How Does Holden Change In The Catcher In Rye

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The people Holden meets throughout “The Catcher in Rye” by J.D. Salinger have large impacts on things like Holden’s ideas and mental state. But the people the reader doesn’t get to see have an equal if not greater impact on Holden’s life. Holden is once again is kicked out of school and has to face his parents with the news. Instead Holden decides to take a detour into New York City. Holden does many strange things as his depression and mental illness deteriorate. He hire a prostitute only to pay her to leave, stumbles drunk and cold around central park looking for duck, and decides to run away and pretend to be a deaf-mute. The people Holden meets are equally as strange and interesting. Characters such as Sunny, Lillian, Carl, Sally and Phoebe…show more content…
Allie is a source of trauma for Holden because “He’s dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, in July 18, 1946.” (pg.38). The event pierced Holden so badly that he remembers the exact date of Allie’s death. Holden and Allie were brothers, and that alone is a traumatizing incident for Holden to have his brother die. But Holden felt he really connected with Allie. Holden struggles with making connections but Allie, “He was terrifically intelligent.” (pg.38) which is Holden’s way of saying that he could understand things, like Holden himself. Allie was young. ”He was two years younger than [Holden] was”(pg.38) making him eleven when he died. Holden is devastated by the loss of innocence both for Allie and himself. Allie was a loss of innocence. He still had his innocence because he was young. Allie’s death took away Holden’s innocence by exposing him to the harsh reality that innocence does not last forever. A reality that Holden is not prepared for at this age. Allie’s passing leads into Holden’s guilty conscious, “So once in a while, now, when I get very depressed, I keep saying to him, ‘Okay. Go home and get your bike and meet me in front of Bobby’s house.’” (pg.99) Holden tells Allie hoping he can somehow preserve guiltless memories of his childhood. Holden shows he’s still not ready to accept the adult world, death, loss of…show more content…
“[Jane] practically lived next door to me, the summer before last.” (pg.31). Holden demonstrates just how well he knows Jane by telling Stradlater the most random things like how “She wouldn’t move any of her kings.” (pg.31) while they played checkers. What is so special about Jane is that Holden made a very good connection with her but does not go to see her or even speak to her when the opportunity arises. Many times “[Holden] thought of giving old Jane a buzz, to see if she was home yet and all, but [he] wasn’t in the mood.” (pg.105). Time after time this happens and Holden doesn’t even acknowledge why he does not just talk to her. In reality Holden’s afraid. He’s afraid of change. He’s afraid of loss of innocence. He’s afraid Jane will have become what he fears if he sees her again. He hasn’t seen her in at least a year and Holden knows that plenty time for a person to change. Holden must have really liked his relationship with Jane if he doesn’t want it to change, but it is very unclear what that relationship is. Holden never outright says that they are in a romantic relationship but one time when, “she really started to cry, and the next thing I knew, I was kissing her all over-anywhere-her eyes, her nose, her forehead, her eyebrows and all, her ears – her whole face except her mouth and all.”(pg.79), they seem to have the relationship

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