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Catcher in the Rye is a fiction book written by J. D. Salinger in 1945. In the book the main character, Holden Caulfield, narrates to us the 1950 s memory of his final day at the school Peace Prep and the mental breakdown he suffered in his expedition on the streets of New York. In Catcher in the Rye there were certain important characters that need to be mentioned. The was the main character Holden Caulfield.
In the flashback he was 16 years old and on the verge of mental break down. He sees the adult world around his as phony and he wants to save the innocent kids from growing up and becoming adult phonies. One character never talked in the book, yet he had the greatest influence of Holden s life. Allie Caulfield was Holden s little brother who died of leukemia years before the memory began. Allie had bright red hair and he went the world to Holden. The day Allie died, Holden broke every window in his garage and broke his hands in the process.
Holden thought of Allie as the perfect kid and truly innocent. To him, Allie was the exact opposite of phony. Another important character that never talked in the book was Jane Gallagher. She was Holden s former girlfriend and they shared a special bond. Jane of one of the few people Holden could talk to and she was obviously very important to him. Phoebe Caulfield is Holden s ten year old sister.
Holden cares for her deeply and he feels like she in one of the few people he can talk to about anything and she will understand. Phoebe is still young and innocent, and that keeps Holden happy throughout the novel. After another boring lecture about him failing all his classes expect English from Mr. Spencer and an unpleasant evening (that included a fight and Holden finding out that Stradlater, Holden s roommate, was dating Jane) with Stradlater and Ackley, classmate with room next to Holden s, Holden decides to leave Peace forever and go home to his parents.
However he decides to take a detour to delay his return home so his parents have time to calm down about his expulsion. In New York Holden has numerous encounters with people he considers phony and with every encounter he becomes more and more lonely and depressed. Everything about the ugly adult world around him depresses Holden. At one point he is so depressed and lonely that he accepts an offer from an elevator pimp to get a girl for a couple of hours.
But when the girl arrives Holden become very uncomfortable with the girls actions especially her suddenly taking off her dress, and he doesn t want to have sex. So he pays her five dollars but she demands but doesn t get ten dollars. Later on, the elevator pimp beats the other five dollars out of Holden, and Holden does nothing about it, he crawls into bed crying. Extremely lonely, Holden risks getting caught by his parents, and visits his sister, Phoebe, whom he loves dearly. They talk and talk, and Phoebe asks Holden what, if anything, does he like. Holden can think of nothing he really likes except Allie.
The next day Holden frantically wonders the streets on New York looking at the children and begging Allie to help him not to disappear. This was the worst part of his nervous breakdown. The book ends with Holden taking Phoebe to the zoo and happily watching her ride the merry-go-round. He then leaves us by saying that he is resting now and he is going back to school in the fall and that he wishes that he hadn t told this story to so many people because talking about it makes him miss everyone.
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Research essay sample on Main Character Holden Catcher In The Rye
