I finally finished it. I guess I can see why it is considered a novel of teen angst, but I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that Holden Caulfield was a whiny brat who needed some serious help.
Here is my not so insightful take on the character.
Holden was traumatized by his brothers death and by all the expressions of sympathy, which is why he now considers everyone who shows any emotion a phony. As a result of the trauma of his brothers death he is locked in a kind of peter pannish outlook where he considers himself mature and in charge, but at the same time refuses to take anything seriously. By that I don't mean that he can't be serious but that he won't apply serious effort to a task.
In addition to his brothers death I have the feeling he may have been molested at school, which contributes to his lack of caring about whether he gets kicked out of a school or not. While the character never actually comes out and says molestation occurred it is implied:
"I started putting on my damn in the dark. I could hardly get them on I was so damned nervous. I knew more damn perverts, at schools and all, than anybody you ever met, and they're always being perverty when I'm around."
and;
"When something perverty like that happens, I start sweating like a bastard. That kind of stuffs happened to me about twenty times since I was a kid. I can't stand it."
If he was molested it would definitely explain a lot of his behavior.
The writing was good even if I found the subject matter boring. Maybe it would have meant more to me if I had read the book 25 years ago.
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