Asshole?

My Coming-of-Age Novel class has just started to read The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, and last night I found myself in a friendly argument about the character merit of Holden Caulfield. My friend had read the book before, and her first reaction was something along the lines of "Great book and good writing, but the main character was an asshole!" The following conversation can be condensed as follows:

"I kind of like him, even if he is an asshole. I think I'd like to be friends with him."

"I don't know, man, I think I'd just punch him in the nose."

"But I have some friends who are a lot like him, and I do genuinely like them."

"That says more about your taste in friends than anything else."

"Maybe."

...And we left it at that. I got to thinking, though, about what it is that puts Holden Caulfield on her bad side. He's certainly no shining exemplar of morality, nor does he mince words when he's not pleased with something. Still, his words are directed at us (the readers) and he seems to be much--for lack of a better word--nicer in person than he makes himself out to be. He is judgmental in the extreme, and he holds humanity to a ridiculous set of standards that he doesn't bother to live out himself. Doesn't that go for most of us privileged adolescents who are trying to work out our own value systems. Just because I get irritated when people intersperse their dialogue with the word "like" doesn't mean I don't find myself doing, like, the same thing on occasion. I'm not one to judge.

Which, I suppose, is one difference between me and Holden Caulfield. If he didn't think he were one to judge, he wouldn't be narrating such a goddamn rude novel.

I do think that I'd like him in person, if find him a lot off-the-wall and probably pretty obnoxious too. I'm drawn to the "I don't give a damn about what people think of me" mindset, as well as the drive to live in the moment. Unfortunately, these are both characteristics of a variety of personalities that could be qualified as "assholes." I also think that Holden Caulfield would ever-so-slightly enjoy being called an asshole. Maybe it's this, more than anything else, that draws me to him as a character. Again with the "I don't give a damn." but also a little bit of "I like it that they're thinking of me, though." He does make a point about his dorm-mate Ackley caring enough to pay attention to things, as opposed to his room-mate Stradlater for really not being aware at all. Maybe there's a difference between "giving a damn" and "caring enough to pay attention." I like that idea.