Does the character of Allie significantly change Holden? In The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger introduces Holden Caulfield, an innocent spirit surrounded by the ugly and harsh realities of the world around him.

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Does the character of Allie significantly change Holden? In The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger introduces Holden Caulfield, an innocent spirit surrounded by the ugly and harsh realities of the world around him. Holden's need to preserve innocence mainly stems from the loss of his younger brother, Allie. Allie died young at the age of 11 of leukemia when Holden was 13 years old. Holden describes him as terrifically intelligent and the nicest, in lots of ways. Allie's poem-covered mitt is a symbol of how Holden remembers him: smart, sensitive, and insightful. He is Holden's ideal of innocence personified. When Allie dies, Holden smashes all the windows in the garage and his hands in the process. In that moment he encounters true loss for the first time. Salinger hints that it is this loss that fuels Holden's need to protect and preserve innocence; so that he will never have to feel that pain again.

Three years later, he now stands on the edge of his cherished childhood, his innocence, peering down into the darkness of adulthood. He scorns the abysss phoniness and cynicism and instead clings to the purity of his childlike innocence.

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"If a body catch a body, coming through the rye," sings a little boy skipping on the street. Upon hearing this Holden is immediately comforted and notices that some of his depression is lifted. To Holden, the song conjures images of children playing happily in a huge field of rye near a crazy cliff. When one of the children, in his merriment, draws close to the cliffs edge, someone has to catch him before he falls. When Phoebe, Holden's little sister, asks Holden what he wants to be, he responds "I'd just be the catcher in the rye..." Children are ...

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