Towards the end of The Catcher in the Rye, Phoebe pretty much dominates Holden's thoughts. There is the scene with Mr. Antolini, and the scene with the two little kids at the museum (looking for the toons) but the rest of the last few chapters are devoted to Holden's interactions with Phoebe. Even before we ever meet her Holden tells us about her. He obviously cares a lot about his family, he brings up Allie and D.B. a lot and he seems to not want to distress his mother, but he really focuses on Phoebe. At first it seemed a little strange to me, a six year age difference at that point in his life is a big deal. We see how his age ostracizes him from the kids at the playground when he goes to look for her. He knows he's too old to really hang out with them, and they definitely know it, but with Phoebe it's just different. When he breaks down in her room, the way he describes it makes her almost appear to be the older sibling, she's comforting him on the edge of the bed as he struggles to control himself.
People in class threw around the idea that she represents the aspects of childhood that Holden wants to keep a hold of in his attempt to avoid the phoniness he equates with being an adult. While I agree that Holden wants to keep alive his childhood by being with her, I think her personality has a large part to do with it. If you look throughout his week that Catcher covers, almost all of his complaints are about the different traits of people in his life. Holden is annoyed by Stradlater because he is a secret slob as he puts it (27), the girls at the club because only one of them can really dance (74), and then Sally and Sunny because they aren't good conversationalists (96,128). Then, when it seems like Holden can't find anyone who matches all his criteria, we meet Phoebe. He tells us she's really smart, a great dancer, can lie through her teeth, and she can clearly keep up with him in any conversation (165,175,177). Phoebe is the opposite of practically everything Holden dislikes in other people. By spending time with her, he can reaffirm to himself that not only is childhood more real than adulthood, but that there are people out there who are everything he's looking for in another person.
Holden's "crazy" idea, in this conversation with Phoebe, that he wants to be a "catcher in the rye" always makes me wonder about how their awesome relationship might change over the next few years. I agree that he seems to like himself more when he's with Phoebe, because she's not always letting him down like everyone else, and therefore it's not as much about nostalgia for his own childhood as simply preferring the company of someone who is still "real" in this way. (And she maybe gets a little *too* real for him as the conversation unfolds!) So if he wants to be a "catcher"--to "save" kids from "going over the cliff"--what does this mean for the prospect of Phoebe growing up, hitting adolescence and even adulthood? Can she retain her unique status in Holden's world? Will he be able to handle seeing her change, as she inevitably will?
ReplyDelete(When we note his reluctance to go say hi to Jane, I can't help but imagine Phoebe in Jane's place, five or six years down the line, maybe dating a Stradlater of her own. Will Holden try to keep her "sealed off," as he has with Jane?)