The Catcher in the Rye Characters

Holden Caulfield

The sixteen-year-old narrator and protagonist who is expelled from Pencey Prep and wanders New York City while struggling with grief and intense alienation^[1]

Phoebe Caulfield (Phoeb)

Holden's ten-year-old younger sister, who is smart, emotional, affectionate, a great dancer, and writes unfinished stories about "Hazle Weatherfield

D.B. Caulfield:

Holden's older brother, a talented writer of short stories (author of The Secret Goldfish) who served in World War II and now works as a screenwriter in Hollywood, whom Holden accuses of "prostituting" his talent for the movies

Allie Caulfield

Holden's younger brother who died of leukemia in 1946; he was left-handed, had bright red hair, wrote poems in green ink on his baseball mitt, and was exceptionally kind.

Mr. Caulfield

Holden's wealthy father, a corporate lawyer who frequently invests money in Broadway shows that flop.

Mrs. Caulfield

Holden's mother, who suffers from severe anxiety, chronic headaches, and unresolved grief following the loss of her younger son.

Holden's Grandfather

A relative from Detroit who has a habit of calling out street numbers when riding on the city bus.

Holden's Grandmother

An elderly relative who repeatedly sends Holden birthday money several times a year due to memory loss.

Holden's Aunts and Cousins

Briefly mentioned relatives who attended Allie's funeral, including an aunt noted for severe halitosis.

Robert Ackley

Holden's tall, round-shouldered dorm neighbor at Pencey Prep, known for bad pimples, poor dental hygiene, and an intrusive, sour personality.

Ward Stradlater

Holden's handsome, athletic, and conceited roommate at Pencey Prep who is a "secret slob" and goes on a date with Jane Gallagher.

Mr. Spencer

Holden's elderly history teacher at Pencey Prep who suffers from the grippe, wears a ratty bathrobe, smells of Vicks Nose Drops, and reads Holden's failed exam aloud.

Mrs. Spencer

The welcoming, hard-of-hearing wife of Holden's history teacher who serves hot chocolate to visiting students.

Dr. Thurmer

The headmaster at Pencey Prep who lectures Holden that life is a game that must be played by the rules.

Selma Thurmer

The headmaster's daughter at Pencey Prep, described as a nice girl with a prominent nose and bitten nails who does not brag about her father.

Ossenburger

A wealthy Pencey alumnus who made a fortune running low-cost funeral parlors and delivered a preachy, sanctimonious speech in chapel.

Edgar Marsalla

A Pencey Prep student who loudly disrupted Ossenburger's chapel speech.

Mal Brossard

A Pencey student on the wrestling team who travels into Agerstown with Holden and Ackley to eat hamburgers.

Robert Tichener

A student at Pencey Prep who tosses a football around with Holden and Paul Campbell outside the academic building.

Paul Campbell

A Pencey Prep student who chucks a football with Holden and Robert Tichener outside the academic building.

Mr. Zambesi

The biology teacher at Pencey Prep who instructs Holden, Tichener, and Campbell to stop playing football and get ready for dinner.

Hartzell

Holden's English teacher at Pencey Prep who views Holden as a talented writer of compositions.

Howie Coyle

A star basketball player at Pencey Prep who could consistently sink shots from half-court.

Bud Thaw

A Pencey student whose girlfriend's roommate went on a date with Stradlater.

Ed Banky

The basketball coach at Pencey Prep who lends his car to Stradlater for dates.

Mrs. Schmidt

The sixty-five-year-old wife of the head janitor at Pencey Prep.

Ely

Robert Ackley's dorm roommate who goes home almost every weekend.

Leahy and Hoffman

Students at Pencey Prep whose dorm room is situated down the corridor from Holden's room.

Frederick Woodruff

A wealthy Pencey student who buys Holden's ninety-dollar portable typewriter for only twenty dollars.

Ernest Morrow

A Pencey student Holden views as mean and arrogant for snapping wet towels at classmates, despite Holden telling his mother otherwise.

Rudolf Schmidt

The janitor of Ossenburger Hall at Pencey Prep whose name Holden uses as an alias while talking to Mrs. Morrow on the train.

Harry Fencer

The student elected class president at Pencey Prep over Ernest Morrow.

Visiting Alumnus

A middle-aged Pencey graduate who returns on Veterans Day to look for his carved initials in a dormitory bathroom stall.

Mr. Vinson

Holden's Oral Expression teacher at Pencey Prep who penalizes students for digressing and insists on strict conciseness.

Richard Kinsella

A nervous student in Oral Expression who received a D-plus for digressing about his uncle's battle with polio.

Mr. Haas

The headmaster at Elkton Hills whom Holden considers a huge phony for being charming to wealthy parents while snubbing funny-looking ones.

Dick Slagle

Holden's former roommate at Elkton Hills who felt self-conscious about his cheap suitcases and labeled Holden's possessions "bourgeois."

James Castle

A quiet Elkton Hills student who leaped out a window to his death wearing Holden's turtleneck rather than retract an insult toward an arrogant peer.

Phil Stabile

A conceited student at Elkton Hills whose friends locked James Castle in a dorm room to force an apology.

Carl Luce

A former Whooton student attending Columbia who gave sex talks to younger boys and meets Holden at the Wicker Bar for unwanted psychoanalysis.

Arthur Childs

A Quaker student at Whooton who engaged in theological debates with Holden about the Bible and the Apostles.

Raymond Goldfarb

A student at Whooton with whom Holden drank a pint of Scotch in the school chapel.

Louis Shaney

A Catholic student at Whooton who chatted with Holden about tennis while discreetly checking whether Holden was also Catholic.

Harris Mackim

A raspy-voiced student at Elkton Hills who was generally boring but had an extraordinary gift for whistling classical and jazz music.

Mr. Antolini

Holden's former English teacher from Elkton Hills who covered James Castle's body, provides shelter and counsel, but triggers Holden's panicked flight after petting his head while he sleeps.

Mrs. Lillian Antolini

The wealthy, serious, older wife of Holden's former teacher who suffers from severe asthma.

Jane Gallagher

A summer friend from Maine whom Holden idealizes and deeply respects, remembered for keeping her kings in the back row during checkers, whose date with Stradlater causes Holden intense distress.

Jane's Mother & Stepfather (Mr. Cudahy)

A quiet mother and her heavy-drinking playwright husband who roamed around barefoot in shorts and once upset Jane to tears.

Sally Hayes

An attractive, conventional girl Holden dates; he views her as a phony, takes her to a play and ice skating, impulsively proposes running away with her, and then offends her.

Mrs. Hayes

Sally Hayes's mother, who warned her daughter that Holden was unruly and lacked ambition in life.

Sally's Grandmother

An elderly woman who picks up the phone late at night when an intoxicated Holden calls Sally.

Faith Cavendish

A former burlesque dancer staying at the Stanford Arms Hotel whom Holden calls late at night for a drink after obtaining her number from a college student.

Eddie Birdsell

A Princeton student who gave Holden the contact information for Faith Cavendish.

Anne Louise Sherman

A girl with whom Holden spent an entire night making out despite having resolved not to mess around with phonies.

Fitzgerald

A previous date of Stradlater's whom Holden dismissively refers to as a "pig."

Phyllis Smith

A girl whose planned date with Stradlater fell through.

Al Pike

An arrogant boy from Choate who wore Lastex swim trunks, performed half-gainers at the pool, and previously went out with Jane Gallagher.

Bob Robinson

A debate team captain with an inferiority complex whom an acquaintance's roommate mistakenly labeled conceited.

Roberta Walsh & Her Roommate

Acquaintances of Holden who discussed boys and social interactions with him.

Jeannette Cultz

A girl who rented a short skating skirt at Radio City, inspiring Sally Hayes to go ice skating with Holden.

Edmont Hotel Bellboy

A depressing sixty-five-year-old bald employee at the Edmont Hotel who combs his hair over from the side to conceal his baldness.

The Transvestite Guest

A distinguished-looking, gray-haired man whom Holden observes through his hotel window putting on women's clothes.

Water-Squirting Couple

A man and woman visible from Holden's hotel window taking turns playfully squirting drinks into each other's faces.

Maurice

The elevator operator at the Edmont Hotel who acts as a pimp, extorts money from Holden, and punches him in the stomach.

Sunny

A young, timid prostitute in a green dress sent to Holden's room by Maurice, with whom Holden only wishes to talk.

Bernice Crabs (or Krebs)

A blonde tourist from Seattle and an exceptional dancer whom Holden dances with at the Lavender Room.

Marty & Laverne

Two unappealing tourists from Seattle traveling with Bernice; one is easily tricked into thinking she spotted Gary Cooper.

Buddy Singer

The leader of a loud, corny dance band performing in the Lavender Room of the Edmont Hotel.

Ernie

A large, haughty nightclub owner in Greenwich Village who plays the piano ostentatiously and bows with false humility.

Lillian Simmons

A phony ex-girlfriend of D.B. who talks loudly to Holden at Ernie's nightclub primarily to ask about his screenwriter brother.

Commander Blop

A rigid Navy officer escorting Lillian Simmons who shakes hands with painful intensity.

Tina & Janine

Two French entertainers at the Wicker Bar; one plays piano while the other whispers suggestively into the microphone before singing.

Valencia

A lounge singer at the Wicker Bar whom a drunken Holden unsuccessfully tries to invite to join him for a drink.

Valencia's Pianist

A wavy-haired musician at the Wicker Bar who grooms himself in the restroom while ignoring Holden's friendly overtures.

Hat-Check Girl

A sympathetic attendant at a nightclub who returns Holden's coat, helps him with his broken record, and advises him to wear his hunting hat.

Carl Luce's Girlfriend

A sculptress in her late thirties from Shanghai, China, who is dating Carl Luce.

Mrs. Morrow

The charming and attractive mother of a Pencey student whom Holden meets on the train and feeds elaborate, fictitious stories about her son.

Horwitz

A short-tempered New York cab driver who argues emphatically with Holden about where the Central Park fish go in the winter.

Two Nuns

Kind Catholic teachers eating breakfast at Grand Central Station with whom Holden discusses Romeo and Juliet and shares a ten-dollar donation.

The Singing Child

A young boy walking along the street curb near traffic humming "If a body catch a body coming through the rye," which lifts Holden's spirits.

Girl Tightening Her Skates

A polite young girl sitting on a park bench in Central Park whom Holden helps with a roller-skate key.

Miss Aigletinger

Holden and Phoebe's former elementary school teacher who routinely took their classes on field trips to the Museum of Natural History.

Gertrude Levine

Holden's childhood partner during museum field trips, remembered for always having clammy, sweaty hands.

George from Andover

A snobby, pretentious acquaintance of Sally Hayes who speaks affectedly and gushes over the theatrical stars.

Kettle Drummer at Radio City

A modest, dedicated percussionist in the Radio City orchestra admired by Holden and Allie for his unpretentious musicianship.

Crying Woman at Movie

A woman at the Radio City movie theater who cries sentimentally over a tearjerker film while callously ignoring her child's discomfort.

The Dicksteins

The family residing in the apartment unit across the hallway from the Caulfields.

Pete

The regular nighttime elevator operator at Holden's family apartment building.

The New Elevator Boy

A gullible replacement elevator attendant whom Holden tricks into taking him upstairs by pretending to have a leg injury.

Charlene

The Caulfield family's maid who is hard of hearing in one ear.

Alice Holmborg

Phoebe's closest childhood friend whose mother accompanied them to see the movie The Doctor.

Curtis Weintraub

A classmate of Phoebe who once shoved her down the park stairs.

Selma Atterbury

Phoebe's school friend who helped smear ink onto Curtis Weintraub's windbreaker.

Phyllis Margulies

A classmate of Phoebe who tried to teach her how to belch on demand.

Two Christmas Tree Unloaders

Men overheard by Holden unloading evergreen trees from a delivery truck while using casual profanity.

Elementary School Typist & Staff

An elderly administrative clerk and her assistant in the school office who agree to deliver Holden's note to Phoebe.

Two Little Boys at Museum

Young brothers visiting the museum who ask Holden to guide them toward the Egyptian mummy exhibits.

Little Boy in Cowboy Hat & Father

A small child and his father whom Holden notices observing the polar bear enclosure at the Central Park Zoo.

Psychoanalyst at the Rest Home

The therapist at the treatment facility who repeatedly asks Holden whether he intends to apply himself in school.