Chapters 19 and 20

There are many characters throughout Catcher in the Rye whom Holden interacts with or refers to. In chapters 19 & 20 alone, he mentions Luce, Sally, his mother and father, Phoebe, and Allie. In your blog, choose one of these characters and analyze Holden's feelings toward that person. How does Holden feel about them? How does he try to connect to them? How are they significant to the entire book? Respond using examples from the text to support!

Character - Phoebe

Holden likes his sister, Phoebe, very much and talks about her on several occasions throughout the book, such as on pages 156 and 157. She is probably the person he loves the most in the world if not the only person who he loves. They both have had many experiences together because of their close brother-sister connection and Holden has grown very fond of her. Holden also states on page 156 that Phoebe is fond of him as well - "She likes me a lot. I mean she's quite fond of me. She really is."

Holden tries to get in contact with Phoebe whenever possible because of how much he is missing her. On page 156 he says, "Anyway,, I couldn't get that off my mind, so finally what I figured I'd do, I figured I'd better sneak home and see her, in case I died and all." Holden always has Phoebe on his mind. He probably has so many vivid memories of her and misses her deeply. Can you blame him? After not seeing a family member for awhile you might start to miss them!

Phoebe is very significant to this book because she, along with a few other things, is what keeps Holden going in life. Holden always has happy thoughts about her and it distracts him from his normal, depressed mood. Without Phoebe, Holden would continue to have little to look forward to in life. Phoebe means a lot to Holden and you can tell because of how Holden is always wishing to visit her or call her up whenever he reaches a phone booth. It would be very interesting to see where Holden would end up in life without having someone like Phoebe to think about all the time...