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Catcher in the Rye


            Through the analysis of the last scene in J. Salinger's, The Catcher in The Rye, the reader is given insight into Holden's mind set, coming of age, the reality of the path he has chosen to take and recurring themes throughout the novel.
             Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.
             They, asked me how I knew,.
             My true love was true,.
             I of course replied, something here inside, .
             Can not be denied.
             They, said some day you'll find, .
             All who love are blind,.
             When you heart's on fire, you must realize, .
             Smoke gets in your eyes.
             So I chaffed them, and I gaily laughed, .
             To think they would doubt our love,.
             And yet today, my love has gone away,.
             I am without my love.
             Now laughing friends deride,.
             Tears I cannot hide,.
             So I smile and say, when a lovely flame dies,.
             Smoke gets in your eyes,.
             Smoke gets in your eyes.
             (Roberta, 1933) The entire process of growing up is confusing and muddled, and of course different for everyone thus it cannot be assigned to a certain time frame; Holden experiences so much "growing up" in the span of three days that he becomes capable of providing a condensed but accurate portrayal into the experiences of adolescence, and the reader also deciders integrated themes. In the closing scene of The Catcher in The Rye Holden watches Phoebe walks around the carrousel at the zoo; he can truly "see" as Phoebe "sits down on this big, brown, beat-up-looking old horse. Then the carrousel starts, and [Holden] watches her go around and around. There [are] only about five or six other kids on the ride, and the song [playing on the carrousel is]"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." It [is] playing very jazzy and funny."(211) It seems odd that Phoebe would need to walk all the way around the carrousel before she finds the perfect place to sit. The way she might go about the circling of the carrousel resembles Holden's mind-set; he hates the "fakeness" of everyone and everything. However, where Holden fails to look deeper and find the parts that are real or could symbolize something more real, Phoebe succeeds when she sits down on that "big, brown, beat-up-looking horse".


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