J.D. Salinger has created a character that will live on for years to come; Holden Caufield, a 16 year old boy who definitely has his teenage troubles galore! Houlden's destiny in life, set forth by Salinger, was to try to portray the universal teen; but has he fulfilled it? This is a point argued by many but never officially declared.
I believe that, though Houlden's character may be a bit extreme, he does represent the teenage population. He gets angry, depressed, happy, and sad all within the same day. Teenage stereotype ahoy! Many of us do go through lots of these mood swings so much so that we should all have whiplash! And one can unquestionably see that Houlden does feel the pain of those lashes. He is a mad and depressed boy who takes out his anger so often on anything that he could possibly rant about.
"You can't ever find a good place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking somebody'll sneak up and write 'Fuck You' under your nose," (204). All the anger that Holden portrays does make him seem a little harder to relate too. Though Salinger does show Houlden's soft spot, his family. Houlden is deeply attached to his dead brother as well as his younger sister and would do anything for either of them. Making him seem vulnerable through this point gives him the well rounded character that the universal teen should posses. Without this element, the book and Houlden wouldn't seem real and his destiny of being the universal teen would never have been.
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