To start off, Holden Caulfield is still a virgin and that is a fact. He never had the guts to actually move on to the next level with a girl even though he talks very big. Caulfield says, “The thing is, most of the time when you’re coming pretty close to doing it with a girl-a girl that isn’t a prostitute or anything, I mean-she keeps telling you to stop. The trouble with me is, I stop. Most guys don’t. But I can’t help it” (Salinger 92). Salinger thinks that he wants to do it, he wants to lose his virginity like some of the other guys such as Stradlater, but he knows that it is not the right thing to do. Like Helena Leite Pinto says, “When it comes to dealing with girls and sex, Holden shows he has principles, even though he seems to be a
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He reminisces and thinks, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times… Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you” (Salinger 121). Holden repetitively says how each time he or Phoebe visits the museum, they would have changed. Holden is reminded once again of how much he changed compared to when he was young. Then, he remembers Phoebe. He says, “I kept walking and walking, and I kept thinking about old Phoebe going to that museum on Saturdays the way I used to. I thought how she’d see the same stuff I used to see, and how she’d be different every time she saw it. It didn’t exactly depress me to think about it, but it didn't make me feel gay as hell, either. Certain things they should stay the way they are” (Salinger 122). Throughout the book, Holden deliberately tries to keep Phoebe the way she is right now. He wants to protect her from the society that will taint her like the way he was tainted. That does not mean that Holden only cared about Phoebe because of that. Phoebe is his only and only younger sister, the one and only younger sibling left for him. That is why Holden especially adores Phoebe. In the end of the novel, the readers can really tell how much Holden loves Phoebe when he says, “I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth, I don’t know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around in her blue coat and all” (Salinger 213). In that sense, the readers might feel that Holden Caulfield’s world revolves around not only himself, but around Phoebe as well. That’s how much Holden cares about
He reminisces and thinks, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times… Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you” (Salinger 121). Holden repetitively says how each time he or Phoebe visits the museum, they would have changed. Holden is reminded once again of how much he changed compared to when he was young. Then, he remembers Phoebe. He says, “I kept walking and walking, and I kept thinking about old Phoebe going to that museum on Saturdays the way I used to. I thought how she’d see the same stuff I used to see, and how she’d be different every time she saw it. It didn’t exactly depress me to think about it, but it didn't make me feel gay as hell, either. Certain things they should stay the way they are” (Salinger 122). Throughout the book, Holden deliberately tries to keep Phoebe the way she is right now. He wants to protect her from the society that will taint her like the way he was tainted. That does not mean that Holden only cared about Phoebe because of that. Phoebe is his only and only younger sister, the one and only younger sibling left for him. That is why Holden especially adores Phoebe. In the end of the novel, the readers can really tell how much Holden loves Phoebe when he says, “I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth, I don’t know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around in her blue coat and all” (Salinger 213). In that sense, the readers might feel that Holden Caulfield’s world revolves around not only himself, but around Phoebe as well. That’s how much Holden cares about