The Foil Chacacter for The Cather in the Rye

Holden is the main character and also the narrator. He is failing out of a boarding school, by failing four classes. He describes his little brother Allie who died form leukemia as “fifty time more intelligent” than Holden. Holden ends up writing a descriptive essay for his roommate Stradlater about his brother’s baseball glove. He tells us how Allie wrote all of these poems on the fingers and in the pockets. Every personality he uses to describe Allie is the total opposite of Holden. Holden loves his younger brother and misses him so much. On the day that his brother died he broke his hand by smashing out all of the windows in his garage. He wanted to do the same to the car windows but his hand hurt to much to co that. Holden got mad when his roommate didn’t like the essay he wrote for him because he wanted it to be about a house or a room, but Holden didn’t want it to be about that. He couldn’t be descriptive about something like that. Holden still had Allie’s baseball glove with him. Allie is someone that everyone would like, so Holden thinks. Holden says not very many people like him, he wishes they did and that he could be more like Allie.


Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.