Holden Caulfield, an anti-educational teenager in J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

     Holden Caulfield, the 17-year-old protagonist of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, is anti-education. He has been expelled from different schools. He is seen to have no drive and no goal to pursue; just a wanderer trying to find himself. He does not make any effort to pass his courses. In Pencey Prep, he had carried over five subjects which of course, he fails except English in which he passes because he “didn’t have to do any work in English at all hardly, except write compositions once in a while” and it is pretty obvious that it takes him little effort and time to write as seen in Stradlater’s composition episode (10).
He confesses that he “sort of glanced through his history textbook a couple of times.” But, I do believe that Holden did not actually open the textbook at all and only said that because he “didn’t want to hurt Mr. Spencer’s feelings” when asked about his exam paper and preparing for it (10). He flips over when Mr. Spencer reads his exam paper aloud, he actually complains about how he “had to sit there and listen to that crap,” the listen was emphasized to show how much he really hated school; everything associated with it, what it stands for and not only because he knew his essay paper is terrible (11).
     His exam paper on the Egyptians is amazing as it is a credible evidence of his total lack of interest, and his very willingness to show it. He writes “I can’t seem to get interested in them, although your lectures are very interesting” and “It is all right by me if you flunk me though, as I am flunking everything except English anyways” in a short note to his teacher (pg.12). How more can you show that you are not bothered about things like studying for class and passing the course than rubbing it in the teacher’s face? Besides what he wrote down is the general information about Egyptian mummies and not about the Egyptian history itself which make one wonders if he was actually in class during the lectures.
     Phoebe, his sister, also shows an insight to this, she intuitively knew he had been kicked out of Pencey Prep. She got emotional and says “You did get kicked out! You did……..you did”, she repeated “you did” four times to show that he (Holden) actually brought it upon himself (165). She then comments that she “supposes he failed in every single subject again” in a school teacher manner; talking from an authoritative point of view, which Holden considers snotty (167). She goes further to ask him “oh, why did you do it?” Once again showing that she knew that Holden failed on purpose (167). After which she makes the greatest observation and deciphering of Holden as she tells him that “you don’t like anything that’s happening” after a long and deep contemplation of things (169). Both the word “do” and “any” are italicized during this insightful conversation to draw emphasis on the words and show Phoebe’s intelligent and accurate analysis.
     In all this, Holden is perceived as a teenage boy who going through the adolescence stage, is confused and does not see the whole purpose of education. He is overwhelmed at the supposed phonies of the world that he lost or gave up the drive to succeed in anything, most especially education. He just does not care about his educational accomplishment.