Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye

            Holden Caulfield is a troubled teenager trying to find his place in life and suffering, making the transition from childhood to adulthood. Holden's appearance is what a usual teenager looks like around his age, but a bit more mature in some features. He says he has a crew cut in chapter one "I wear a crew cut quite frequently and I never have to comb it much." (J.D. Salinger 9) The next features describe a more mature teenager as he says that he is around six feet two inches which is pretty tall for a teen and that he is graying on one side of his head. "It's really ironical, because I'm six foot two and a half and I have gray hair. I really do. The one side of my head--the right side--is full of millions of gray hairs." (J.D. Salinger 13) Holden also does say he is quiet skinny in chapter 15 and he has 2 bad habits which are smoking and drinking. "Then I tested to see if my breath stank from so many cigarettes and the Scotch and sodas I drank at Ernie's."(J.D. Salinger 120).
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             Holden's Intellectual aspect is very poor I don't think he's able to grasp reality and not only his actions but his intellectual ability is still at a kid stage as well. He has had to leave four schools and flunked out of Pencey prep school. "They really will. This is about the fourth school I've gone to." (J.D. Salinger 13) I find that Holden lacks the intellectual ability to progress thoughts and to realize what he is doing with his reality. This stops him from being able to hold friendships with people for instance when he meets up with Sally and everything is going great and he completely ruins the time they spent together with the ignorant things he says. "C"mon, let's get outs here," I said. "You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth" (J.D. Salinger 173). Holden never thinks before he talks which is a very childish thing to do and he regrets it later. This shows that he is not a very intellectual person.