On page 23 of the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist Holden Caufield, describes how he interpreted an interaction he had with his “friend”, Stradlater.
” ‘Hi’, he said. He always said it like he was terrifically bored or terrifically tiered. He didn’t want you to think he was trying to visit you or anything. He wanted you to think he’d come in by mistake, for God’s sake.”
I have chosen this excerpt because of the realizations I made about the character while reading it. A formulation of ideas about Holden’s character have dawned on me at this point. The first is that he is someone who has a heightened awareness regarding his surroundings. He calculates and judges every little detail of the actions of the people around him. He is constantly making conclusions for why people act the way they do, and these conclusions are mostly negative. Holden Caulfield is an overthinker. He even goes as far as making justifications up. In order to give himself an explanation for why people did things he does not agree with. It is near impossible for Holden to think, ‘he simply said ‘hi” because he wanted to say hi’, because there must be a reason.
The last thing I realized about Holden is that he doesn’t really like people. I do not relate to the character in this way, but I understand why he does not prefer to be around people, sometimes. While reading, one can see that he always has something to say about someone. There is always something he doesn’t agree with or thinks is annoying. Knowing this, I must read this book with the understanding that it might not be the other characters that are irritating and arrogant, but instead it is Holden’s interpretation of the other characters that makes them appear this way.