Thursday, 8 November 2012

Chapter 21 - Escape Extract

I think that a good escape extract in this chapter is the part where Holden is looking through Phoebe's things on the desk and comes across a book that does not have her own name on it. On it it reads 'Phoebe Weatherfield Caulfield 4B-1'. This is on page 172.

I think that just these 3 words can mean escape in a very similar way to how Holden feels about himself. Further back in the novel (Chapter 8) when Holden is speaking to a woman on a train he does not call himself by his own name he calls himself by the name 'Rudolf Schmidt. This is a similar thing to what Phoebe has done, further down the page Holden says that Phoebe Weatherfield Caulfield is not her actual name but she likes to write stories just like her older brother D.B and she has given herself this fiction name. To me it seems as though the family is not comfortable about what they do with their lives, Holden does not really mention his parents throughout the whole novel so maybe he does not have that much interest in them at all, D.B is off doing his writing in Hollywood so Holden rarely mentions him unless he is discussing writing, Allie is dead but means a lot to Holden, but Phoebe is mentioned a lot in this novel and it seems to me that Holden considers Phoebe to be a very important character and I think Salinger has emphasised on this. Here I feel as though by calling herself a different name she is escaping away from the truth, maybe she does not want people to know or maybe she is just strange in that way, but Holden is this same, he also changes his name just so he does not have to tell people about himself which therefore means he is also escaping away from the truth and maybe this is why Phoebe and Holden do get on so well as brother and sister, possibly Holden is going to try and protect Phoebe from what he is having to live his life like.

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