Essay Sample on Holden in The Catcher in The Rye

In the novel Catcher In The Rye, written by J.D Salinger, the main character Holden is known to be a very contradicting narrator. An important moment that helps us understand him, is when he meets his little sister Phoebe, after he is expelled from Pensy. Through this moment we start to understand the upbringing of Holden that makes him like this, his subconscious desire of childhood innocence, and his true character. 

Throughout the novel, Holden often portrays himself as an insensitive person. Us as readers understand this as him having a bad personality. However, the moment where Holden goes home. He says “You’d like her.’’ One of the only instances where Holden has positively said something about someone. Rather than the usual cynical opinions on people. Holden makes assumptions of Phoebe relating to ‘She’s very tidy, for a kid’ which is completely a backhanded compliment. It shows us that Holden separates kids and adults. His logic tells us that adults are subconsciously segregated as messy, irresponsible people. While children have excuses for their behaviour, simply because of their age. 

This moment is the first time Holden refers to the title, as someone being the ‘Catcher in the Rye’, who is Phoebe. The ‘Catcher in the Rye’ is someone who has preserved their childhood innocence, which Holden sees very much in Phoebe. This is also the first time that we get to hear Phoebe’s direct voice. We see that she uses language such as ‘Daddy will kill you’ And a very childlike rambling structured way about things that she enjoys, such as the play.  We don’t know if Holden likes Phoebe because she’s his little sister, or because of her clear child-like personality. 

This theme or childhood innocence is portrayed through symbols that we see such as the notebook, and the broken record piece. The broken record piece shows that he fails to express himself, but tries to piece it up for Phoebe. The one that he loves the most. The notebook shows us that Holden pays attention to little details, such as the many ‘exclamation marks’ it has. 

You see that his mindset completely changes with the moment with Phoebe. Throughout the novel, we can see Holden has always mentioned Phoebe as a special person, but not until we see his sincerity in this moment, can we really understand him.