1. The nuns
1.1. They represent innocence For Holden
1.1.1. They avoid sexual act.
1.2. Unlike the rest of the adult world, they are not phony.
1.2.1. "That's what I liked about those nuns. You could tell, for one thing, that they never went anywhere swanky for lunch. It made me so damn sad when I thought about it, their never going anywhere swanky for lunch or anything. I knew it wasn't too important, but it made me sad anyway."
2. Mr. Spencer
2.1. Holden's history teacher
2.2. Mr. Spencer is an annoyance For Holden
2.3. He tries to lecture Holden about life.
2.3.1. "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules." "Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it." Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right--I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it? Nothing. No game.
2.3.2. " I could feel a terrific lecture coming on. I didn't mind the idea so much, but I didn't feel like being lectured to and smell Vicks Nose Drops and look at old Spencer in his pajamas and bathrobe all at the same time. I really didn't."
2.4. Unlike Mr. Antoini, he does not actually listen Holden.
2.4.1. "He wasn't even listening. He hardly ever listened to you when you said something."
3. Holden's Mother
3.1. She got depressed and nervous after Allie's death
3.1.1. "She hasn't felt too healthy since my brother Allie died. She's very nervous. That's another reason why I hated like hell for her to know I got the ax again."
3.1.2. "My mother gets very hysterical. She's not too bad after she gets something thoroughly digested, though."
4. Phobe
4.1. Holden's sister
4.2. She is the embodiment of innocence.
4.2.1. "She put her arms around my neck and all. She's very affectionate. I mean she's quite affectionate, for a child. Sometimes she's even too affectionate."
4.3. With her, Holden can find intimate relationship.
4.4. She is one of the few people who actually listens and understands Holden.
4.4.1. "Old Phoebe didn't say anything, but she was listen ing. I could tell by the back of her neck that she was listening. She always listens when you tell her something. And the funny part is she knows, half the time, what the hell you're talking about. She really does."
5. Allie
5.1. Holden's deceased brother.
5.2. He is the embodiment of Holden's description of innocence
5.2.1. Allie's baseball mitt
5.2.1.1. "My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder's mitt. He was left-handed. The thing that was descriptive about it, though, was that he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green ink. He wrote them on it so that he'd have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up at bat."
5.3. His death is the reason of Holden's problem with death
5.3.1. "Then I thought about the whole bunch of them sticking me in a goddam cemetery and all, with my name on this tombstone and all. Surrounded by dead guys."
5.3.2. "All the visitors could get in their cars and turn on their radios and all and then go someplace nice for dinner--everybody except Allie. I couldn't stand it. I know it's only his body and all that's in the cemetery, and his soul's in Heaven and all that crap, but I couldn't stand it anyway. I just wish he wasn't there. You didn't know him. If you'd known him, you'd know what I mean. It's not too bad when the sun's out, but the sun only comes out when it feels like coming out."
5.3.3. "Boy, I felt miserable. I felt so depressed, you can't imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed."
6. D.B.
6.1. Holden's brother
6.2. He is a script writer in Hollywood.
6.2.1. Holden hates this fact and thinks that D.B. uses his talent in vain.
6.2.1.1. "Now he's out there being a prostitute"
7. Holden
7.1. The protagonist and the narrator of the
7.2. He is unreliable
7.2.1. "I am the most terrific liar you have ever seen"
7.3. He is depressed
7.3.1. "I was feeling so depressed I didn't even think. That's the whole trouble. When you're feeling very depressed, you can't even think."
7.3.2. "When I was coming out of the can, right before I got to the door, I sort of passed out. I was lucky, though. I mean I could've killed myself when I hit the floor, but all I did was sort of land on my side. it was a funny thing, though. I felt better after I passed out. I really did. My arm sort of hurt, from where I fell, but I didn't feel so damn dizzy any more."
7.4. He is isolated and alienated
7.4.1. "The whole team ostracized me the whole way back on the train. It was pretty funny, in a way."
7.4.2. "I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead."
7.5. He has a confusion abut his sexual identity.
7.5.1. "In my mind, I'm probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw. Sometimes I can think of very crumby stuff I wouldn't mind doing if the opportunity came up. I can even see how it might be quite a lot of fun, in a crumby way, and if you were both sort of drunk and all, to get a girl and squirt water or something all over each other's face. The thing is, though, I don't like the idea. It stinks, if you analyze it."
7.5.2. "If you want to know the truth, I'm a virgin. I really am. I've had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I've never got around to it yet. Something always happens."
7.6. Even though he want to, he cannot for an intimate human connection.
7.6.1. "I thought of asking how she got to be a prostitute and all, but I was scared o ask her. She probably wouldn't've told me anyway"
7.7. He is obsessed with innocence and childhood.
7.7.1. "I don't give a damn, except that I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am--I really do--but people never notice it. People never notice anything."
7.7.2. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around—nobody big, I mean—except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.”
7.8. He is afraid of change.
7.8.1. "You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?"
7.8.2. "Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that's impossible, but it's too bad anyway."
7.9. He cannot face the reality of life and death.
7.9.1. "Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody."
7.10. He has suicidal thoughts.
7.10.1. "What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would've done it, too, if I'd been sure somebody'd cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory."
7.11. He is inactive.
7.11.1. "I'm a pacifist, if you want to know the truth."
7.12. He hates the phonies in adult world. For that reason, to everything he objects, he calls them "phony" as an etiquette.
7.12.1. "One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all."
7.12.2. "I am one of the yellow guys. I try not ot show it, but I am."
7.12.3. "I don't see why they can't talk in their natural voice. They sound so phony when they talk
7.12.4. "There's a word I really hate. It's phony. I could puke every time I hear it."
7.12.5. "If there is one th,
8. Mr. Antolini
8.1. He is Holden former English teacher.
8.2. He lectures Holden about life and its meaning
8.2.1. "The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement's designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn't supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn't supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started."
8.2.2. "but I think that once you have a fair idea where you want to go, your first move will be to apply yourself in school. You'll have to. You're a student--whether the idea appeals to you or not. You're in love with knowledge. And I think you'll find, once you get past all the Mr. Vineses and their Oral Comp--"
8.2.3. "...you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them--if you want to..."
8.3. Holden likes him. + He is a nice man.
8.3.1. "Mr. Antolini was very nice. He said I could come right over if I wanted to. I think I probably woke he and his wife up, because it took them a helluva long time to answer the phone. The first thing he asked me was if anything was wrong, and I said no. I said I'd flunked out of Pencey, though. I thought I might as well tell him. He said "Good God," when I said that. He had a good sense of humor and all. He told me to come right over if I felt like it."
8.3.2. "...you could tell he was interested..."3
8.4. He is concerned about Holden.
8.4.1. "I have a feeling that you're riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall. But I don't honestly know what kind. . . "
8.4.2. "This fall I think you're riding for--it's a special kind of fall, a horrible kind."
8.4.3. "...but I can very clearly see you dying nobly, one way or another, for some highly unworthy cause."
8.5. The reader sees Holden's homophobia from the scene where Mr. Antolini pats Holden hat while he was asleep.
9. Holden's Father
9.1. He is wealthy lawyer.
9.1.1. "My father's quite wealthy, though. I don't know how much he makes--he's never discussed that stuff with me--but I imagine quite a lot. He's a corporation lawyer."
10. Sunny
10.1. She is the prostitute who Holden hires and pays for not to have sexual intercourse with him.
10.2. In the scene where Holden and Sunny were talking, the reader can see Holden's desire and quest for intimate human connection, which he cannot have with everyone.
10.2.1. "Don't you feel like talking for a while?" I asked her. It was a childish thing to say, but I was feeling so damn peculiar. "Are you in a very big hurry?"
11. Sally
11.1. For Holden, he is the "queen of phonies"
11.2. "Then, just to show you how crazy I am, when we were coming out of this big clinch, I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it. I’m crazy. I swear to God I am."
11.3. She makes Holden face with the reality.
11.3.1. "Because you can't, that's all. In the first place, we're both practically children. And did you ever stop to think what you'd do if you didn't get a job when your money ran out? We'd starve to death..."
11.4. She goes on a date with Holden.
12. Jane
12.1. She is the embodiment of Holden's description of innocence
12.1.1. "Yeah. She wouldn't move any of her kings. What she'd do, when she'd get a king, she wouldn't move it. She'd just leave it in the back row. She'd get them all lined up in the back row. Then she'd never use them. She just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row."
12.1.2. "I really got to know her quite intimately. I don't mean it was anything physical or anything--it wasn't--but we saw each other all the time. You don't always have to get too sexy to get to know a girl."
12.2. Holden's crush.
12.3. Holden's old neighbor.
12.3.1. "She practically lived right next door to me, the summer before last. She had this big damn Doberman pinscher. That's how I met her. "
12.3.2. "I used to play checkers with her all the time."
13. Ackley
13.1. One of Holden's peers from Pencey Prep.
13.2. Holden is irritated by him.
13.2.1. "Sinus trouble, pimples, lousy teeth, halitosis, crumby fingernails. You had to feel a little sorry for the crazy sonuvabitch."
13.2.2. "I wasn't too crazy about him, to tell you the truth."
13.3. He is dirty.
13.3.1. "The whole time he roomed next to me, I never even once saw him brush his teeth. They always looked mossy and awful, and he damn near made you sick if you saw him in the dining room with his mouth full of mashed potatoes and peas or something. Besides that, he had a lot of pimples. Not just on his forehead or his chin, like most guys, but all over his whole face. And not only that, he had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy."
14. Stradlater
14.1. Holden’s roommate at Pencey Prep.
14.2. popular and good-looking, confident
14.2.1. "... Stradlater was more of a secret slob."
14.2.2. "Just because they're crazy about themseif, they think you're crazy about them, too, and that you're just dying to do them a favor. It's sort of funny, in a way."
14.2.3. "... all the athletic bastards stuck together. In every school I've gone to, all the athletic bastards stick together."
14.3. He goes on a date with Jane.
14.3.1. Holden is annoyed by this fact and they get in a fight.
14.4. He is mostly interested in sexual stuff with girls.
14.4.1. ""Yeah?" Stradlater said. That really interested him. About the booze hound running around the house naked, with Jane around. Stradlater was a very sexy bastard. "She had a lousy childhood. I'm not kidding." That didn't interest Stradlater, though. Only very sexy stuff interested him."
14.4.2. "He was unscrupulous. He really was."