Holden Is Pretty Relatable

 If Holden has such a "unique" mindset then why is he so relatable?

While reading The Catcher in the Rye, I felt as though I really understood Holden Caulfield. It was odd, Holden would talk about his experiences and how he was the only one to view them the way he did, and I would sympathize with him. I particularly remember one instance, near the beginning of the book, where Holden was messing around with Stradlater in the bathroom, and everyone in class was calling Holden a hypocrite because he'd just criticized Ackley for messing around earlier. While it was a little hypocritical of Holden, I understood where he was coming from. Having someone joke around when you're just trying to have some alone time can be so annoying. But when Stradlater and Holden went to the can, it was a different scenario, a bit more acceptable for Holden to be joking around, even though Stradlater didn't seem to appreciate it. I do understand that part of Holden's hypocrisy comes from the fact that he told Ackley to stop, but then didn't stop himself when Stradlater asked him to stop, but I'm guilty of doing stuff like that too, so I can't exactly judge Holden. 

Another aspect of Holden's character that stood out to me were his different episodes where he would drastically change his mood or attitude about something, typically switching to him being depressed or wanting to travel to someplace anywhere other than New York. While it's a bit harder for me to sympathize with Holden here, I still somewhat understand that feeling of wanting to get out, go somewhere, anywhere. It ties in with Holden not knowing what he wants to do with his life, other than he knows he has to do something. I really felt like I connected with Holden when I was trying to write what to say to him in class. Every question I came up with I knew how Holden would respond, and subsequently I kept developing questions until I was almost sure he wouldn't pick it apart. Even then, though, I couldn't think of how Holden would answer the question. Heck, I couldn't even answer the question myself. "What do you want to do with your life?"

Sudden changes in mood is something else that I can relate to Holden with. This is a bit more personal for me, but hey, I've got a blog post to write. I definitely understand how something can change your aspect on a whole scenario, and how certain thoughts can be quite sobering. It's really very interesting to note just how different your view of something can change on the dime. I think that Holden also experiences some of those feelings that cause me to change my mood quickly, but I also think that his are a bit more extreme than mine. He gets depressed by so much, while I tend to look for the bright side of a scenario. He views everyone as a phony, and I... don't. In addition, there are a dozen other ways that I'm different than Holden, but I won't bore you with all that David Copperfield kind of crap.

Whatever. I hope you enjoyed this blog post, but if you didn't, I really couldn't care less. Thanks for reading, I guess. 
                                                                                                                                               -Nathaniel