The Connection between Holden and Allie Caulfield
While reading D.J. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye, I realized how much of the world along with the people Holden assumes is fake and phony. Basically everything. A clear reason to why he thinks this is not mentioned. The world is fake and phony because it no longer holds that innocence. The deep connection between Holden and Allie is affecting Holden in a negative psychological way as a result of Allie no longer remaining in Holden’s world. Since the beginning of the book we are informed that Holden has failed to meet the requirements of a private school named Pencey Prep. Holden then runs away from Pencey Prep for a forty-eight hour vacation. Holden’s entire story is revolved around the …show more content…
He can’t survive in this world hating everything yet not knowing why he hates it. Holden just claims it’s phony but never expands on why it is. He speaks in a idiomatic and sarcastic language through the entire novel. Sarcastic definitely. Holden longs to be a hero who can save little kids from falling off a cliff by being “the catcher in the rye”. The novel shows an allusion to the poem by Robert Burns called ‘Comin thro’ the Rye’. Holden misinterprets on the stanzas, “If a body meet a body”, to “If a body catch a body”. Not only does he misinterpret one of the lines, however he misinterprets the entire poem. “And I 'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they 're running and they don 't look where they 're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That 's all I 'd do all day. I 'd be the catcher in the rye and all.”, (ch.22). Holden thinks of saving little kids to make up for not being able to save Allie. He has some sort of guilt built up inside of him. Allie was just a kid, a special lucky kid who never had to experience how horrible adulthood is according to Holden. He has a very special liking for kids because they still hold that special magic of innocence. When Holden sees Phoebe on the carousel in Central Park he realizes little kids cannot be saved from the world of adulthood, only the dead kids such as Allie are safe. …show more content…
He wants beautiful moments to last forever and despises change. Everything should stay the same. The world should not change, it should be stuck in just one moment, and that’s the meaning of a peaceful un-phony world to Holden. Holden is very sincere about everything he says. He emphasizes this as he talks about the Museum of Natural History and how year after year nothing changes in the museum from whatever is happening in the glass cases to the order in the long hallway. The writers that Holden admires, Ring Lardner, Thomas Hardy, and Allie, and even the museum mummy are all dead. Holden is living in a world where he wishes he won’t have to have useless conversations and where everyone shall leave him be. Holden wishes life would stop where it is, how it should not change. Because no matter how many times he went to that museum nothing ever changed, not the position or what was happening, or the glass cases, nothing but him. I understand Holden’s fear and desires, however the solution Holden has come up with which is avoiding reality is impossible. The change he hates, is life. In the end we find out Holden is writing us all of this from a mental
While reading D.J. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye, I realized how much of the world along with the people Holden assumes is fake and phony. Basically everything. A clear reason to why he thinks this is not mentioned. The world is fake and phony because it no longer holds that innocence. The deep connection between Holden and Allie is affecting Holden in a negative psychological way as a result of Allie no longer remaining in Holden’s world. Since the beginning of the book we are informed that Holden has failed to meet the requirements of a private school named Pencey Prep. Holden then runs away from Pencey Prep for a forty-eight hour vacation. Holden’s entire story is revolved around the …show more content…
He can’t survive in this world hating everything yet not knowing why he hates it. Holden just claims it’s phony but never expands on why it is. He speaks in a idiomatic and sarcastic language through the entire novel. Sarcastic definitely. Holden longs to be a hero who can save little kids from falling off a cliff by being “the catcher in the rye”. The novel shows an allusion to the poem by Robert Burns called ‘Comin thro’ the Rye’. Holden misinterprets on the stanzas, “If a body meet a body”, to “If a body catch a body”. Not only does he misinterpret one of the lines, however he misinterprets the entire poem. “And I 'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they 're running and they don 't look where they 're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That 's all I 'd do all day. I 'd be the catcher in the rye and all.”, (ch.22). Holden thinks of saving little kids to make up for not being able to save Allie. He has some sort of guilt built up inside of him. Allie was just a kid, a special lucky kid who never had to experience how horrible adulthood is according to Holden. He has a very special liking for kids because they still hold that special magic of innocence. When Holden sees Phoebe on the carousel in Central Park he realizes little kids cannot be saved from the world of adulthood, only the dead kids such as Allie are safe. …show more content…
He wants beautiful moments to last forever and despises change. Everything should stay the same. The world should not change, it should be stuck in just one moment, and that’s the meaning of a peaceful un-phony world to Holden. Holden is very sincere about everything he says. He emphasizes this as he talks about the Museum of Natural History and how year after year nothing changes in the museum from whatever is happening in the glass cases to the order in the long hallway. The writers that Holden admires, Ring Lardner, Thomas Hardy, and Allie, and even the museum mummy are all dead. Holden is living in a world where he wishes he won’t have to have useless conversations and where everyone shall leave him be. Holden wishes life would stop where it is, how it should not change. Because no matter how many times he went to that museum nothing ever changed, not the position or what was happening, or the glass cases, nothing but him. I understand Holden’s fear and desires, however the solution Holden has come up with which is avoiding reality is impossible. The change he hates, is life. In the end we find out Holden is writing us all of this from a mental