The Holden Trinity: Phoebe, Jane, and Allie
The Holden Trinity: Phoebe, Jane, and Allie By: Citlali The Catcher in the Rye poses a very interesting question: why does Holden care so much about kids? It’s likely because kids are the only people Holden feels he can trust. Holden has been through a lot, dealing with his brother’s death and adults betraying his trust on multiple occasions. At the point in Holden’s life when the book is set, there are only a few people he holds close to himself: Phoebe, Jane, and Allie. All three are important to him because they represent how his childhood was much happier than his adolescence, after he lost Allie, after Jane moved away, and after he went to boarding school and stopped seeing Phoebe so much. Because of the loss of these three people in his life, he tends to think about them a lot, bringing them up to the reader often throughout the book. Now, I want to talk about Phoebe and her relationship with Holden. As we talked about in class, Phoebe is kind of a mini-Holden. She is smart and s...