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Bling bling


            Holden's younger sister, Phoebe is a smart kid, and she and Holden mutually adore and respect each other. Holden thinks about Phoebe many times during his time in New York City, and finally risks getting caught by his parents to sneak into their apartment and visit her. When Holden says he's leaving to go West, Phoebe packs her bags and demands to come along. For some reason, this seems to convince Holden that neither of them needs to be running away. .
             Phoebe is Holden's ten-year-old sister, a bright and articulate girl who .
             sometimes talks to Holden as though she were older than he. She's one of the .
             few people he feels great affection for, and he talks about her with obvious .
             delight. She's the personification of Holden's idealized view of childhood, .
             and she seems actually to possess all the wonderful qualities Holden ascribes .
             to her. The problem for Holden is that she's a real person, not an idealization, .
             and she's already showing signs of the process of growing up. Phoebe .
             appears in person very late in the book, but she plays a central role in .
             Holden's thoughts, and has much influence on what happens to him at the .
             2end of the novel. .
             Holden's love for children first shows itself in his description of his young sister, Phoebe. All of his thoughts up to those of his sister are dark and unsettling. Phoebe's description is so outrightly loving that the reader is shown an entirely new side to Holden, one that shows he is not entirely incapable of happiness. Phoebe's role as a minor character in the novel is to keep Holden anchored to reality; to prevent him from ruining his life completely and losing all hope in his future. It is because of his fear of what Phoebe would do without him that keeps Holden from moving out west. When she tries to accompany him, Holden implicitly realizes that the trip west would destroy Phoebe's innocence, and that his erratic behavior would prove harmful to her.


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