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Holden Caulfield In The Catcher In The Rye

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In The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield grows into adulthood by pouring his feelings and over consuming thoughts out to an ambiguous audience. He appears lost in time, wanting to forget his bad grades, lack of relationships, and loss of his siblings through death and distance. Throughout the novel, Holden constantly refers to Jane Gallagher, a girl from his past. When Holden mentions Jane, his negative attitude and depression disappears. Although Jane Gallagher appears to have a large impact on Holden’s impulsive behavior, the degrading way he sees women, and life’s value; he is always too afraid to encounter her in fear of disappointing her with who he has become after pain and loss that he’s encountered. Early in the novel, Jane Gallagher …show more content…
Every time Jane crosses Holden’s puzzle of a mind he gets an urge to “give her a buzz”(137). Then an even stronger feeling makes his initial intentions dissolve. Holden gives the reader a lousy excuse, “‘Give old Jane Gallagher a buzz before I started bumming my way west, but I wasn’t in the mood. For one thing, I wasn’t even sure she was home for vacation yet’”(262). Holden would have lost nothing in just calling her to check if she was at school and even if she wasn’t his intention was just to speak to her before leaving, according to Holden, the “vacation” excuse was enough to prevent the call. If he doesn’t find an excuse he replaces her in front of the readers eyes: “I thought of giving old Jane a buzz, to see if she was home yet and all, but I wasn’t in the mood. What I did do, I gave old Sally Hayes a buzz”(137). Him not being “In the mood” is a weak excuse since he genuinely wants to talk to Jane. He knows that speaking to Sally won’t be able to fill that longing desire and he won’t be satisfied. “I’m not in the mood right now… You have to be in the mood for those things”(42). Even when Holden obtains the opportunity to see her and not just speak to her Holden steps away

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