"The Cather in the Rye" Question 4

The hero/protagonist in "The Catcher in the Rye" is most definitely Holden Caulfield.  He may appear to be one of the worst hero's the world of literature has ever seen but he has some redeeming qualities I assure you!  His best quality, in my opinion, is how protective he his.  Specifically of Jane Gallagher.  We never actually see Jane, we only hear of her, but we hear enough to know Holden is basically irrevocably in love with her.  His roomie, Stradlater, has actually scored a date with her in the beginning of the story.  It is quite clear Holden could imagine more preferable situations for Jane to be in.  Not that he just wants to be with her, it's more of those 'I-want-what's-best-for-you' kind of things and Holden knows Stradlater is not that.  In the end, Holden accomplishes a discovery.  He realized he really had connected with all those people he told us about in the end.  It may not have appeared that way during his interaction with them, but he realizes that he misses them.  He regrets telling so many people about all of the jazz that happened to him because it drug up all of the memories and he makes the realization that he just straight up misses them.  Holden is portrayed as hypocritical, cynical, and really just straight up annoying.  He of course has redeeming qualities, but initially he is just not that type of person anyone really wants to be associated with.  He doesn't apply himself to really anything, he purposefully irritates his parents, he sees almost everyone, except children, as phonies and not worth his time, and the list goes on and on.  That is simply the top layer.  If you delve deeper into the layers that is our protagonist, you see that he is really just a confused young lad looking for someone to just chat with.  I think Holden represents the abstract idea of hypocritical-ness.  There are few sentences through out this book where he is not contradicting himself in some manner.  At the same time I think he could also represent human nature in one of its rawer forms.  We all tend to mislead people with our outer layer but once someone gets to know us they can sometimes see that we might just be a completely different person.  This is the case with Holden.  He appears to be a very cynical and judgmental person on the outside but really it's just a defense mechanism to get through the day.  He wants to be understood and listened to, but at the same time doesn't want to let any of those "phonies" in. 

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and, 1991. Print.