, he insults her and the date ends.  B

 

 

James Castle

 

James Castle is a fellow student that went to Pency with Holden.  He is very important to the story in that he brought up the topic of suicide to Holden.  James called a boy conceited and the boy found out.  The boy went to his James’ room and demanded that he take it back.  Instead of retracting his comment, which was true, James jumped out the window and died.  Holden respects James because he wasn’t phony.  The fact that he was able to choose death over taking back what he said showed that James was a man of his word.  This also brings up the topic of suicide which Holden realizes is not such a bad idea. 

 

Carl Luce

 

Carl is a friend that Holden meets with during his time in the city.  They have a conversation that’s mostly about sex.  Carl also tells Holden about his Asian lover.  Holden is really interested but Carl doesn’t give much detail.  Eventually Carl leaves and Holden stays at the bar and gets really drunk

 

Selma

 

Selma is an ugly girl he once knew.  She is important because she was a girl that he could really communicate with and talk to.  Throughout the story, Holden is not very good at conversation when ever the conversation involves a girl he is attracted to.  Since Selma is so ugly, he can really talk to he with out his hormones getting in the way.

 

Mrs. Morrow

 

Mrs. Morrow is the mother of one of the Holden’s fellow students at Pencey.  Holden tells her good things about her son even though Holden thinks he is a jerk.  He does this only so that he can continue to talk with the attractive woman.  Holden always complains about other people be phony and lying.  In this situation, Holden is being a hypocrite in that he is doing it himself. 

 

Cab Driver

 

While being driven from the train station, Holden asks the cab driver, “Where do all the ducks go?”  The cab driver doesn’t know and doesn’t really care. 

 

Faith

 

Faith is a slutty girl whose number was given to Holden at a party.  Holden calls her up and disguises his voice to seem older than he really is.  This is strange because all this time, he is avoiding growing up, and now he wants to act more mature.  He tries to meet with her but she is unavailable.

 

Bernice

 

Bernice is one of three girls in the club that Holden meets on the second night.  He asks her to dance and tries to talk to her, but she completely ignores him.

 

Nuns

 

Holden met the nuns at breakfast at the beginning of the second day.  He really enjoyed their company and was able to communicate with them.  He and the nuns talked about Romeo and Juliet over breakfast. 

 

 

Sunny

 

Sunny is the prostitute the elevator man sends up.  Holden has a serious problem acting around people.  When he should be doing one thing, he’s usually doing another.  In this situation, he’s tries to talk to Sunny when he should be having sex. 

 

Maurice

 

Maurice is the elevator man who sent Sunny up to Holden’s room.  He comes up after Sunny leaves demanding five dollars for Sunny’s services.  The have a little fight and eventually Holden gives in.

 

 

Themes

 

Isolation

 

One of the major themes in this book is that Holden doesn’t like talking to people.  His reason for this is that they are all phonies.  He feels that he is above them when truly he is unable to communicate with people.  He longs to have the relationship he had with Jane Gallagher.  Throughout the book, he thinks about calling her but doesn’t because he fears having a relationship.  The truth is that Holden needs to be alienated.  At one point in the book, all he wants to do is move out west and pretend to be deaf and mute so that he doesn’t have to talk to anyone.  Another example of this is seen on his date with Sally.  The only way to avoid a relationship is by insulting her, which he does. 

 

Bildungsroman

 

Cather in the Rye is characterized as a Bildungsroman.  This is a story in which the main character “comes of age.”  This is funny because Holden only wants to stay a child.  His desire to be as innocent as the children running in his imaginary field of rye prevents him from advancing academically as well as socially.  Throughout the story, Holden seeks his place in the world.  When he asks the cab driver where the ducks go in the winter and does anyone help them, he is really asking himself “will anyone help me get to where I need to go?”  He considers “What if I die?  Who will care?”  These are all questions that he is searching to answer as the book progresses. 

 

F##k You

 

In the end of the book, wherever Holden goes, he seems to see profanity on the wall.  This is telling him that the world is not as pure as everyone makes it out to be.  He is appalled by the fact that they can’t even keep the profanity out of the schools.  No matter ho hard he tries, he could never rub out all the curses on the walls if he had a million years to do it.  This is saying that he can’t possibly do anything to change and purify the world, and this depresses him.  It makes him sad that there is no where peaceful and free anymore, except a life away from people who do these things.

 

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Philip 2003