The Catcher in the Rye question

As much as I love Holden, I cannot say he's a hero in a stereotypical kind of way. He understands that the world is wrong, he hates phoniness, he hates injustice, he hates the society and he is right about all those things. But, he is not a hero because heroes fight, they don't just whine about everything. Heroes are strong, phisically and mentally, while Holden hates sport and ended up in a psychiatric hospital.
Holden is, to me, one of the best characters ever written, but I don't think he is a hero, as much as I love him.

A qualified Yes.

I don't see Holden as a non-conformist as much as struggling to conform, to find a comfortable place to fit in.

His was a teenage boy's archetypal struggle with a complicated transition, or journey, into adulthood. Holden didn't fight the system like McMurphy and Luke; he complained about it and questioned it and probed it until ultimately he decided against escaping it by running away and accepted it by returning home with Phoebe.

Both Luke and McMurphy were killed by the system because they could not, or would not, adjust to it. Holden, after his crisis, adjusted.

In a GR post elsewhere I compare Holden's journey to that of Odysseus. In his journey home he has adventures, defends a girl's virtue, engages a variety of people, learns new things, evaluates his position in the society of mankind, deepens his appreciation for some things, looks for meaning in life, and like Odysseus, he returns to family and love.

Or, you could say Luke and McMurphy were killed by the system because they would not submit to it.

There is, though, a touch of heroism in surviving and maintaining a modicum of one's Self.

I like this comparison Monty.

I don't see where this whimpering nitwit gets to be called a "Hero" when there were 17 year old kids who jumped into Normandy and slogged their way onto Iwo JIma through a hail of Jap machinegun fire.

But maybe I'm just not "Nuanced" enough... yeah, that must be it.

Holden is misunderstood. He's not a hero, in any archetypal sort of way, or in any "running through a hail of Jap gunfire at Iwo Jima" sort of way either. He is, I believe, a young man struggling to come to grips with the loss of his beloved older brother. He's depressed and casting around. Remember he does end up in a psychiatric hospital in the end, a fact often over looked. Try re-reading the book with the lens of a young man struggling with a great loss and the book will have new meaning for you. It did for me. Steve

Holden's heart is in the right place, but he's no hero.

Yesss, of course Holden is a hero! He breaks through the phoniness of society and creates a bit of a new mold and archetype.

Someone had written war references -- I must comment that everything Salinger wrote had something to do with the devastating effects of war.