Catcher In The Rye Essay

In J.D Salingers book The Catcher in The Rye the question “Who was Holden Caulfield’s antagonist, was a question that struck me, and was a question that was not really emphasized on in the book. It was unsure of who it actually was until you thought about his relationships with his teachers, friends and peers through out the book. In the dictionary, antagonist is defined as one who contends against another. I believe Holden is his own antagonist. Holden proved through out the book that yes, indeed the antagonist can be yourself. Through Holden’s experiences, the reader was able to learn how Holden dealt with a lot of his problems, although they weren’t always handled rationally or the way he wanted to, they were done and after each one of these you knew he was only critical on himself and was only mad with himself.
The first conflict dealed with Stradlater. Stradlater was Holden’s roommate at Pencey, the school he was attending at the time. Stradlater was looked at as...