The ultimate antihero in American literature. I hope you folks don't mind me using a colorful metaphor but Holden is what me and my buddies would call a "fucked up unit". He seemingly is suffering from a vast mid-life crisis while still in his teens. He is intelligent but aimless. Hmm, sounds like quite a few people I converse with, and even myself, except now I've been out of my teens for many moons and I am suffering a true mid life crisis. It probably says something of his character that he was created by J.D. Salinger, a man who nearly invented the word recluse.