Holden Caulfield is the main character in <Catcher in the Rye> and also is the narrator who is unreliable. We can find a lot of points in the book that he tried to hide something which may be important for readers and sometimes let readers can’t trust him.
Firstly, at the beginning of the whole chapter, Holden was getting the treatment of mentally disorders, in the real world, do we believe all the things were said by a mentally disorders (this is not the discrimination), of course we only will trust a little bit in their statements because they still have consciousness. The situation was similar as Holden Caulfield, some event would be exaggerative came from his mouth.
Secondly, Holden Caulfield was still on the starting point of changing from a child to adult. So he couldn't understand all the things in the world, and also a lot of things adult wouldn't told him. What’s more, the viewpoint of children is very different than adults. For example, a child and a adult are walking the road, and there is a pretty girl walk towards them, a child may think : “ oh, she is pretty.” But the adult will think deeper than the child. So in this book, Holden Caulfield only analyzed the events on the plain level, and sometimes he just made decisions without any considering.
Thirdly, he was consisted of lies. If someone said I always lie to other people, he is lying now, could you believe him anymore? No. Holden lied to his mum, his friend’s mum maybe he also lied to other people but he just wouldn’t tell us.
At last, his personality also influenced him to be unreliable narrator. He was depressed, lonely, didn’t fit in the society and his little brother was dead by disease. Therefore the most of his perspective is negative and that caused some positive sides were ignored by Holden and readers never could get them.
The other question was caused, why J.D.Salinger told Holden’s story in first person. In my opinion, because Holden would hide some information, that would let readers image what happened on him. It was more interesting and attractive than telling story in third-person.
Firstly, at the beginning of the whole chapter, Holden was getting the treatment of mentally disorders, in the real world, do we believe all the things were said by a mentally disorders (this is not the discrimination), of course we only will trust a little bit in their statements because they still have consciousness. The situation was similar as Holden Caulfield, some event would be exaggerative came from his mouth.
Secondly, Holden Caulfield was still on the starting point of changing from a child to adult. So he couldn't understand all the things in the world, and also a lot of things adult wouldn't told him. What’s more, the viewpoint of children is very different than adults. For example, a child and a adult are walking the road, and there is a pretty girl walk towards them, a child may think : “ oh, she is pretty.” But the adult will think deeper than the child. So in this book, Holden Caulfield only analyzed the events on the plain level, and sometimes he just made decisions without any considering.
Thirdly, he was consisted of lies. If someone said I always lie to other people, he is lying now, could you believe him anymore? No. Holden lied to his mum, his friend’s mum maybe he also lied to other people but he just wouldn’t tell us.
At last, his personality also influenced him to be unreliable narrator. He was depressed, lonely, didn’t fit in the society and his little brother was dead by disease. Therefore the most of his perspective is negative and that caused some positive sides were ignored by Holden and readers never could get them.
The other question was caused, why J.D.Salinger told Holden’s story in first person. In my opinion, because Holden would hide some information, that would let readers image what happened on him. It was more interesting and attractive than telling story in third-person.