Catcher In The Rye Stradlater Character Analysis

Holden chooses to interact with Stradlater, even if he doesn’t like him, because Holden is lonely. When Stradlater comes back after the football game and is about to shave Holden says, “I didn't have anything special to do, so I went down to the can and chewed the rag with him while he was shaving,”. While someone is shaving, it is usually a personal time and not something to watch somebody do if you are not shaving yourself. Even so, Holden is feeling so lonely that he follows Stradlater to shave, even if it means sitting there awkwardly and “turning the cold water on and off”. Holden is so desperate for company that he will sit there awkwardly with somebody else while they are shaving instead of trying to shave himself or get his homework done.
I'll be up the creek if I don't get the goddam thing in by Monday, the reason I ask. How 'bout it?". In this statement, Stradlater is asking Holden to write a composition for him, which is not a small project. Most people would say no to Stradlater, since it is a big project, but Holden later says, “After he left, I put on my pajamas and bathrobe and my old hunting hat, and started writing the composition [for Stradlater],”. Even if means spending a lot of his time writing something for his room mate who he doesn’t even like, he will still do it because he wants Stradlater to like him, since he is one of Holden's only friends. Holden also feels jealousy for Stradlater, as Stradlater is popular, good looking, and is not failing his