A little hope for Holden

When I first read this book in high school, my teacher had us read it under the pretense that Holden is just a bad kid, that he's going crazy, and that all us students were nothing like him. Moreover, we shouldn't try to be like him, since hiring prostitutes, smoking, getting in fights, and flunking out of school were all bad things. And that was really the view that stuck with me for the longest time, at least until I reread this. Now at a different point in my life, I believe that in between the black-and-white of right and wrong, there are tons of shades of gray, where what's right on paper may be wrong in practice. For example, early on in the book, we see him get in a fight with Stradlater, constantly throwing insults at him. But he does this to defend Jane Gallagher, in his own weird way. Certainly it was dumb and rude to start a fight with his roommate, but he had some good intentions which mitigates some of the bad in his actions. Similar situation when he goes and talks to his teacher. No adult would say that failing a class is a good thing. But at least Holden has the sand to go talk to him about it, and he respects his teacher enough to establish that it's not all rebellion, and that some adults deserve some respect. The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but good intentions can form the basis of a solid human being, and Holden may not be as lost a cause as my high school English teacher said