catcher in the rye:holden portrayed as an outsider

Holden is by far the most complex character in the book. He serves three major purposes in the novel. Firstly, he stands as a critic of society, taking a stance against phoniness, hypocrisy, obscenity, and passiveness. Secondly, he is an adolescent, caught between the worlds of childhood and adulthood. In this position, he demonstrates the need for maturity as well as the need for honesty and integrity.
In relationship to the plot of the novel, Holden stands as a sort of anti-hero. He makes no large contributions to society, slays no dragons, and achieves no tangible goals. Instead, Holden can be seen as an existentialist hero. He gives himself the impossible task of fighting society's phoniness, and in the end commits himself to that task wholeheartedly.

Holden cannot help but feel isolated when he observes the football game, "you were supposed to commit suicide or something if Old Pencey didn’t win"(p.2). Not only does Holden feel isolated at the schools he has attended;...