if a body catch a body coming through the rye

 

I think the fact that Holden is finally talking to someone after these events happened shows that he has changed, thus making him a dynamic character. In the beginning of the book, he says how he doesn't want to talk about his family and childhood but then further into the book you see he talks a lot about his past and his siblings.

   

I think the reason he might come off as a static character is because he is he is recounting these events to the therapist. These events happened in the past year. Now he is 17 and finally getting the help he spent the past year looking for. Thus, making him a dynamic character. Dynamic characters experience some major event(s) that ultimately change(s) them. Holden has so many of these!!! Starting off when his brother died when he was 12 which resulted in him punching the garage windows; when he watches his classmate kill himself while he was in the shower and he is traumatized by the goriness of James Castle’s remains splattered outside; and when he was molested as a kid making him both crave and hate being intimate/touched. All of these things make us understand why he is the way he is. Although these events do not excuse his behaviors, it does clear some things up and makes us feel sympathy for this damaged boy.

Going back to how he says “What I felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn’t want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory.” It is an oddly specific thing to say about such a serious matter. Then you realize it is much more than Holden not wanting anyone to see him or the effect it would have on his mother but it's because once he dies everything is out of his control. He likes things to stay as they are. He doesn't like change. This evident throughout the story. After all everything changed after Allie died. He says because a kid he knew did that. Holden remembers how that happened. He heard him hit the ground. Implicitly, he doesn't want to execute that plan as he fears it will traumatize anyone that sees him doing it or the aftermath of it. Someone else could be in the bathroom and they could happen to look out their window at the same time Holden is falling to his doom. He also doesn't realize how the person covering him up would still see him. Going back to the Secret Goldfish, he wants to kill himself but doesn't really want anyone to see it. It's inevitable though. The first person he tells someone about this event is his sister. Now he is telling that to the psychoanalyst.

Also we realize why he doesn't see the purpose of going to a good college and going into a nice profession, why he is basically throwing all that away. It’s because he just want to be the catcher in the rye. “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around - nobody big, I mean - except me. 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 off 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.”

He just wants to protect little innocent kids from going off the rails, jumping off the cliff to their doom. He doesn't want anything to hurt them like he has been hurt. Childhood is an important factor to Holden. He doesn't want to taint it even though it is inevitable and has already happened to him. Because these events have such a strong impact on him, it has affected his future and his goals. 

He is in denial after going to the museum as he keeps saying how he doesn't know why he hasn’t come across a single duck while in the park. Yeah the underlying point is that Holden doesn't know where to go from here. He has no sense of direction unlike ducks. Birds are typically a symbol for freedom as they can fly and live both on land and water so they have so many places to go. They know to fly south for the winter. So it is wintertime and Holden is looking for the ducks. He is looking for something he is never going to find to distract himself from reality as well as a way to indirectly ask for help. He doesn't know if someone is going to come and help him find his way because he definitely can't do it on his own. He spends this whole journey trying to figure out where the ducks go during the winter when he knows very well that birds fly south for the winter!!!!! “There were even more upstairs with deer inside them drinking at water holes, and the birds flying south for the winter.” He clearly knows more than he is letting on. 

Another example is when Holden is talking about the Egyptians to the boys he meets. He mostly knows what he is saying showing that he purposefully wrote a trash assignment for Mr. Spencer. An important tradition they did in Ancient Egypt was preserve their beloved and praised rulers after they died with a strong aspiration for a happy afterlife. Holden mentions how modern science wonders about the secret chemical the Egyptians used to preserve the ones that died. He thinks a lot about that because he is trying to preserve Allie even though he is never going to come back. In fact he is trying to preserve his childhood and childhood friends just like one would remember their rulers. He mentions how he just really likes how everything is always the same way as the last time he was there. Again, he doesn't like change. He likes knowing it is certain that nothing will be different. “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, and that eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish..” He refuses to admit how you would only change physically and not mentally. He says he just can’t explain it and maybe he really can’t. But he knows. This is evident when he says “Then a funny thing happened. When I got to the museum, all of a sudden I wouldn’t have gone inside for a million bucks.” He doesn't want to go in because he is afraid he is going to be different, the kind of different he says he can’t explain. He would always go there as a kid and now he’s 16 and doesn't want to go in and change anything. He is afraid of that taint. When you think about it, a museum has a lot of glass cases that show you things people have discovered over time. This one is historical and Holden likes to reminisce the past a lot and just stay on the past. The glass cases go back to the Secret Goldfish. Nothing is hidden behind a glass case.  

I think when Holden finally breaks down it is significant to him realizing he needs help. First his record breaks. He loves this song because it reminds him of being young like the girl in the song and it reminds him of Phoebe. He got it for Phoebe. But then it breaks! Just like his childhood was damaged and he has been trying to pick up the pieces since. He is a broken record!!!!! He takes the pieces with him even though they are useless but they are still important for him. Then he starts thinking about Phoebe and she is the only one that can get through to him. She ends up convincing him to come home. She also happily accepts Holden’s gift, despite it being useless. In the carousel scene, Phoebe doesn't want Holden to keep going in these circles because he is ending up in the same place. It is the same story over and over again. She is worried about him and she wants him to come home and solve his issues. Again, Holden says “that’s one nice thing about carousels, they always play the same song.” at first you think he really isn’t going to change and how this would only make him a static character but then he says “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not saying anything. If they fall off, they fall off…” thus he realizes that childhood is going to end no matter what. You cannot always be there to protect them and bad things are bound to happen. So he gives in and decides to go home. Then he ends up revealing that he is talking to a psychoanalyst, meaning he is getting the help he had been searching for before.

Therefore Holden is a dynamic character.

   

“She struck her bag right out in the middle of the aisle, where the conductor and everybody could trip over it.”

The first women Holden encounters is the mother of “the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole crumby history of the school.” Once he learns this I think he kind of freaks out as she is no longer just any random stranger. That’s why he thinks he can’t open up to her, because he probably feels that if he were to say anything personal Ernest would hear about it. So he doesn't ever say anything honest. He takes it very extreme, though, to the point where he feels the need to introduces himself as Rudolf Schmidt, which is interesting as it is Pencey’s janitor’s name. He even lies about having a brain tumor!! Who the heck lies about that?? For his own entertainment (and possibly to distract him from his sadness and loneliness) he starts “shooting the old crap.”

“He adapts himself very well to things. He really does. I mean he really knows how to adapt himself.”

Holden repeats the word adapt, of all adjectives, a lot when talking about Ernest. It’s the strangest word to use to describe someone. Mrs. Morrow doesn't seem to notice that Holden is just saying the same thing over and over again about her son. 

“Her favorite is The 39 Steps she knows the whole goddam movie by heart, because I've taken her to see it about ten times.”

He talks very highly about his ten year old sister Phoebe. She is described in a very positive note which makes her very likable. Holden mentions various little things about her such as the fact that she always writes stories but never finishes them. Endings are what make a story a story, ya know? From the way Holden describes her I doubt it’s due to laziness. Then for someone who thinks very lowly of movies and actors he sure has seen this movie a lot. (The meaning of The 39 Steps is never revealed in the movie).

But this is different from the other chapters Phoebe has been brought up as he finally mentions the flaw in Phoebe. He says she is too affectionate and very emotional. Which is weird because emotional support is exactly what he is looking for throughout these chapters.  

“There were these group of girls around thirty or so. The whole three of them were pretty ugly, and they all had on the kind of hats that you knew they didn't really live in New York, but one of them, the blond one, wasn't too bad.”

The whole time Holden is annoyed as each time he tries to talk to them but the girls could care less. They seem to just be using him to get some free drinks and giggling a lot (probably at him for trying to act older). He dances with them but just doesn't enjoy it, blaming it on the girl. He thinks she’s a moron yet he kisses her. Yeah, she gets mad but they keep dancing.

Once he again he messes with them too (perhaps because he feels like they have spoiled/wasted his night) by saying the actor Gary Cooper was on the other side of the room. They all fall for it and one even claims she saw Gary leave. He enjoys that. Then he got more annoyed with the girls when they told him they had to leave as they were going to get up early to see the first show at radio city. It depressed him and he said he would've bought them a hundred drinks if they hadn't told him that.

In chapter 13 Holden orders a prostitute. He keeps insisting it is just because he wants to practice for when he gets married, degrading her as if she only has the same purpose as the sports ball you would practice with to get better at the particular sport. This also shows signs of insecurity. Being the curious rich boy he is, he wants to ask her all about how she came to be a prostitute. He wonders how the store workers probably thought she was an ordinary girl buying a dress unaware of what she actually dedicated her nights to.  Anyway, once the prostitute, Sunny, takes off her dress, Holden quickly gets uncomfortable. He knows others would be turned on by this but not him. He can’t seem to really explain why. He just says, “I certainly felt peculiar when she did that… Sexy was the last thing I was feeling. I felt much more depressed than sexy.” He keeps repeating he feels peculiar. He was especially uncomfortable when Sunny rests her head on his lap. He just sits there and can’t move nor bring himself to ask her to move.He literally jumps at the first opportunity to put space between the two of them (putting away the dress so it doesn't wrinkle). He just wants to talk to the young girl. Then later he says the reason he doesn't want to do anything with Sunny is because she is so depressing. He especially judges her because she goes to the movies during her free (even though he has seen the same movie at least ten times). Then he says he is tired and just had an operation(again with those kinds of lies). It’s clear he is nervous.

Overall, lots of excuses.  

Each encounter isn’t that different from the last. With all of them, he is very intent on acting older than he is. He invites Mrs. Morrow for a drink but it’s close so he can’t and Mrs. Morrow doesn't think he is old enough to buy them. He tries (again) to buy an alcoholic beverage at the club and, despite insisting he looks older, he can’t buy one as he looks awfully young to the bartender. With Phoebe, he kept making it seem as Phoebe was too young to be able to get into the conversations between Allie and him.

With Sunny, though, we see this different side of Holden where he not only gets punched again but he also kind of wants to open up to her but Sunny is quick to reject that idea (however, she is a prostitute and she was woken up and forced to come to Holden’s room so, understandable). 

So more than anything he's so lonely. You see that when he is trying to call someone, he begins to list off people he could potentially call but doesn't end up calling anyone. Plus the list is so short and is quick to go through why he can’t call them. He really doesn't seem to have any friends. The only personal relationships he currently has are with people he is/was related to. He doesn't talk to Jane or Sally on a daily basis (though they do go to different schools) nor has he seen them in a long time. Basically he has no one so he looks to these women, almost, for help but none of them can help him as Holden is still running away from his problems and into new problems.

He is constantly looking for something to do, somewhere he can go but then complains when he is somewhere different. He is always walking or riding a cab to go somewhere but then he ends up back at his hotel room. He doesn't have anywhere to go  and he has no one. These encounters merely depict just how much Holden really wants someone to talk to but it’s always something. The lady on the train is not only thirty years older than but also Holden’s classmate’s mother. The girls at the club are not interested in talking nor does Holden depict them as being capable of having a conversation. It's funny how he orders a prostitute and then just wants to talk. He also (kinda) looks for comfort in the strangest places on the train, in the club, and in a prostitute.

so I have a lot to say

The style Salinger uses to write this story is very very different from any other story I have read. It almost seems disorganized and the plot seems to just be centered around the fact that Holden is leaving school early because he wants to. 

He does and says as he pleases. He calls everyone either “nice”, old, or (my favorite) a phony bastard. 

Anyway I think it is Holden’s thinking process. It sometimes reminds me of my thinking process, too. I will be thinking one thing (sometimes even while listening to someone that is talking to me) then I see something, anything, that reminds me of a particular memory and then suddenly I am recalling that memory, ya know? He remembers the most randomest things but I like it. It makes the Catcher in the Rye that much deeper and relatable. There are times where he is directly talking to someone such is in the very beginning where he doesn't talk much about his family and background and again when he is telling us how he is “the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life” and when he is talking about Allie “you would’ve liked him.”

             

As I start the first chapter I can’t help but think a) Holden is so full of himself and b) he doesn't care about anything nor about the consequences of his actions and c) he is so judgmental!!!

“Only we didn't have the meet. I left all the foils and equipment and stuff on the goddam subway. It wasn't all my fault. I had to keep getting up to check on the map, so we’d know where to get off. So we got back to Pencey at two-thirty instead of around dinnertime. The whole team ostracized me the whole way back on the train. It was pretty funny, in a way.”

Here he admits some fault but also gives an excuse for it. He, despite being the manager, was too busy looking at a map to also keep track of the team’s equipment, an innocent mistake.

So we learn he is on top of Thomsen Hill overlooking the most important football game of the season. I like the way Salinger includes this scene to portray Holden. Salinger makes it very clear that Holden thinks he is above everyone else when he is on top of literally looking down on everyone. In this scene we also learn that he is all alone as he doesn't have anyone to share such an incredible view with. He is also down there as everyone was still mad at him for leaving the fencing equipment behind. So that must have sucked for him that he felt the need to not even show up. I think he covers that up by saying “The other reason I wasn’t at the game was because i was on my way to say good-by to old Spencer, my history teacher.” How convenient. He doesn't even mention how he came across this view like he does with Spencer’s navajo blanket.

Chapter five is one of my favorite parts. Holden opens up. A lot. He does the composition for Stadlater and, of all things, he  writes about his dead brother’s baseball glove. First of all, he didn't want to write about just anything, even though a) it is not for him b) Stadlater said “Anything. Anything descriptive. A room. Or a house. Or something you once lived in or something -- you know. Just as long as it’s descriptive as hell.” c) his reaction once Stadlater read it.

“I’m not too crazy about describing rooms and houses anyway. So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie’s baseball mitt. It was a very descriptive subject. It really was.”

He is so defensive about being so thoughtful. Like yeah no big deal, anyone would’ve done this too. He doesn't want to admit that he is capable of doing great things, recognize his potential. Did he write it for Stadlater (nah) or for his brother? Or for himself???
Earlier, he said the only reason he was passing English was because he learned that same material in his previous school. (but was that really why??) I think he secretly really likes English. He has a pretty strong vocabulary at the most random times. It also happens to be the only class he is passing. I don't think he has ever been so open with an assignment and since it wasn't going to be under his name, he went for it. But then Stadlater messed with that when he got mad at Holden for doing the assignment, as well as everything else,”backasswards.” of course, it set off Holden as it was personal to him. I love how he asked for it back only to rip it in front of Stadlater. I thought that was a perfect response!!!! Then he starts to smoke which I think is a nervous habit of his.

Holden mentions they were only two years apart and from the way he looks back at his brother, it’s all awe, love, and praise. Clearly they were very close. For him to think of writing about something as trivial as a baseball mitt, is very touching and sentimental.

I think this is very significant that he mentions his younger brother in a much higher regard as opposed to his older brother D.B. Before he didn't have anyone close to him or that really meant anything to him (maybe Jane Gallagher) and now he talks about his brother Allie in pure awe, love, and praise. This is one of the first times he has talked about someone in a more in depth positive note. Everyone else has been described pretty disgusting/negatively ex (D.B., Ackley, Mr. Spencer, Stadlater [despite his attractiveness attributes]). Then Holden mentions how his brother’s death really affected him. He resorts to violent behavior as a coping mechanism.

Overall, just showed this very vulnerable and struggling side of him.

“Ask her if she still keeps her kings in the back row.”

“Give her my regards.”

I thought it was very interesting how Holden refuses to recognize he is jealous that Stadlater went out with Jane Gallagher. I guess not many guys would. He kept saying, “I just had a feeling something had gone funny.” He tried to interrogate Stadlater about their date and “if he gave her the time.” Of course Holden doesn't explain why he wants to know so bad. But he does because Jane is one of the few people Holden seems to care about. He is worried about her, which makes sense as he used to have strong feelings about her. He seems to still have some of those feelings lingering as he keeps reminisce these little quirks of hers despite the several years that have passed.

He loves his hunting hat. He wears it the same way every time, always repeating the same line “I put my red hunting hat on, turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it.”

Whenever he puts on his hunting hat (it is referenced a lot throughout the book), it reminded of me of that scene from Big Daddy with Adam Sandler where he tells his kid “If you’re afraid, put these sunglasses on and you’ll become invisible.” I think Holden’s hat serves the same purpose. Or maybe it is just to cover up the gray hairs he has.

I thought it was very interesting how he doesn't like receiving gifts as it makes him sad. I think he overthinks the meaning behind them. And he is very picky with what he likes so he gets disappointed when he doesn't get what he likes. Not necessarily unappreciative but just disappointed the person wasn’t really paying attention to what he likes or didn't really bother with the gift. Also he was very brief with packing. Few things were packed/mentioned meaning he doesn't have a lot of stuff either worth mentioning to us or worth packing. Everything he owns fits in his bag. Maybe he hasn't been there long or he isn't that rich but still. Of all things he does mention are the skates his mother gave him. He tries to brush them saying they are the wrong kind of skates he desired but nonetheless he’d feel bad if something were to happen to them or didn't keep them. Finally, of course he has a lovely exit. He looks at the corridor once time before shouting “sleep tight, ya morons!”

“‘Oh, I feel some concern for my future, all right. Sure. Sure I do.’ I thought about it for a minute. ‘But not too much, I guess.’”

“One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies.”

We learn that he has flunked out of a few schools for the main reason that he doesn't apply himself because he doesn't seem to care. Sure he blames it on the phonies (#ifeel #fakepeopleshowingfakelove)

But I think he is just afraid to get close to a place (school) and people. He doesn't seem to be close to/is friends with anyone. He wouldn’t tell Ackley about the fight but then asked him for his life story. I think he doesn't want to get attached to anyone or anything as then it means he is trusting people with this, almost, ability/power over him, to hurt him. Or that they will leave him either unintentionally or for someone else. Holden also tries to make a joke out of it but he never tells Ackley the truth. He doesn't speak highly of actors and movies. He doesn't like either of them as they are literally fake (I see his point but that’s extreme). He likes to smoke when he is in distress. The fact that he just decides to leave a couple days early with no concrete plan is rather reckless and sporadic. I think these are all signs pointing to depression. Especially where in chapter 7 there is a brief moment where he gets sad and even wishes for death.