Catcher in the Rye: 7

I know you want to read muh found poem. But I'm not letting you.

Anyway. My favorite character in the whole entire book is *almost* introduced! Because so far, I know you've all been waiting in agony for that one awesome person to come along and actually make this book worth reading. Well don't worry and quit yer whining because he's almost here! Just a couple more pages...

With that being said, I've decided to psychoanalyze Holden and Phoebe. First of all, I'd like to express my anger with the spelling of Phoebe. Seriously? It makes a perfectly nice and pleasant name look like "Fo-ee-bbb" which sounds horrible. It really does. If you ask me, it should be spelled Febea. Muuuch nicer to look at.

So. Holden and Febea. Yes. For some reason whenever I read this book I always expect their relationship to be different. I expect Febea to be almost nicer and sweeter. When he finally gets to see her in their house she is just sitting on the bed and telling him their dad is going to kill Holden while he is really trying to tell her what's been going on in his life as of lately. She doesn't really seem to care. And it pisses ME OFF! Febea sounds kind of like a kid I might hate. Holden really talks her up for more than she really is. She is never half of what she's cracked up to be. And it makes me mad. So Febea is a jerk. But Holden is completely oblivious to this even though she acts just like all the other phonies he's met along the way!! That's what kills me, that although she is a naive jerk, Holden worships the sheets she lays on. I also know that she's only ten but she never seems very intelligent to me. Every little thing she does it magic to Holden, and for example when Holden tells Febea that he dropped her record and it was all in pieces she just saved them and Holden says "She took them right out of my hand and she put them in the drawer of the night table. She kills me." Why would that kill you? Holden falls all over her and she just passes him by without even noticing that he pays so much attention to her. She really bugs me and does not kill me the way she kills Holden. In another sense she does...

Catcher in the Rye: 6

Chapters 18 thru 20- Relationships

I feel increasingly bad for Holden because he can never keep a relationship straight with anyone. The only people he has (or had) decent relationships with are Jane, Phoebe and Allie. These are also the only people Holden really praises as having good character and above all, they weren't phonies. Everyone whom Holden cannot relate to is automatically a phony to him. I think that if Holden had an outside view of himself, he would probably say that he was too conceded and serious. Holden probably comes off as full of himself because he basically thinks he's better than everyone else. He can't overlook the bad things about people but he seems to wish he could. He talks about marriage and having friends wistfully because he's never been able to stand a person long enough to become their friend. He even gets tired of intellects. I think Corso's poem about marriage is a good insight to how Holden feels about marriage. Corso kinda thinks people are phonies too. Maybe Holden wishes he was more normal, but tells himself that everyone else is a phony to make himself feel better about not being so normal. He has really bad relationships with everyone because he can't let things go and he has such drastic mood swings and hyper-sensitivity.