The Catcher in the Rye

In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger portrays Holden Caulfield as a

teenager with definite moral values.  Holden firmly believes in having respect for

women, protecting the innocence of children, and being an honest and

unpretentious person.

In the novel, Holden is shown as appreciating women and having a great

respect for them.  For example, when Holden realizes that Stradlater did not truly

care about Jane and only wanted "to give her the time," he became quite angry.

Holden said that, "... he (Stradlater) thought he could give the time to anybody

he felt like" (44).  During the incident when Jane began crying after Mr. Cudahy

came out, Holden got very upset because he suspected Mr. Cudahy of somehow

hurting Jane.  His feelings of hate towards what Cudahy may have done to Jane

are seen when Holden said, "I asked her...if Mr. Cudahy...had ever tried to get

wise with her.  ...I wouldn't have put it past that Cudahy bastard" (79).

Throughout the book, Salinger emphasizes how much Holden wants to

protect the innocence of children.  One occurrence of this is when Holden went

to Phoebe's school and found "fuck you" written on the wall.  He was infuriated

because he knew all the children would see it.  He said, "Somebody'd written

'Fuck you' on the wall.  It damn near drove me crazy" (201).  Holden wiped it off

because he wanted to protect the children form seeing it.  In fact, the title of the

book deals with Holden wanting to protect kids.  Holden told Phoebe, "...I have

to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff...  I'd just be the catcher in the

rye and all" (173).  I believe the cliff represents innocence, and Holden wants to

keep the kids from falling off and losing it.

Salinger stresses Holden's feelings about phony people and honesty

more often than any other value Holden holds.  Holden values people that act

the way the really feel rather than being pretentious.  He has negative feelings

for anyone that acts otherwise.  Throughout the book, Holden talks about being

tired of phonies and wanting people to be honest.   Of the many times Salinger

shows these feelings, one is when Holden is discussing living out west in his

own place.  He hates phony people so much that he said, "If anybody tried to do

anything phony, they couldn't stay" (205).  When Holden is on his date with Sally

and he begins to talk about George, he mentions "I could see them all sitting

around in some bar, with their goddam checkered vests, criticizing shows and

books and women in those tired, snobby voices" (128).  These are the type of

phonies that Holden says he despises because they only do things that make

them look good. 

The Catcher in the Rye clearly presents Holden's value system as being

distinct and fairly unique.  It is obvious that Holden feels having great respect for

women, protecting children from the bad things in life, and being honest about

who you are and how you feel are some of the most important things in life.