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The Moral Values of Holden in Catcher in the Rye In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger portrays Holden Caulfield as a teenager with definite moral values. Holden firmly believes in having respect for women, protecting the innocence of children, and being an honest and unpretentious person. In the novel, Holden is shown as appreciating women and having a great respect for them. For example, when Holden realizes that Stradlater did not truly care about Jane and only wanted "to give her the time," he became quite angry. Holden said that, "... he (Stradlater) thought he could give the time to anybody he felt like" (44). During the incident when Jane began crying after Mr. Cudahy came out, Holden got very upset because he suspected Mr. Cudahy of somehow hurting Jane. His feelings of hate towards what Cudahy may have done to Jane are seen when Holden said, " I asked her...if Mr. Cudahy...had ever tried to get wise with her. ...I wouldn't have put it past that Cudahy bastard" (79). Throughout the book, Salinger emphasizes how much Holden wants to protect the innocence of children. One occurrence of this is when Holden went to Phoebe's school and found "fuck you" written on the wall. He was infuriated because he knew all the children would see it. He said, " Somebody'd written 'Fuck you' on the wall. It damn near drove me crazy" (201). Holden wiped it off because he wanted to protect the children form seeing it. In fact, the title of the book deals with Holden wanting to protect kids. Holden told Phoebe, "...I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff... I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all" (173). I believe the cliff represents innocence, and Holden wants to keep the kids from falling off and losing it. Salinger stresses Holden's feelings about phony people and honesty more often than any other value Holden holds. Holden values people that act the way the really feel rather than being pretentious. He has negative feelings for anyone that acts otherwise. Throughout the book, Holden talks about being tired of phonies and wanting people to be honest. Of the many times Salinger shows these feelings, one is when Holden is discussing living out west in his own place. He hates phony people so much that he said, "If anybody tried to do anything phony, they couldn't stay" (205). When Holden is on his date with Sally and he begins to talk about George, he mentions "I could see them all sitting around in some bar, with their goddam checkered vests, criticizing shows and books and women in those tired, snobby voices" (128). These are the type of phonies that Holden says he despises because they only do things that make them look good. The Catcher in the Rye clearly presents Holden's value system as being distinct and fairly unique. It is obvious that Holden feels having great respect for women, protecting children from the bad things in life, and being honest about who you are and how you feel are some of the most important things in life.