Catcher in the Rye

Most of the time in life you encounter people who are smart, talented, kind, and many other things. The people that put their heart into something they care deeply for weather its music or a book or a profession. In “The Catcher and the Rye”, Houlden the main character is not one of these people. He is your typical floater that shows no interest in his future, or the well being of others. He is arrogant and has no motivation once so ever. He was kicked out of numerous schools and still showed no signs of improving.
Throughout the book Houlden narrates his life through day dreams that he reencounters his experiences. As a boy of sixteen having being kicked out of three schools, now four after Pencey, he still didn’t learn. All he cared about was the easy way out and his own enjoyment. There is always one Houlden that you know as you grow up in school and you think to yourself how on earth they are going to make it in life. While reading the book you see the outrageous things he does just to avoid his parents after being disgusted by the talk about his future from his teacher at Pencey. All Houlden did was run from the truth he did not want to face. He ran from things that challenged him and he had an immature way of thinking.
By the end of the book you see that like all of the floaters you knew as you grew up he had that one person that did affect him and for Houlden it was his sister. Houlden upset almost every person he encountered throughout the book. He even annoyed his sister when he told her how he was unsuccessful at Pencey before even seeing his parent. However, by the end when he sees her ride the carousel when he is about to run away from home, he realizes he loves her so much and that he wants to change his future.
The ironic thing about the ending is that he is supposeably at a mental home of some kind narrating the book, but we do not know where or how old he is. So how successful he was with his self change is unknown.