After having finished reading this whole book, there is much that I have noticed throughout it. There are many events that occur in which there is much thinking involved by the reader. For example, throughout the whole book Holden is talking about not wanting to grow up, but it was said in a very discrete way. I have also seen some things in Holden that I do actually see in myself, such as, being a phony sometimes or having a negative out look on some things. I picked up that in most events Holden concentrates on the little things. There was one thing about when he met up with those nuns in the diner, he seemed to remember the one nun and her old beat up basket. He mentioned it in two or three occasions and it kind of stuck out in his mind. There were many little unusual things that you could pick out of this book.
One of the events in the second part of this book that really made me think was the incident with Holden and Sally. At one point in the book, around page 128, Holden was talking about how much he loved Sally. He was going to take her away from there and make the American dream out of their lives. He was trying to act grown up and take on the responsibility to get a job and start his own life on his own. Then all of a sudden around page 131, Holden said he was starting to hate Sally. This was what made me think, because you can't go form loving to hating someone in that amount of time. What I came up with was that the one time that Holden tries to act like and adult someone shoots him down. Sally says to him that he is too young to go off and do all of this stuff and that he wouldn't know how to support his family. This all went back to how he didn't want to grow up in the first place.
Another situation that stuck in my mind was the thing with Mr. Antolini. This occurred around page 190, when Holden woke up with Mr. Antolini rubbing his head. Holden mentions something about how he had had stuff like that done to him since he was little. I could not and still can't seem to understand what he meant by that. Although it must not have been too important because it wasn't mentioned again. However, the reaction of Holden when this did happen was very extreme and he automatically went to the conclusion that Mr. Antolini was some kind of pervert. These little reactions that Holden makes are what had puzzled my throughout this novel.
The end result of this book showed really how much Pheobe meant to Holden on the outside. But deep inside I think that it showed somewhat of how Holden was not ready and still scared to go out on his own yet. When he finally tells Pheobe that he has decided not to go out west, it seems to me that he came to the realization of how old he really is. At the very end we find out that he is in some kind of a mental hospital, but I for one, can't figure out the reason why he was placed in this hospital. Throughout his life he never did anything that was extremely bad, he just had some character defects that he needed to take care of. I also thought that the ending was interesting how he almost says that he regrets ever writing about this story. But you can also see that by being in that hospital it may be doing him some good because he says that he misses everyone that he used to be around, or maybe he is very lonely and regretful.
In conclusion to reading this book, I have to say that this may have been one of, if not the best book that I have ever read. This style of writing really appealed to me and left an impact. This was the kind of book that made you think, but it was also one that you didn't mind thinking about. The idea of Holden going through a change in his life and while reading the book, watching him deal with these changes. I truly think that this was a good book and can really relate to it.