The significance of James Castle

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, there is nothing that depresses Holden Caulfield more than phony people. Throughout the novel we see him despising people that do things for show while admiring people that do things for themselves. We see this distinctly in the story of James Castle.

James Castle was Holden’s roommate at Elkton Hills. A “skinny little weak looking guy, with wrists the size of pencils”, James once called a conceited boy named Stabile conceited. Stabile and his friends went to James room and tried to make him take back what he said, but he wouldn’t, so they do something horrible to him (which Holden chooses not to tell the reader). “Instead of taking back what he said”, James commits suicide. We learn the story about James when Phoebe asks Holden what he likes. When I first read this I was startled; James’s story is traumatic, so for him to be one of the first thing to come to Holden’s mind is alarming. But knowing his ideals and how he reacts to phonies, Holden’s liking of James makes more sense.

The story of Holden getting beat up by Maurice mirrors James’s situation perfectly. Holden stands his ground that he does not have to pay Maurice the five dollars, and as a result, he gets beat up badly. Holden would rather get hurt than admit to a “phony” that was he did was wrong, which is the same thing that James did. Rather than admitting to Stabile he chose suicide. Holden appreciating James’s actions tells us that Holden would rather die than submit to “phonies”. He would rather die for a small cause than holdout for a larger one.

Although his liking of James makes sense, learning about Holden’s ideals I think made me more alarmed. I don’t see any benefits to standing your ground to someone when you have the chance of being hurt. The idea to me doesn’t make any sense; why would someone risk so much just for the satisfaction of being right? But Holden believes this from the very start of the novel, which I'm still unsure why.