The Great Ward Stradlater

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger’s masterpiece, is about a young man named Holden Caufield at a time in his life when a lot of, “Madman stuff,” began happening to him. The story begins while Holden is still at Pency, a school in Pennsylvania, living with another student named Ward Stradlater. Stradlater is important to this story because of his relationship with Holden, how he contrasts with him, and also because of …

…in this story is on Holden Caufield. Everybody else revolves around him, so the significance of Ward Stradlater, as well as the other characters, can be measured in their relation to Holden. For Stradlater, that requires an analysis of his and Holden’s days rooming together at Pency as well as understanding the author’s intentions of contrasting Holden’s personality and stature with those of Stradlater; these things this paper has attempted to cover.