Throughout The Catcher in the Rye there are numerous examples of Holden being a non-conformist, none more so than his time at Pencey Prep. There are several examples of Holden refusing to conform at the school, but I'm only going to list two:
- Holden is roommates with Stradlater, a popular boy who mothers would call "yearbook handsome." However, Holden refuses to be drawn into the boy's lifestyle, specifically Stradlater's desire to have sex with girls....
Throughout The Catcher in the Rye there are numerous examples of Holden being a non-conformist, none more so than his time at Pencey Prep. There are several examples of Holden refusing to conform at the school, but I'm only going to list two:
- Holden is roommates with Stradlater, a popular boy who mothers would call "yearbook handsome." However, Holden refuses to be drawn into the boy's lifestyle, specifically Stradlater's desire to have sex with girls. Holden calls him a "very sexy bastard." However, Holden rejects this desire to have sex in high school. (He even refuses to have sex with a prostitute he hires.) Instead, when speaking about Jane Gallagher, a girl Stradlater wants to get "sexy" with, and a girl Holden might have been able to have sex with, Holden is only concerned about her checkers strategy and whether she still "keeps her kings in the back row."
- A second example of Holden's non-conformity occurs when he rejects the popular crowd, like Stradlater and Ernest Morrow. While Holden's rejection of Stradlater might happen because of Stradlater's desire to have sex with girls, he rejects Morrow because he was "doubtless the biggest bastard in the history of Pencey Prep" and used to go down the corridor after a shower "snapping his soggy old wet towel at people's asses." Instead of choosing to be friends with one of these guys, Holden decides to be friends with Robert Ackley, one of the least popular student at the school.
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