The 3 revelations that Holden Caulfield comes to in "Catcher in the rye".

Essay by juiceboxpimpHigh School, 11th gradeA+, July 2003

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Holden himself say on the last page of the book, "D.B. asked me what I thought about all this stuff I just finished telling you about...If you want to know the truth, I don't know what I think about it." (p 213) By the end of the novel, I don't think that Holden himself has reached any concrete conclusions. I think though that eventually he will. He has laid the ground work for revelation, but has not seen the light. Here are what I think the impending revelations entail:

Revelation #1: "You're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior." (p. 189) Throughout so much of this novel I believe that Holden is surprised and trying to pretend he's not. He doesn't want people to realize how naïve he is about the world, but he can't contain his own surprise at other times.

He's caught in the dangerous riptide between childhood and the adult world, youth. He's not quite jaded enough to mask his surprise, but not still young enough to revel in it. I believe this throughout the course of this novel he comes to realize his place in the adult world, more so than when he leaves Pencey.

Revelation #2: "The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them."(p.211) Now, this is totally opposite to what Holden says when he's talking to Phoebe about the poem. Then he talks about how these little kids "they're running and they don't look where they're going" and how he wants to be the one who has "to come out from somewhere...