Holden's Flaw Quotes

Holden is the protagonist in the novel, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1945). Holden is a character who tries to seek for dignity, but he has some flaws holding him back. Holden is passive and unwilling to examine himself and seek his own dignity. Three reasons for his tragic flaw are: his craziness, his immaturity, and his phoniness and madman stuff. The first reason for Holden’s flaw is his craziness. He acts this way because he is not normal like others. Something that he repeats constantly throughout the novel is, “He is the biggest phony.” This quote shows how Holden thinks and acts towards others. Holden acts this way because who falls in love too quickly with Jane and Sally. He also thinks this way because Jane and Sally equal perfection and he isn’t perfect like them or anybody else. Finally his thoughts are what can he do to be perfect like everyone else because he seems to be the only that is crazy. Therefore, Holden acts and thinks differently from everyone else because he is insane.
He acts this way because Holden is always alone and have no family to support him except his younger sister, Phoebe. Something that is repeated constantly throughout the novel is, “Jane keeping her kings in the back row.” This symbol shows that Holden cannot separate the past from the present time. Holden thinks this way because he was always necking with Jane when they were young. He also thinks this way because of his immaturity of always wanting to have sex and always wanting to be a kid instead of growing up to is an adult. Finally his thoughts always want to be with Jane, but because of his immaturity Jane doesn’t choose him. Therefore, Holden acts immature towards others because he has been expelled from four different schools and no one is there to teach him his manners and to discipline