Catcher in the rye-Holden as a universal teen

Holden Caufield is a universal teenager because he has all of the thoughts and feelings that most typical teenagers have felt, and still feel. The difference with Holden is that his feelings are more extreme and, in many cases, more negative, because he has just experienced the untimely death if his young brother Allie. The reason why the book is so popular is because many young people can identify with Holden. Throughout the book, he feels lost, angry at society, rebellious, and he questions himself and who he is, which i think every teen feels at one time or another. Holden talks about girls, and how other guys treat girls, and what is right and wrong in that respect, establishing his values in how he respects women. In the same scene, he is kind of judgmental and uses a lot of sarcasm, which is most times the basis of teen humor, I.e. "I was sitting on his stupid towel" "Stratlader was hardly listening. He was combing his gorgeous locks" (Salinger 31-32).
Holden is a universal teen also because of the way he goes through his grief after Allie's death, and how he can't let go of him. A lot of teens have a hard time letting go of things-big things or small things.

Nurse Ratched vs. McMurphy

Through the whole book, I thought that McMurphy was really going to break the Nurse and win their figurative battle. For so long, the nurse oppressed the men and made them feel like nothing, and then McMurphy comes in and within days makes the men feel special, and like they matter. With the vote to change the schedule, McMurphy thought that he had an easy win against the nurse, but she had to struggle to keep control, so her iron grip on them got even tighter as they went along. In the end, Nurse Ratched may have won their more physical battle, but I think that McMurphy really won, because he made the men in the ward feel like people again after, for so long, the nurse tried to make them feel like nothing.