Catcher_in_the_Rye

Does Holden’s character show empathy' Do you know someone who is very negative' Do you find it hard to see the positives in them' Holden Caulfield is indeed a hypocrite and tends to see only the negative aspects of life. When reading Catcher in the Rye, Holden clearly states his opinions and can come across as very mean. However if you take a deeper look into Holden’s true motives and the fact he has a physiological disorder, you might be able to understand him better. Holden is not selfish and he does experience empathy that is not always apparent to the reader. Empathy is one of the main themes in the book and Holden experiences it quite often. Some people may find it hard to believe Holden does experience empathy. According to the dictionary, empathy is, “the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another”(Dictionary.com). In other words, empathy is the ability to relate to another’s feelings and put yourself in someone’s place. Throughout the book, Holden experiences empathy many times. Most people don’t see this because of how negative Holden is all of the time but if you take a closer look, Holden actually does. Peter J. Seng might be willing to disagree. He says, “While Holden is quick to pass severe judgments on others he is not so quick to see the faults in himself…. It might be said that Holden's chief fault is his failure "to connect" (to use Forster's phrase); he hates lies, phoniness, pretense, yet these are often his own sins”(Seng). Holden is very critical of others and definitely has his own faults, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have empathy for others. He may be judgmental, but there is proof that Holden does in fact have empathy and tries to overcome his mental state. Holden, in general, does not like to believe what people tell him. However he respects them almost to a fault. When Holden goes to visit Mr. Spencer before heading out to New York City, Mr. Spencer is giving him some advice. Holden is very impatient with Mr. Spencer and really wants to leave. However Holden knows Mr. Spencer is a good man and doesn’t want to hurt his feelings. After finding out Mr. Spencer felt bad for flunking Holden, Holden says, “Well, you could see he really felt pretty lousy about flunking me. So I shot the bull for a while. I told him how I was a real moron, and all that stuff…” (p. 17). Whether Holden really meant the stuff he said, he still cared about his teacher and didn’t want to upset him. Another time Holden was impatient while hearing advice was when he stayed at Mr. Antolini’s house. Mr. Antolini was lecturing him about how he needs to change his ways. Holden was very tired and didn’t want to listen. It was very rude of Holden, but he explains, “I nodded, because he was looking right at me and all, but I wasn’t too sure what he was talking about”(p. 245). He is extremely exhausted but he is still trying very hard to show respect towards Mr. Antolini and that he is listening to his advice. When reading Catcher in the Rye, Holden is very judgmental towards others. He says very mean things about people and thinks they are phony. It seems as if Holden is mean about people while he is telling the story, then he actually is in the presence of these people. Ackley, Holden’s neighbor at Pencey, is very annoying. Ackley has poor hygiene and is very pimply. He barges into Holden’s room whenever he feels like it and is very bothersome to Holden. When Holden and Mal Brossard were going to hang out in Agerstown, Holden asked Ackley to come along. Holden said, “I asked Mal if he minded if Ackley came along with us. The reason I asked was because Ackley never did anything on Saturday night… (p. 47). Even though Holden can’t stand Ackley, he has empathy towards him and invited him to go out with him and Mal because he didn’t want Ackley to be alone. Holden’s other roommate at Pencey is Stradlater. Stradlater is popular, handsome, and conceited. Holden seems to be annoyed with Stradlater and thinks he is a secret slob. When Stradlater is going out on a date, he asks Holden to write his English composition for him. Stradlater yawns when he asks Holden the favor and Holden says, “He gave out a big yawn while he said that. Which is something that gives me a royal pain in the ass”(p.37). Holden is frustrated with Stradlater but in the end sticks to his word and writes Stradlater’s composition. He is probably afraid to stand up to Stradlater and is probably mad he is taking Jane Gallager on a date, but Holden still has some empathy and tries to write something. Holden has a hard time understanding certain situations. Most of this is because Holden is immature and thinks all people are phony. Therefore, Holden is most likely to judge. However Holden doesn’t judge all situations and does in fact try to understand some situations. When Holden is at the Edmont Hotel, he says, “…I saw a man and woman squirting water out of their mouths at each other…I’m not kidding, that hotel was lousy with perverts”(p.81). At first Holden is judgmental, but he later comes to say, “I can even see how it might be quite a lot of fun, in a crumby way, and if you were both sort of drunk and all, to get a girl and squirt water all over each other’s face”(p. 81). Holden is now trying to understand this situation and has come to find out he thinks it would be a pretty fun thing to do. Also when Holden stayed the night at Mr. Antolini’s, he woke up to Mr. Antolini stroking his head. Holden thought he was a pervert and ran out of his house. He later felt really bad for leaving Mr. Antolini’s house. Holden wondered if he was just trying to comfort him. He also thought about all of the advice Mr. Antolini had given him and how he let him stay at his house. Holden says, “I mean I started thinking maybe I should’ve gone back to his house. Maybe he was only patting my head just for the hell of it”(p. 253). Holden is trying to understand Mr. Antolini’s motives. Holden feels bad that he judged him and how he left after all that Mr. Antolini had done for him. Holden is definitely not perfect because of his mental illness, but Holden does have empathy is some ways. It is hard for us to see the good things about Holden when there are so many bad things about him. When reading the book, Holden’s attitude is so negative it is hard to pick out the positive things about him. Holden does in fact feel bad for some of the things he does even if it isn’t always apparent to the reader.