How Does Holden Affect His Mother

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Register to read the introduction… Even with all of his talk about his father's job, most of Holden's nervous ticks and character traits seem to come from his mother. For instance, Holden mentions "phonies" forty-four separate times throughout the novel (Corbett 68-73). This can be connected to his mother by the way he speaks about her. Her speech always seems to very insincere, and Holden displays that she has very little compassion for her own children. If his mother's actions were powerful enough to influence his obsession with liars, she could also have very easily made him extremely cautious and considerate of women. This is especially true when his regret over Allie is accounted for, and that his mother made him feel worse about it. From that point on, it seems that Holden has always tried to prove himself as a good person to the women around him. Phoebe and Jane also allow Holden to showcase his defensive side throughout the story. He feels so strongly about these two characters that it becomes arguable that Holden has no concern for preserving the innocence of children, but rather preserving the purity of women. …show more content…
Holden wants to preserve her innocent way of thinking because he sees the best parts of Jane in Phoebe. To him, Phoebe is the last true bastion of hope and sanity in a world gone sour. Phoebe is the only female that Holden is not afraid of, since the real world has not tainted her feminine innocence yet. Holden believes that he causes problems with all of the "pure" women that he has ever known, whether it is his mother or Jane, and he knows that he can fix all of that with Phoebe. She is the only girl that he is able to fully attach himself to without having to deal with romance. Holden can love Phoebe, and Phoebe can love Holden, but it can still be entirely innocent

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