The Catcher in the Rye {blog 2}

The next section of the book that I read tells us a lot more about the main character Holden. His kid brother Allie, died of leukemia a couple years before the story took place. He writes a composition about Allie’s baseball glove. I think that the death of Holden’s brother was very substantial in meaning to the way that Holden portrays himself today. He tells us that Allie was the most intelligent person among his family. Allie is described as being extremely sweet and innocent, with the brightest red hair imaginable. Holden is obviously still feeling pain about the fact that he could not help his brother. I think that unconsciously Holden believes that he let his brother die. In other words he wasn’t able to save him. With all that in mind, I believe that Holden gives no effort in school or his personal life because he thinks that were all dying anyway so why try. Unfortunately that is a terrible way to think, especially because Holden has so much potential to be great, he just does not apply his skills.
Moving on to a happier subject… Holden’s friends aren’t much to be admired. Ackley sounds like a disgusting fellow with an ego as big as he is (that is pretty darn big!). Almost all the boys there talk about how they supposedly hook up with all these girls, and Holden is just in awe of how many of these people probably have never even spoken to a lady let alone had sex with one. It’s actually quite funny how this story resembles real life even today, this just shows that men have not changed that much. However, Holden is not completely incapable of loving another girl. Jane Gallagher is one of his closest girlfriends and remembers the time when he was always happy with her and was always there to comfort her. I think that her presence is what kept Holden from isolating himself completely after his brother died. Continuing on, Holden returns to his hotel room after going to a club late in the night. The elevator operator offers him a prostitute for five dollars. He takes the offer and returns to his room.
 I believe that Holden wants to live two separate lives. One where he can live freely and do whatever he pleases, such as hiring a prostitute, but that thought scares him and that is ultimately why he backs out of the deal. And another life where he is sheltered and raised by his parents, where he doesn’t have to worry about bad things happening to him. On the other hand, the second life scares him even more than the first because of what happened to his brother Allie. The fact that not everything can be controlled and not every ending can be happy.