How Is Holden Justified In Catcher In The Rye

In the novel, Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger, we read a narrative about a kid. A kid who feels alienated from his peers and society. Holden Caulfield, the narrator of the novel, talks about his surroundings and how everything is “sore”. He talks about how he doesn’t like people because of how they are all phonies, and fakes, saying things they don’t really mean. There is where some reader might get the idea that Holden is “weird,” “whiny”, and “immature”, but this attitude is justified because of how Holden is still not over a traumatic experience of the death of his younger brother, Allie.
The death of his younger brother, Allie, has left Holden to feel indifferent about the world. Holden, comparing everyone and everything in the world …show more content…
“...when [Stradlater] was taking off his tie, he asked me if I'd written his goddam composition for him. I told him it was over on his goddam bed. He walked over and read it while he was unbuttoning his shirt. He stood there, reading it, and sort of stroking his bare chest and stomach, with this very stupid expression on his face. He was always stroking his stomach or his chest. He was mad about himself. All of a sudden, he said, "For Chrissake, Holden. This is about a goddam baseball glove." "So what?" I said. Cold as hell. "Wuddaya mean so what? I told ya it had to be about a goddam room or a house or something." "You said it had to be descriptive. What the hell's the difference if it's about a baseball glove?" "God damn it." He was sore as hell. He was really furious. "You always do everything backasswards." He looked at me. "No wonder you're flunking the hell out of here," he said. "You don't do one damn thing the way you're supposed to. I mean it. Not one damn thing." "All right, give it back to me, then," I said. I went over and pulled it right out of his goddam hand. Then I tore it up. "What the hellja do that for?" he said. I didn't even answer him. I just threw the pieces in the wastebasket.”(Salinger 22) Holden rips up the essay because he is pist off at Stradlater. The story he written was about Allie’s baseball mitt, and when Stradlater wasn’t happy about the essay being about a baseball mitt that belong to Holden’s brother, he was furious. Holden then rips the paper that he had written from his hands and tore it up. Now readers might think that, that was smuck move, but that shows how much Holden cares about Allie. By complaining about the paper he had written, he was complaining about Allie’s memory, which in all justifies Holden’s