Holden's Unreliable Narrator

An unreliable person is someone that other people are not able to count on and trust. That person seems like they know what they are doing and are the best, but in reality, they do not know and other people notice. When other people notice that they are not reliable, they begin to think otherwise of that person and cannot understand the direct situation that they are in. Sometimes that unreliable person contains qualities that are not attractive and could turn people away making them not believe them. In the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden the narrator, appears to be an unreliable narrator because of his story that he has told and how he has gone about telling it. In the critique “Holden as the Unreliable Narrator” by Duane Edwards,

Throughout the story, the readers can interpret that Holden was put into the mental institution, but it was confirmed when Holden said: “A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here…” (276). Holden confirms that he was admitted to the mental hospital when he said that the psychoanalyst guy was overlooking him to see if he was advancing as he should be in the institution. Holden was first admitted to the hospital when he started to generate unhealthy habits. For example, when his brother Allie passed away, Holden had to deal with the mourning process by himself because his parents were still grieving as well and were not able to help him. Edwards mentions another unhealthy habit as he says, “So his refusal to talk about the incidents of his childhood signifies that he will remain ill…” (66). Although Holden mentions the ideas about his past, he does not strictly mention the story in dramatic detail and does not explain the story well so that the readers will understand it. With his unstable mind, the readers are not sure whether or not to believe Holden as he is telling his story. The readers understand that he is in the mental institution, but whether the stories are true is unrevealing to the readers. They also know that Holden is not ordinary and so does Edwards when he says, “But Holden isn’t ‘normal’; he’s a severely depressed adolescent telling the story of his youth while in a mental institution” (66). While Holden has an unstable state of mind, he is telling the story and the readers cannot assume that his stories are all true. For in the end of the novel, Holden says , “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (277). With Holden mentioning the idea that he should not tell anyone anything, it shows that he is not reliable as the readers cannot assume that his