Holden’s use of his dead brother, Allie, and the Indian painting as bases of comparison and hand language forces him to recognize his inevitable shift from adolescence to adulthood.
Allie’s development was frozen in childhood, and his well-rounded, well-liked, essence provides a foundation for which Holden reproaches himself and his development. Holden’s fixation on how intelligent Allie was, allows him to diminish his own academic capabilities. When he exaggerates, “[Allie was] fifty times as intelligent” (p. 49) he further highlights his own inferior intelligence and performance in school; in fact, he is analyzing this comparison while writing a composition for his roommate, as English is the single class Holden receives a passing grade. Instead of complimenting his own writing ability, Holden emphasizes the descriptive nature of the subject matter: Allie’s baseball mitt. The juxtaposition of Allie’s eloquent writing to Holden’s writing on this graphic topic insinuates that even though …show more content…
Holden emphasizes his consciousness that he has evolved when he encounters the painting: “Nobody’d be different. the only thing that would be different would be you… You’d just be different, that’s all” (p. 158). Here, Holden repeats “different” because he can’t characterize the small changes that he sees the painting reflecting in himself, he cannot escape the hands of time. The painting itself is paused in transition, and he is envious that his own transition, into adulthood, cannot be suspended in time. Holden’s age has further separated him from Allie’s never-changing ten-year old self and he is fearful that if he does in fact go into the museum, his forced introspection will reveal that he has matured out of adolescent innocence