In addition to Allie's tragic death, Holden also witnesses the suicide of one his classmates while attending Elkton Hills. Holden elaborates on this traumatic experience in chapter 22 during a conversation with Phoebe. When Phoebe asks Holden to name one thing he likes, Holden can only think of James Castle. Holden recalls the time when James Castle was being bullied by his classmates and refused to take back something he said about Phil Stabile. According to Holden, Phil Stabile and six of his friends locked James in his room and proceeded to beat him severely.
Holden then remembers hearing the sound of James Castle's body hitting the ground. Holden also recalls running outside and witnessing James Castle's lifeless body mangled on the pavement. James Castle was even wearing Holden's turtleneck sweater that he let him borrow.
Holden also alludes to adults sexually molesting him or making advances towards him at the end of chapter 24. After Mr. Antolini wakes Holden in the middle of the night by rubbing his head and admiring him, Holden immediately leaves the apartment. Holden then says,
When something perverty like that happens, I start sweating like a bastard. That kind of stuff's happened to me about twenty times since I was a kid. I can't stand it (Salinger, 104).
While it is hard to determine whether or not Holden was actually molested by an adult, one cannot dismiss such a comment.
Saturday, June 20, 2015
What are the burdens that Holden carries? I know the death of his brother is one but need to know what else.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
There are a plethora of rules that Jonas and the other citizens must follow. Again, page numbers will vary given the edition of the book tha...
-
The poem contrasts the nighttime, imaginative world of a child with his daytime, prosaic world. In the first stanza, the child, on going to ...
-
The given two points of the exponential function are (2,24) and (3,144). To determine the exponential function y=ab^x plug-in the given x an...
-
The play Duchess of Malfi is named after the character and real life historical tragic figure of Duchess of Malfi who was the regent of the ...
-
The only example of simile in "The Lottery"—and a particularly weak one at that—is when Mrs. Hutchinson taps Mrs. Delacroix on the...
-
Hello! This expression is already a sum of two numbers, sin(32) and sin(54). Probably you want or express it as a product, or as an expressi...
-
Macbeth is reflecting on the Weird Sisters' prophecy and its astonishing accuracy. The witches were totally correct in predicting that M...
No comments:
Post a Comment