What Does Sally Hayes Symbolize In Catcher In The Rye

Although Holden describes the situation in a very attractive manner, he basically tells Phoebe that he wants to prevent children from growing up. He blames the world's evil on adults and believes that when he stops the children from growing up he will save their innocence and the world.

The relationship between Holden and Phoebe forms a major theme that the novel aims to deliver. The fact that he is having this conversation with Phoebe, a child who is anything but simple and innocent, reveals the oversimplification of his worldview. Holden himself realizes this to a degree when he acknowledges that his idea is “crazy”, yet he cannot come up with anything more pragmatic; he has trouble seeing the world in any other way. His “catcher in the rye” fantasy reflects his innocence, his belief in pure, uncorrupted youth, and his desire to protect that spirit. On the other hand, it represents his extreme disconnection from reality and his naïve view of the world. Phoebe exposes to Holden a living embodiment of childhood. And it is a scene with her where she exposes to Holden the illogical nature of his supervisory actions, indicating that his desire to preserve her innocence will only halt her own inevitable development. Phoebe is the Greek word for “protector of children” (Bloom 2009, p185). Within the novel she is Holden’s protector. She comforts him, provides him with financial security, and protects him from getting in trouble with their mother. Reiff describes this reversal of roles between Holden and Phoebe as “Now, instead of saving the world by protecting the children, Holden wants to reject the world and shut himself off from evil by becoming a ‘deaf-mute’ in the West. It is Phoebe who rescues him from this total withdrawal” (Reiff 2008, p71). Phoebe forces Holden to view her as a human—living and progressing— rather than as a forever preserved child, and it is this humanization that causes Holden to accept her eventual progression into

In a complete contrast to Jane appears Sally Hayes, an attractive but obnoxious girl that Holden goes out with quite a lot. From Holden’s perspective, Sally Hayes is everything he despises in the world; phony, conceited, and stupid. But the truth is that Sally is probably just a typical, beautiful, seventeen

As Holden and Sally’s date continues on they end up sitting down and having a conversation where Holden reveals one of his illusions to her. In Holden’s crazy mind he has come up with a plan, that seems perfect to him, to run away with Sally and go live their life somewhere far away from all

Throughout the novel Phoebe has redefined the female stereotypes by being intelligent. Even though Holden and Phoebe are siblings it is quite remarkable the impact she has had on him. Phoebe is a 10 year old young lady who is portrayed as an overly emotional and unintelligent woman by society. In chapter 10 while getting ready to go to the Lavender Room at the Edmont’s nightclub Holden contemplates calling Phoebe but he thinks other wise, he goes on to describe her characteristics. Holden says, “the only trouble is, she’s a little too affectionate sometimes, she’s very emotional, for a child. She really is” (Salinger 76). Anti Feminists would say that women have too many emotions compared to men, and it is these emotions that make them perceive

As the novel progresses, we realize that ironically Holden's alienation becomes the source of most of his pain throughout the book. Although he never realizes the fact that his pain is being derived from his isolation and lack of human interaction, Salinger places clues in the book that tell us that it is so. With the introduction of Sally Hayes, Salinger is able to craft a relationship that effectively depicts the conflict in Holden. It is loneliness that initially propels Holden into a date with Sally. However, during the date Holden's need for isolation returns, he "didn't even know why" he "started all that stuff with her. The truth is" he "probably wouldn't have taken her even if she wanted to go." Because Sally is unable to recognize the feelings on the "phoniness" of school that he projects, he becomes frustrated and uses a rampaging monologue to upset her and drive her away. The only time in the

After spending some time in New York, Holden decides to reach out to some of his old friends. He calls an old friend, Carl Luce and asks to meet him for dinner. While he can’t make dinner, he does agree to a drink and they arrange to meet at a popular bar in the city. Holden arrives at the bar early and begins drinking. After a moment, he begins to describe others in the bar. He describes the singers and people sitting near him in a negative tone, criticizing them and their behavior. He says “The bartender was a louse, too. He was a big snob” (157). Although Holden doesn’t know him personally at all, he immediately forms a negative opinion of him. This feeling of resentfulness towards others is likely due to the critical way he thinks about himself and his constant feeling of being an outsider. As the story progresses, Holden takes a trip to visit his little sister Phoebe. He sneaks into his parents’ home and finds her sleeping. He notices she has a nice skirt and jacket set laid on the chair and explains how his mother has impeccable taste. He also notes most kids dress terribly and says, “You take most little kids, even if their parents are wealthy and all, they usually have some terrible dress on” (166/167). Even after continuously saying how much he loves kids and how great they are, Holden still has a negative opinion about them. He consistently has a negative opinion about others,

Holden hates those magazines that the steward sells on the train. Holden cites, "I can usually even read one of those dumb stories in a magazine without puking. You know. One of those stories with a lot of phony, lean-jawed guys named David in it, and a lot of phony girls named Linda or Marcia that are always lighting all the goddam Davids' pipes for them" (53). Holden cannot stand that all the stupid same old stories. The ones where there is always a hero and saves someone that is in trouble. After that Holden felt a little down so he decided to pass the time. Holden knows this girl named Sally Hayes. They used to send a lot of time together when they were younger. Holden is bored and decides to give her a call. He calls her and her father answers and then gives the phone to Sally. Sally Hayes picked up the phone and asks, "yes--who is this?" Holden goes on to state, "she was quite a little phony. I'd already told her father who it was" (106). Holden cannot believe that she knows who is calling but asks for no reason. Sally is just trying to play a stupid game that Holden would rather not want to play at any time.

He is trying to move on from the past life, but it is hard for him to to do so. Running away has always been one of the things Holden desires throughout the novel. When Holden was on a date with Sally Hayes he told her, "What we could do is, tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, and all around there, see. We'll stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out. Then when the dough runs out, I could get a job somewhere and we could live somewhere there with a brook and all and, later on, we could get married or something.

Not only does Holden feel great affection for Phoebe, Phoebe feels great affection for Holden as well. It isn't too hard to understand that she and Holden are especially close since one of their brothers is dead and the other lives miles from their home. It is also surprising on how quickly Phoebe realizes that Holden came home earlier than expected. It is obvious that Phoebe is much more mature and articulate for her age to realize something like that so quickly. It is as if she is Holden's older sister instead of the younger one.

Holden and Phoebe both have childlike minds, except Phoebe is actually a child. In the novel, it appears that the only people Holden likes are innocent people like children and the two nuns. Holden does not want to grow up and experience things as an adult, he wants to keep his innocence even though it is time for him to be a grown up. Phoebe is young, so naturally her mind is childlike since she has not had to be mature yet. “I was sixteen then, and I’m seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I’m about thirteen.” (Salinger, 9) Holden knows he does not act his age, and evidently does not care to change

When Holden thinks about Sally Hayes and how she is such as phony, he becomes a hypocrite due to his unhealthy habit of lying. Holden looks at everything separately and individually, instead of looking at everything as a whole. Holden, with his flawed way of thinking, does not think about why the way things are and how they got there, for example when Holden hated the suit cases the nuns were using just because they were not of high quality. Not taking into account that these nuns could not afford top of the line brand new leather suitcases.

Holden’s date with Sally Hayes exhibited his difficulty at cooperating with others. At first he gives us a dire impression of Sally, “I wasn’t too crazy about her, but I’d known her for years.” (p. 105) Later, he wants to marry Sally and says he is in love with her. The biggest mystery of all when it comes to women is with Jane Gallagher. Constantly mentioning Jane, Holden recalls playing checkers with her before he got sent to boarding school. When his roommate, Stradlater, has a date with Jane, Holden asks him a peculiar question, “Did you ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row?” (p. 42) Holden, jealous of Stradlater’s date with Jane, longs to see Jane but never has the courage to call her. Interactions with other people especially women perplex and overwhelm Holden. He therefore resorts to isolation, illustrating a characteristic of his mental state.

Holden looks fairly mature and, as stated in the novel, can usually get drinks due to his height and gray hair. However, Phoebe is and looks like a child. She represents childhood innocence. Holden looks older than he is and is becoming an adult. He struggles with this as he misses being a child, but he also seems to enjoy some of the benefits of his independence as an “adult.” These similarities and differences are not only external, but internal as well.

It causes him to be even more depressed facing this issue, but he needs to solve it. Similarly when Phoebe is on the carousel, Holden is worrying about her falling, but it causes him to recognize that “the thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring you have to let them do it, they fall off, they fall off." (211). This causes Holden to understand that this is life and he must accept everything. One might object that this does not cause Holden to mature. However, to Holden from how he despises the society and avoiding it to now being about to at least admit this issue, not avoiding it and later start to go to school. He might not fully mature, but it is a huge step for him to becoming mature. Children will grow up including Holden and follow the way life works no matter what. Hence, Phoebe induces Holden 's way of viewing the world. Hence, the relationship with Phoebe changes Holden 's perspective of the world.