Chapter 20 : Holden Caulfield becomes very pessimistic throughout chapter 20 of The Catcher in the Rye.
He begins to drink in order to banish his emotions. When he is “drunk as hell” (Salinger 149) he leaves the Wicker Bar and goes to the park. At the park Holden manages to break Phoebe's “Little Shirley Beans” record into “about fifty pieces” (154). He becomes very depressed thinking about Allie’s funeral and how his own funeral will be. Holden believes that his death will bring discourage to his mother who is still not over Allie’s death.
Holden is extremely concerned about how others will feel and doesn't really talk about his feelings.Chapter 22: Holden yearns to be the catcher in the rye. He pictures himself being almost like a God figure compared to all the “thousands of little kids” (173). He describes a situation where he would be their hero/savior. Holden is fixated on saving young people because he worries that they will have to suffer what he did. Holden shows a parental characteristic with wanting to be the catcher in the rye.
When Holden narrates “I have to catch everybody if they start to go off the cliff-I mean if they’re running and they don't look where they’re going i have to come out of somewhere and catch them” (173) he describes the youth as naive and unaware of what they are doing. He knows that he has made mistakes in his past because he wasn't looking where he was going and wants to make it easier for others to not fall into his steps.Chapter 26: Salinger ends the novel with an unclear ending. The reader is not told whether Holden recovers or degrades back to his ways.
But it is inferred that Holden does not change for the better. The chapter starts with “That’s all i'm going to tell you about” (213) which is just like the first chapter. Holden seems like he does not want to talk about the events between the day at the park with phoebe and how he got to where he is now. The ending of the novel is strangely vague, like most of the book, Holden still refuses to share much information about his family , his future, and school.
