The End of the Catcher In the Rye

The ending, in my opinion, was the best part of the book, particularly the last two chapters-ish. I'd like to write about the book without having it right with me, so here's my best attempt.

The beginning of the ending was a little hard to get into. He's still depressed, he drops her

record, and he goes to the little pond, I was afraid he was going to freeze to death and that would be the end of the book. But then he goes home, and it made me so glad he finally went home because it was about time! He goes home and talks to Phoebe, and then Mr. Antolini, and then Phoebe again. Mr. Antolini was an interesting man. It's too bad he got his wife up just to make coffee, why can't the lazy man make it himself? They had a long talk, (that oral expression class sounded sort of strange) and then eventually he falls asleep there. Then he wakes up to find him petting him on the head, or something like that, and runs away because he's afraid of him. I think Mr. Antolini was just concerned about Holden, especially with all the careful advice he gives him.

Phoebe - I was so happy to meet her!! She just seems so realistic, not that the other characters weren't, but of all the people in the book, I could picture Phoebe the most. The way she is totally awake only a few seconds after he wakes her up, and she is so excited to see her brother. I mean, she doesn't even worry about why he's home early for a while, she only cares that he's back home. I wonder if she knows that she is the only person alive that he really likes. Who else is there? When she asks him that question, I think he should have said, "You," but he didn't! Oh, that made me so sad! Even Jane isn't really quite the same to him as his sister. He goes and buys a record for his sister, not Jane. I guess that's just bad reasoning, but I if I had to choose one over the other, I'd pick Phoebe. One thing that I appreciate about Phoebe is that she seems so sensible! Instead of just accepting her brother's life, she wants him to grow up. I love that about her, she already gets things when she's so young. I still feel like she's realistic though, because she doesn't always act sensible. She has the crying fit after she finds out he got kicked out, and doesn't talk to him. But at the same time, she saw it coming, she is smart enough to figure things like that out ahead of time. She is just the best.

Another thing about Phoebe is that not only can she understand and stand up to Holden, she also has some power over him. They both obviously care for each other, but Holden probably would only say no to her if she could get hurt. And that's where her power comes in. If Phoebe wasn't there, Holden would probably be dead or really really depressed. Whether she planned it or not, she sure did stop Holden from making a bad mistake by running off to wherever. So the question is, was she just being stubborn and childish by trying to get Holden to let her come with him, or was it her plan to get him to stay? Why can't she be smart enough to know she could stop him? I sure don't know why.

Other things that made me smile that Phoebe did? When she wore his hat, when she put his hat on his head for him, when she saved the pieces of his record, and when she lends him money. It just seems so sweet of her, with this truly unconditional love she has for her brother. She forgives him for getting kicked out (kind of), and for dropping the record, but she still has this way of pushing him on.

Then there's the carrousel. Phoebe is still mad at Holden, and it supposed to be closed, and Phoebe thinks she's too old, but she rides it anyway. Holden just watches her, and then it ends, and it starts to rain, and then she puts his hat on his head. Even when it starts pouring, he stands and watches her go up and down on the carrousel. I love it! It's not really a happy ending, but it's still good. You know what I think would be cool? If it was written from Phoebe's perspective. That would just be great. Then you're left, in chapter 26, with this feeling that it could happen all over again, but somehow he might do better, or something good might happen to make it a little better. It gave a hint that, maybe, he possibly could have a better life. He really could.