Holden and J.D. Salinger

In the next two chapters I’ve read, Holden gets himself very, very drunk. When Holden is drunk, he seems to get even wackier than he usually is!

Once he leaves the bar, he goes to the park. After wondering around drunk for awhile, he gets another idea. His idea is to go back to his house and talk to his little sister, Phoebe, without his parents finding out. He did not want his parents to know that he got kicked out of school just yet, and school did not end until Wednesday. He still had a little more time to kill. But being drunk, he wanted to go see Phoebe.

After having a lucky break with the normal elevator attendant not working, he finally gets to Phoebe. “Then, finally, I woke her up. I mean I couldn’t sit there on that desk for the reset of my life, and besides, I was afraid my parents might barge in on me all of a sudden and I wanted to at least say hello to her before they did. So I woke her up” (Salinger161). There Holden goes changing his opinion again. Just a second ago he did not want his parents to know about his visit, and he did not want them to know about it very badly.

Soon again, though. He seems to care again. I can tell this by a few things he said including “Not so loud,” “Yeah, not so loud, thanks,” and “Wait a second, willya I’m asking you a question. Did they say what time they’d be back, or didn’t they?” He seemed to care greatly about whether he was caught by his parents or not here.

Holden’s way of thinking is so foreign to me. I cannot fathom having the same mind set as him. I wonder if J.D. Salinger was like Holden. I mean he did write the book, so maybe Holden is some kind of J.D. Salinger? I guess we will never know, but if I had to make a guess, I would guess that Holden is like J.D. Salinger.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. Print.