I'll have to read the Catcher again but the image I retain over the years of the essential Holden is not really that of the bully's victim. He doesn't really seem fearful of the people at Pencey High. Nor do I remember him trimming his sails to avoid trouble. With his good quality luggage & the urbanity with which he orders drinks, he seems rather to belong with the crowd for whom he retains such contempt. But it's essentially the contempt of the snob for the canaille that seem everywhere to surround him: the people with no taste, the people with no imagination, the people who're impressed with money, the people totally without nobility. I don’t think his despair is reaction to personal misfortune or victimisation. It's a simple recognition of the way things are: a recognition that the rest of the world seems either not to share or at least not to acknowledge. In this, I've always identified with him. And continue to do so. Scottie B.