Catcher In The Rye
...Salinger 128) overwhelms the thoughts he has of his brother. Holden also has a deceased brother, Allie, in which he dearly cares for. He carries around Allie’s baseball mitt almost in an obsessive sort of way. Part of Holden’s crazed love for his dead brother is the fact that Allie was one of the most innocent people he knew. Holden loves Allie crazily and it is to be understood that a majority of this love is there is no phoniness or fakeness in Allie. He is one of the most loving and sweet people Holden has ever known. Holden’s actual name even suggest of his wanting to protect children. The name “Holden,” is obviously a direct suggestion to the word holding. Holden through the entire novel is trying to hold children back, to save them as Holden would earnestly believe. Caufield is also suggestive of his desire to hold children back. Cau is in fact part of what protects a baby during pregnancy, and field is a nod towards the actual title of the novel itself, “Catcher in the Rye,” as in a rye field. Holden has a red hunting cap that he purchases in the novel. He wears this as almost a beacon of his individuality. Subconsciously Holden is using this as a way to perhaps keep himself from being a phony as he would think it. Holden does not want to feel that he is just trying to fit in to the mold in which he thinks everyone else does. The red hat is also symbolic in the sense that he offers it to Phoebe. This is another way in which Holden tries to save his sister. Holden does not know it, but he is trying to keep his sister from becoming a phony as well. Holden is disillusioned in his quest for protecting the innocent. He does not understand that you cannot stay innocent forever. In his mind, becoming older means losing yourself in what the world wants you to become. He directly associates becoming older with losing your innocence, and does not want that for anyone young around him. It is ironic that Holden tries to save everyone around him, but it is Holden himself that is losing his innocence as the story progresses. He uses profanity on multiple occasions, something that he tries dearly to save other younger people from experiencing. Holden also is sexually inexperienced, something that he tries to shed during the novel. Although he does not follow through with the purchase of a prostitute, he does think of it and somewhat act on it. Holden also is too young to be drinking, something that he does on multiple occasions. Holden’s entire disposition on life is that of phoniness and innocence. His need for protecting others from growing up is in fact his way of trying to keep himself from growing up. In the end of the novel, Holden ironically talks about being “sick” and going to the “hospital.” (Kegel 35) This is ironic because it is showing what at first might be thought of as a fake side of Holden, but in fact is a showing of perhaps the last scraps of his innocence. Holden in fact is not sick, but attempts to commit suicide. The trip that he takes to the hospital is in fact a trip that he takes to a mental institution. Holden is embarrassed as well as scared of admitting this to the reader. Holden’s psyche is based on protec...