Is Caulfield messing with us too?
Last week we talked about whether or not we could trust Holden Caulfield as an accurate narrator of the events happening. On one hand, Caulfield is very blunt with his thoughts about people he interacts with and tells us (the reader) what he really thinks of them. However, his actions to that person contrast what his true feelings are towards them. For example, we see this happening with his dorm neighbor, Robert Ackley. Caulfield raves on and on about how annoying and disgusting Ackley is. He dreads every time Ackley comes into his room because he just messes with his things and bothers him. At one point even wishes his roommate, Stradlater, was in the room because Ackley hates Stradlater and never enters the room if he’s in there. After Caulfield makes his dislike very clear towards Ackley, he still invites him to accompany him to the movies while he was bored on a Saturday evening. This gets the reader thinking, is Caulfield masking his true feelings from us like ...