Holden’s Adventure

After getting expelled from Pencey High School due to failing so many classes, Holden goes home to the city of New York without telling his parent about his suspension. There he meets many people and experiences various situations.2 My relation with Holden as his personal therapist started last month. By analyzing his actions and thoughts about his experience in New York through conversation, I have realized that he is a very troubled individual in many ways. He is not ready to reenter society because of his habit of lying openly, his stubbornness and his immature personality.
Holden’s life was filled with lies. He almost lies every time he meets someone. He usually lies without feeling guilty or regrets, which is not acceptable to enter society as an individual. After getting kicked out from Pencey Prep because he failed several classes, he is heading home to New York. When Holden is on the train to home he meets a nice lady who is the mother of a student he knows at Pencey School. After starting a conversation with the lady, he immediately starts lying about how he likes Pencey School. He also tell some lies about the lady’s son Morrow. He says “Well. He’s a very sensitive boy. He’s really never been a terribly good mixer with other boys.”(55). This is a huge lie since after saying this he calls him “sensitive as a goddam toilet seat.”(55) In his mind. After telling a series of lies about Morrow, he says, “I’m glad I shot it for a while.”(57). What he “shot” are his lies to which he said to the lady. He is not even sorry about lying, but he is rather happy how he grabbed the attention of the Lady. His lies are truly outrageous and he has to learn how to tell the truth. Telling the truth is one of the basic factors needed to live a healthy and well being. Holden lies so much to cover up who he really is, a kid that's confused and depressed about his life. He lies to make up a new him, so that he won't have to deal with his reality. That's why he comes up with stories about who he is. I think that he is an uncontrolled liar, and that he enjoys lying to people.

Holden can be really stubborn. After meeting Sunny, the prostitute, at the hotel, where he stayed during his wandering in New York, he gets into a fight with Maurice over how much Holden have to pay over Sunny’s services. Holden thinks that he has to pay five dollars but Maurice says that, it is ten dollars. Maurice came to collect the extra 5 dollars but Holden refuses. Eventually Maurice starts threating him for the money. Holden’s voice starts to shake wildly but he talks back, “If you rough me up, I’ll yell like hell. I’ll wake up everybody in the hotel the police and all’’(102). Holden knows that they are trying to chisel money from him and he also understands that he has no chance of making them go away. Holden is intelligent so he could have just given the money in the first place. His stubbornness continues as Maurice and Sunny starts to leave the room taking his 5 dollars Holden shouts, “You’re dirty moron”(103). He was crying but still insulted just when they were about leave. This shout caused Maurice to get mad and Holden got punched hard in his stomach. The ability to give in to something is needed for real life, people cannot always be stubborn you have to give in according to the situation.
Holden’s ex-Student Adviser Carl Luce exposes how immature Holden is. After watching a movie at Radio City he