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'Catcher in the Rye' final impressions

juliafurst
Jan 3, 2017
3 min read

I have just finished 'The Catcher in the Rye'. This book was very interesting. It felt like I was on an emotional roller coaster along with the main character, Holden. He experienced many ups and downs, mostly downs, which, honestly, was pretty depressing. I feel relieved that I have finished this book because now I don't have to spend an hour a day feeling sad and pity towards this character.

In the first half of the book I had grown to dislike Holden, probably because he was a hater and called everyone else phony, when in reality, I thought he was the biggest phony of them all. Point aside, I really did come to like him because throughout the second half of the novel he became generous and really opened up. There were certain points in the book when I really noticed these things happening. On page 116 it said,"The first record store I went into had a copy of 'Little Shirley Beans'. They charged me five bucks for it, but I didn't care. Boy, it made me so happy all the sudden. I could hardly wait to get to the park to see if old Phoebe was around so that I could give her so that I could give it to her." It really showed how caring and thoughtful he was towards his sister. I was really impressed by this and not only did it make Holden happy about what he had done, but it made me happy too. I think this part also expressed how he felt about Phoebe and his family or loved ones. It seemed throughout the entire story that his family, especially Phoebe was like an anchor to Holden. Holden always seemed to feel lost, lonely, and pointless, but it seemed as though his family gave him a purpose and kept him straight. This was definitely shown at the end of the novel when Holden had decided he wanted to go live in a cabin in the woods out west, which to me seemed like an escape plan from his reality. Though Phoebe is the real reason he did not go. She did not want him to leave and if he was, she was going with him. I don't think Holden wanted to leave his only true friend, when she was upset with him, because really he couldn't afford to leave the little amount of people he had left.

Another point in the story when he was very generous was on page 119. "She was having a helluva time tightening her skate. She didn't have any gloves on and her hands were all read and cold. I gave her a hand with it.... She thanked me and all when I had tightened it for her. God, I love I love it when a kid is nice and polite when you tighten their skate for them or something." I thought this was such I nice thing to do in general. Then I was thinking about the other deeds he preformed. He had tried to help a little kid on the seesaw, but in that case his help was not wanted. I was wondering why all the sudden he was doing such kind things for people. Then after reading about Holden's fantasies about him being the 'catcher in the rye', it all made sense. I think the reason Holden was so generous to those kids, was because of his baby brother Allie who had died. It kind of seemed as though when Holden was helping the children, in his mind it was like him helping Allie. I think that is also why Holden fantasizes about himself being the catcher to the kids who get close to cliff in the rye, Allie's death was obliviously a traumatic experience for him so it seems like he is trying to make up for the fact that he couldn't save Allie, so he dreams about saving kids. I also feel this is the reason Holden doesn't like to be home, It is a reality check and reminds him that Allie is truly dead and is never going to come back.