When we last left Holden he was on his way to his old teacher, Mr. Antolini's house. Mr Antolini tells Holden how he is worried about him and that he is not going to be happy in life if he keeps on with this attitude. In Holden's defense he tries to say that he didn't like the rules given in Pencey. This strikes up an argument between the two about how their will be rules at every place he goes and that rules are often made for the better. When Holden leaves Mr.Antolini's house, he starts to plead to Allie so that he can make it. At this point I believe that Holden is becoming delusional because he is calling to his dead brother to let him make it to the other side. Holden then ends up in Phoebe's school where she wants him to let her go with him. He refuses but offers her a trip to the zoo. After the zoo they end up in a park and that is the end of the story. Holden doesn't want to tell us what happens at the park with Phoebe but he does say that he went home, and he got sick. When Holden got sick he got sent to a resting home where he now shares his story with us.
Pages 234 - 277
Quote:
"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."
(Salinger 277)
Reaction:
I think this was an important quote because this was an interesting way to end the story. As I read the book, I thought the ending would've been more strong. Strong in the sense of word choice or in such a way that it ended with Holden saying how his life sucks and he wished he could go back and change it all. However, he changes completely; we actually start to see the soft side of Holden in the last couple of chapters. In the lines before this quote he says that he misses everyone he mentioned even the people he didn't get along with. Holden changes into a person who now instead of just giving you a story is actually trying to teach you a lesson. The ending was a surprise and actually leaves people thinking. If you never think about someone did they ever mean anything to you? I also thought to myself: "If I never miss anyone does that mean I'm heartless?" I thought Catcher in the Rye was an awesome book!
