Re: I luv Holden

Bridget C (jpdunn@erols.com)
Wed, 01 Jul 1998 20:22:40 -0400 

this is how we're sure that allie is real: 
	"What?" I said to old Phoebe. She said something to me, but I 
didn't hear her. 
	"You can't even think of one thing."
	"Yes, I can. Yes, I can." 
	"Well, do it, then." 
	"I like Allie," I said. "And I like doing what I'm doing right 
now. Sitting here with you, and talking, and thinking about stuff, and-"
	"Allie's dead-You always say that! If somebody's dead and 
everythying and in Heaven, then it isn't really-" 
	"I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like 
him, though, can't I?  Just because somebody's dead you don't just stop 
liking them, for God's sake- especially if they were about a thousand 
times nicer than the people you know that're alive and all." 


Valerie wrote: 
>That's taking it all a bit far, I think. If you say Holden could have
>been making Allie up, we have no reason to believe anything Holden says
>or anything any fictional character says. While characters do have 
>their
>own motives, etc... I don't think it makes sense to doubt something 
>like that.


the first question you ask with a narrator is whether you trust them or 
not. you have to examine their mental and moral state, take someone like 
benjy from faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury." when you're reading the 
benjy section, you have to realize that the narrator is mentally 
retarded and account for that. so when you read holden, you have to 
realize that there is a conflict of interest between being the catcher 
in the rye and honest. 

the first line of chapter 3 is, "I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw 
in your life." but then you have to examine what he is lying about, and 
what kind of lies are okay to him. because he does quickly follow this 
statement with, "It's awful." he considers dishonesty in other people a 
horrible quality, the root of all phoniness. i think he lies for other 
people's benefit just because...the truth is too hard to deal with, and 
he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. that's part of the cather's 
job, right? ie, the woman on the train. he lies and says her son is a 
great guy when he really is a big phony. isn't there a line somewhere in 
jerry maguire about "brutal honesty"?? jerry tells the first wife that 
SHE added the brutal part.....perhaps holden believes it's right to be 
honest, but he can't be brutal. so maybe he disagrees with complete and 
total honesty and would rather send a mother off happy than honor the 
truth.