Holden Caulfield v Huck Finn

By the end of "Catcher in the Rye" it's obvious that Holden Caulfield is the anti-Huck Finn. As noted in yesterday's post, his voice is a 20th-century version of Huck's American vernacular, so on a stylistic level they are literary cousins. But: Huck is impoverished, an outsider, unwanted. He depends on close friendships with other men/boys. At the end, distraught at what he's learned about society (and his family), he famously sets off for the territories. Holden: is wealthy, privileged, spoiled, (over)educated. Despite his tender feelings, he has no friendships with any guys his age. He is much more driven toward women, though he has problems there as well. His greatest tenderness is for his siblings. He wanders through a city (though he dreams of moving out the country, a strange foreshadowing), and ultimately, in the last chapter, goes home to his family. They do share one trait: both are sons of alcoholics. In today's lingo, we'd say that they both suffered childhood trauma - particularly Holden. In my view, that's what drives him. We learn very early on how he was traumatized by his brother's death (he smashes garage windows with his bare hands, and we later learn that he was hospitalized because of that and missed Allie's funeral.) Very late in the novel we learn that Holden was present when a kid (wearing Holden's sweater), being bullied, jumped to his death out a dorm window. It's striking how this key scene is delayed, and played down. Finally, Holden visits his favorite teacher and is startled awake when the teacher pets his head. Holden runs, and notes that he's had to deal with "about 20 flits," or something like that. To me, that suggests some history of abuse, which a 1950s novel would not unpack, but it's a solid and mysterious hint. Holden - so vulnerable, so sad, a screen onto which a million adolescents can project themselves.