This phrase comes up while Holden is describing to Stradlater how he used to play checkers with Jane over the summer. The entire passage reads as follows:
She wouldn't move any of her kings. What she'd do, when she'd get a king, she wouldn't move it. She'd just leave it in the back row. She'd get them all lined up in the back row. Then she'd never use them. She just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row.
Holden idealizes Jane. He is horrified that someone as sneaky as Stradlater is going out on a date with her, so he begins babbling about her. Jane's keeping all her kings in the back row while she plays checkers is a metaphor for how Jane is quiet and reticent about her power as she plays the game of life. Kings are powerful pieces in checkers, and Holden is saying that Jane has power—that she is a strong person—but that she prefers not to show it. The metaphor also suggests that she is an artistic person first and foremost, because part of her rationale for not moving her kings is that she "liked the way they looked."
Of course, we have no way of knowing how much of this is what Jane really thinks and how much is Holden's projection.
Holden says this to Stradlater about Jane Gallagher. Holden is speaking about the way in which Jane plays checkers, but his commentary on Jane is a metaphor for the safe, self-protective way that she approaches life. If a piece is kinged in checkers, it has the ability to move forwards and backwards, which makes it a valuable piece to capture the pieces of an opponent (as other pieces can only move forward). If Jane keeps all her kings in the back row, it means that she is not aggressive and not willing to risk what is valuable to her. Instead, she plays it safe and keeps her kings where they can't easily be captured instead of using them to onto the rest of the board to try to win the game. Her interest is not in winning the game--only in staying safe. From this metaphor, the reader surmises that Jane is vulnerable and self-protective.
It's interesting to view Jane's checker-playing as a metaphor for her approach to life. Kings in the back row might stand for self-discipline, reserve, or a hidden ally.
One thing Holden remembers from playing checkers with Jane is that, when she got a king, she would keep it in the back row. She would line up her kings because "she just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row." This is unusual because a king in checkers is a powerful piece. Most people are eager, as soon as they get a king, to use it to help them win the game.
We can tell from this that winning was not Jane's primary concern in checkers. She wanted things to look a certain way. This might tell us that she was a precise person who liked things arranged just so. Holden tells us that she was a ballet dancer, and "used to practice about two hours every day, right in the middle of the hottest weather and all." This shows us that Jane has a lot of self-discipline.
Jane is also reserved. She obviously has problems with her stepfather, but she does not confide in Holden, even in the scene where she cries and he comforts her. She also does not go on making out with Holden afterward. She keeps her secrets and her dignity, just like she keeps her kings in the back row.
Because Holden knows this about Jane, he has some hope that she did not allow Stradlater (a notorious lecher) to take advantage of her.
Finally, it's possible that Holden himself is Jane's "king in the back row." He is clearly devoted to her and wants to help and protect her. During the course of the book, they do not see each other, and Holden does not even call her (though he considers it many times). Really, Holden is not in much shape to protect anybody, however much he might want to do so. Still, he is on Jane's side. He is an ally who might help her some day, though it is not apparent to the rest of the world.
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