holden caulfield

[shoeless]

okay, so i'm reading the catcher in the rye for the first time (about halfway through at this point) andddd i've been trying to type holden. i have that awful habit of trying to type EVERYONE nowadays.

anyway... i've been looking online, to see what other people think you know, and i swear, his typing is aaaalll over the place. it's crazy.

i was getting the ESFP sort of vibe, but apparently i'm the only one who thinks so. i'd go into detail why i think so, but, seeing as i'm only halfway through the book, i thought i'd wait until i get a better idea of his personality.

(it's also weird that, for me, all the people i have difficulty typing i end up thinking are xSFP... for some strange reason. i dunno.)

anyway, what do you guys think?

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

I read Catcher way to late in life (late 20s) I think. Thus I didn't really like or identify with Holden all that much. Perhaps it was just indicative of where my head was at during that time. So it's been 15 years or so since I read it, it didn't have the impact it was supposed to (I think you may have to be a teenager to fully identify with it. Perhaps?). My memory of the book is fuzzy about it at best so with that in mind; didn't Holden spend most of his time alone during that book? Did it drain him?

 

[shoeless]

at least up to the point where i'm at (right after he starts talking about running away with that one chick and ends up pissing her off) he is alone a lot, but he's always trying to find people to be with, you know, going to night clubs and making random dates and agreeing to see a prostitute and whatnot. so i'd say yeah, it drained him. i think he's definitely an E.

but you also have to take into consideration that he's sort of going through a depressed phase in his life, lots of stress, getting kicked out of pencey and everything, so it could just be his shadow functions emerging. it's hard to say.

as far as relating to the book goes... i dunno, it's hard to say how i feel about it at this point. i can't say i really relate to holden because i'm nothing like him at all, but i find his character... intriguing. and i guess i sort of feel for him, to some degree. as angst-ridden as the book is, i feel like there's a deeper theme to connect to -- almost like a justification for the angst (regarding his past and everything), almost like i want to reach through the book and give him a big hug. (but then again i want to hug everyone.)

anyway. we'll see what i think by the end of it, i guess.

 

[brain enclosed in flesh]

Yes, we are seeing Holden in a very stressful point in his life. I'm not sure about the E, because it seems like before his trip back to New York he is always getting irritated by people and wishes they would shut up (I don't have the book in front of me but I've read it a few times, so I know it but I can't be all that specific at the moment), and the only girl he kind of thinks is cool is the headmaster's (?) daughter? and she is definitely an introvert, just based on general vibe probably of the N variety. Also, he is kind of non-stop internalizing things, which is of course necessary for a first person pov, but still... I don't know. I can see elements of my ESFP husband in him, but in a lot of ways... no. ISFP, maybe. ISTP maybe as well. It seems kind of like he has the tertiary Ni thing going on...

All of this is me thinking out loud, reaching no conclusions...

 

[Toad]

The Catcher in the Rye is a horrible book. I couldn't stand it. I disliked the character Holden. He's a whiny self-centered know it all. Reminds me of an immature INTP.

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

The Catcher in the Rye is a horrible book. I couldn't stand it. I disliked the character Holden. He's a whiny self-centered know it all. Reminds me of an immature INTP.

+1

In case I haven't said this recently, J. D. Salinger can go suck a flaccid cock.

 

[shoeless]

jeez. why so much hate?

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

probably because we were forced to read it in school. And not just forced, our teachers talked to us beforehand how it was a "literature-changing" book, profound, etc. How it defied commonality. The NTs start salivating.

And then they read this trash and they're like "?WTF? You got us worked up for that?"

 

[bananaphallus]

'The Scarlet Letter' made me want to drop out of HS.

 

[Ashenstar]

Well, I never had to read either the Catching Bread book or the Blood Stained Mark of the Harlot or um Scarlet Letter.

I HATED being required to read anything. I would read things on my own thank you very much.

I was required to read

Lord of the Flies
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Divine Comedy
Beowulf
Huckleberry Finn
A Brave New World

and some other works that are obviously forgettable.

 

[shoeless]

the scarlet letter... ugh. don't even get me started.

honestly, i liked the story. i liked the characters. especially reverend dimmesdale, i thought he was fantastic. but OH MY GOD THE WRITING. TOO. FUCKING. MUCH.

which is probably why i loved hemingway so much.

anyway, i understand hating stuff because it's assigned to you. i probably like catcher in the rye because it's NOT assigned to me (in fact i think it's off the curriculum).

but you can't deny it was literature-changing. maybe you don't like it, but its style was completely new and, dare i say it, revolutionary for its time. NOBODY wrote like that.

i mean, i don't have to like the beatles, but at the very least i can appreciate what they've done for music, you know? (it's the same thing with the scarlet letter, a tale of two cities, etc. i HATE books like that, but i understand their importance.)

 

[shoeless]

so salinger died.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100128/ap_on_en_ot/us_obit_salinger

not a shocker or anything, he was super old. but still.