Character Analysis of Catcher In The Rye Holden Caulfield is a sixteen year old mentally unbalanced teenager who sees absolutely no joy in life. He has dropped out of many schools, and Pencey was just one of them. Holden feels absolutely no motivation and flunks out of all the prestigious schools he's sent to. He recognizes everyone as a bastard, or a phony. No one is real to him, except Jane, Phoebe, D.B. and …showed first 75 words of 482 total…

…showed last 75 words of 482 total…Holden's heart softens and sees how much he's hurting his younger sister and tells her he'll straighten out his life. Whether he does so is not known. Around the end of the book, Holden seems to have gotten some of his sanity back. He hadn't fully recovered, but he seems to have gotten to enjoy the company of others a bit more, meaning he doesn't call al that come near him a phony and bastard.