Analyse af 'The Catcher in the Rye' og 'Field of Dreams'

The Catcher in the Rye is an inside story of a troubled teenager. It’s narrated by the main character Holden Caulfield, who is a sixteen year old boy. He tries in a way to explain his life in a phoney world by talking about his life, family, friends and the different experiences he has had.

18. Is Holden a sympathetic character? (Do we sympathize with him?)

Personally, I don’t like him because he is so depressing. I love the fact that he tries to be the catcher in the rye and tries to remove the “F*ck you” on the walls on Phoebes school. He is also REALLY judgmental, almost everybody is a phoney in his eyes, and he keeps complaining but doesn’t deal with his problems. Sometimes he thinks that running away is the only solution. He also thinks that he is the smartest kid in the world. Maybe in his own world, but when he knows what the problem is and how he can fix it, he decides to just move on and let it be, e.g. everybody says that he should start focusing on his future and quit his attitude, which he agrees on since that is the reason why he got the axe from 4 different schools. I don’t know if the author wanted me to sympathize with Holden, since Holden keeps complaining about everything I don’t think the author focused on making Holden a sympathetic character. At some points I do feel sorry for him, like when I talks about Allie, but personally I can’t sympathy with him when he is so depressing. It’s like he is lost and wants it to stay that way.