End+of+novel+response

Response to the end of //The Catcher in the Rye//: Did you like the ending? Why or why not? Read what others have written and respond to them in your posting.
I honestly did not like the ending. Every time I read it, it was still vague and incomplete. It was as if he forgot to include the next chapter. I was expecting Holden to tell more about what happens afterwards, but he says "That's all I'm going to tell about. I could probably tell you what I did after I went home, and how I got sick and all, and what school I'm supposed to go to next fall, after I get out of here, but I don't feel like it. I really don't. That stuff doesn't interest me too much right now." (Salinger, 213) I was glad that Pheobe was there with him and how she packed up her suitcase to follow Holden, I thought this was very cute actually. I was happy that Holden was finally happy, and decided to remain innocent in a world full of phonies. It was surprising when he mentioned that he missed Stadlater and Ackley. I knew he had feelings, but I didn't think he would miss anyone other than Allie, Pheobe, and Jane. I was expecting Holden to somehow get in contact with Jane, and possibly catch up. When Holden said that he would try harder and apply himself when he returns to school, it is unclear whether he is going to or whether he is going to remain the same, but I think he probably will. -Kristina-

I believe that the ending of the story was fitting for Holden's life. This story was about Holden's life and how he dealt with the problems that it had. In the end when Holden decides to leave, he first says goodbye to phoebe. This shows that he will miss Phoebe but wants to start a new life. Holden in the end of the story tells us that "this it it" which means that he is beginning his new life somewhere else. I did like the ending of the story because it fits in with Holden's life. Ricky Quan

After going through all of Holden's little journey's from the time he left Pencey to the time he decides to go back to school, I think that the ending was very fitting. In the end it shows that he realizes that it's time for him to grow up. As he decides to leave for good by saying goodbye to phoebe first, he sees phoebe lugging a suitcase and begging to go with him. I think that he told her no and she began to cry, he realized what he was doing: running away from his problems, instead of facing them like he should and only thinking of himself. As phoebe began to cry, he knew he couldn't do this anymore, and while always acting older than he was, he discovered he still needed to grow up a little more. In the end he decides that he will stick around longer and try to go back to school. I liked this ending very much because it showed how Holden became mature in the end, and learned to take other's feelings into his consideration. - Keith/Grant

I have found the ending of “The Catcher in the Rye” to be fairly satisfying, as Holden finally ends up with his sister Phoebe, which is a welcome change from Holden’s previous adventure, full of people that he targets with his “phony radar” and comments on with his burning criticisms. However, I am in agreement with my classmates like Kristina and Jihye that the ending is sort of vague, but for me it is fitting for Holden (frustratingly so), who is accustomed to not explaining things if he’s not in the mood. From what I’ve gathered from the ending, it seems as Holden has matured somewhat, as he tells Phoebe that he won’t move west and abandon her and his problems. Even though I think that Holden has matured, the ending can be a little ironic, because of the symbolism of the hunting hat, which has become the symbol of the “catcher”. For the entire story, Holden has tried to be the “catcher”, but in the end when he sees Phoebe walk up the stairs with the hunting hat on, it symbolizes that Phoebe has become Holden’s “catcher”, and that Holden is the child that needs some serious growing up to do. A lesson can be taken from this story, because the hunting hat is returned to Holden, showing us that he is mature enough to fill that role. -Christian

To be honest, I found the ending quite inspiring. After all the things that Holden has gone through these past few days and all the people he has met and ruined relationships with, he finally understands what he has to do with his life at the end of the story. It is as if he gets so low, that something finally snapped and he said to himself “look, I cannot live like this forever.” Although it was vague, I found that it was a happy and nice ending, because Holden finally understands what he must do in order to live a semi-happy life. Reed P.S. No one better copy my style of changing the color of the font.

I thought that the ending of //The Catcher in the Rye// was a good ending, although it was vague and open for different interpretations. Holden basically learns that you can't waste any opportunities you have, but you don't have to conform to society's expectations. Holden realizes that escape is not the answer. I liked how Salinger ends with Holden choosing to face life head-on, even if it is hard, because of Phoebe and all the other genuine people he has in his life. Holden realizes that he doesn't have to run away to find people who aren't affected by the materialistic society; they are already all around him. With these people in his life, Holden sees that he can remain the pure and genuine person he strives to be. This shows how Holden has grown up, and how he has matured during the events of the novel. We are left to wonder if Holden learns to apply himself or not. That is open to our imaginations. However, this ending only makes the novel even more personal than it already is, because we are able to make the story our own story. Through Holden's own story, we can apply what he has learned in our everyday experiences and lives.

I think that Ji Hye is right in saying that we don't know whether or not Holden learns from his own experiences, but we can assume that he does when he decides to stay instead of leaving. Holden has always wanted to escape, so his not remaining in the end means that he learned something. I also agree with Christian's theory that Holden gets the hunting hat back after being more mature. I think that he really has matured, but because the ending of this book is vague, we cannot know whether Holden or not truly changed.

Josephine

After finishing “The Cather in the Rye” I found the ending to be disappointing because of its ambiguity and unexpectedness. The ending lacks a concrete theme or lesson to conclude all the problems that takes place in the book. Holden ‘unexpectedly’ mentions in the book, “That’s all I’m going to tell about. I could probably tell you what I did after I went home, and how I got sick and all, and what school I’m supposed to go to next fall, after I get out of here, but I don’t feel like it. I really don’t. That stuff doesn’t interest me too much right now.” (213) I expected J.D. Salinger to elaborate on how Holden has gotten to where he is and what he has learned from all his experiences in the last few chapters of the book; however, he only leaves us with Holden’s advice saying, “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” (214) I disagree with Josephine when she states that, “Through Holden's own story, we can apply what he has learned in our everyday experiences and lives.” We cannot apply what Holden has learned in our everyday experiences because we do not know if he himself has learned anything from his past experiences.I believe that his pessimism will alter him from recognizing his faults and learning from them in the future. In the end, I am left to wonder if Holden becomes successful in life.

Jihye

At first I thought the book would have had a better ending if it did not have chapter 26, but after reading the last chapter about fifty times and thinking about it for a long time, I think I like the ending of the novel. I like how Holden “felt so damn happy all of a sudden” (213) after all the struggles he has gone through. He finally makes a conclusion that he can strive to remain innocent and live in the “phony world” instead of trying to look away from it. Then in chapter 26, he says that he “sort of miss[es] everybody I told about…even old Stradlater and Ackley…I even miss that goddam Maurice” (214). I think this shows how he matures throughout the novel; he accepts the fact that there are phony people in this world and he cannot hate everyone that is phony. I also like how readers do not know if Holden applies himself when he goes back to school. I think he probably will. [Sayaka]

I liked the ending of “The Catcher in the Rye” because Holden learns a lesson on life and he decides to change his pessimistic attitude. Holden says he’s probably going to start focusing on stabilizing his life as he plans to apply himself in school next fall. I agree with Josephine that he has matured from his experiences throughout the story, and he finally decides to take control of his life. He realizes the how happy some people, especially Phoebe, make him feel, and he becomes grateful for these people. Holden also comes to accept people like Stradlater and Ackley, as he misses them whenever he recalls memories with them. However, I’m also glad that he does not promise to live up to expectations the world has set for him. Holden says, “I mean how do you know what you’re going to do till you //do// it? The answer is, you don’t. I //think// I am, but how do I know?” (213) He expresses that life is not to be planned out, so he will base his life on the spontaneity of it. Angella

Its finally the end of that godam book if you know what I mean, I mean, it wasn’t all that bad, but it got on my nerves you know? I hate phoney stuff like that. Naw, the end of the book was great. It was a wonderful if abrupt ending to a sporadic and intriguing book about a mercurial and rather strange young man. He ends the book content with where he is, he is ready to try (he thinks). The words of Mr. Antolini really inspired and got through to him, despite the bit of creepiness at the end of that encounter. Holden most definitely was not static character in this book, he changed his view many times throughout the reading. In the end i was really afraid that my prediction of him dying would come true and he would die of cancer and drop dead in front of phoebe.(Digression!, sory) But he didn’t so it’s all good. It was a fitting ending to this type of book. -Byron

I did not like the ending because I wanted it to be more conclusive than it was. Holden even tells us that there is more to his story than he wants to talk about. This makes me wonder why he cut his story right after the carousal. If all Holden wanted to teach us is in what he already told us, then he does not need to give us further details. However, my issue is that we are not told explicitly what he wanted us to take out of his experience, or even if he learned anything at all, like Jihye explained. He himself says “I don’t //know// what I think about it” (213). This tells me that there probably is not a single definite lesson to be learned, or maybe the entire story was just a story that he felt was interesting enough to tell us. Just like the story Richard Kinsella told in the Oral Expression class about his farm and uncle (184). I can come up with a few theories about what the story tried to teach me, but knowing my luck, none of them will be right – assuming there was one at all. I need to be told explicitly what I should take out of a story, or at least have a clean-cut story that gives off an obvious message. Hunter

My initial reaction to "The Catcher in the Rye" was one of a passionate dislike for Holden. My opinion of him has not changed much, though I do believe he grew on me, but only a little bit. Though Hunter and Jihye do not like the ambiguity of the ending, I do not mind it much and find that a definite ending would not have suited the book very well. Holden seems to have matured a bit, meeting a "psychoanalyst guy" and considering to apply himself to his studies. Because it was Holden's character I disliked the most in the beginning, I was satisfied with the ending, seeing as he finally grew up a bit, thinking about the real people and the innocent people around him, instead of what he wants for himself only. I also would like to think that the uncertainty of the ending relates to the uncertainty of the future, and of growing up. -Libby

I did not like the ending of "The Catcher in the Rye," because Holden never changes not even a little bit. He is still lazy and critical commenter as ever, sure there are some scenes when he acted as a loving and nice brother, but still the same naive Holden. He never knows what he is going to do next or what is going on, he is lost and always tries to get out of situations. However, I am proud of him that he took the initiative to start school again. I did not really think that Holden in the end learned any less on about life, though Angella believes he did. The ending was inconclusive and a paragraph before the end, he mentions how he does not want to explain whats going to happen after. Holden is just not my favorite person and for some reason, I expected more out of the ending. There is this other reason I did not like the ending,but its ineffable, sadly. I just hate everything about it. - Hae Min

I did not like the ending to "The Catcher in the Rye". I was expecting a more exciting ending or even a happier ending. Towards the end of the story, Holden's depression had heightened, therefore, I thought that something really bad or maybe even surprisingly saccharine was going to occur. Instead, he ended up meeting a "phychoanalyst guy" to get treated. What's worse is that Holden is still the same. He didn't change at all. He still doesn't know if he's going to try in his studies or where's he's going in life. He doesn't change for the better and he doesn't change for the worse. The ending was mildly messy and bemusing. For some reason, I felt sort of depressed after reading it. Maybe it was the bad ending. -_- - Jessica

====** Personally, I really enjoy the ending of "The Catcher in the Rye" because Holden finally realizes his mistakes or what he has been doing all this time and he finally is on the right path. Holden has always been running away from society or himself, and he realizes later on that running away isn't the answer and that facing your fears or problems head on can lead to greater results. I completely agree with Josephine and Angella on how they view this ending as a good thing for Holden because Holden learns valuable lessons when he goes away from Pencey and when he is with his sister. He later matures as the story goes and learns from his mistakes and in the end, he now knows what to do. He owes a big part of his maturity to his sister and his few friends and family around him. Even his younger brother Allie who has passed away, and D.B. who is far away from where he is, has played a huge role in his maturity in where Holden keeps thinking about them. I feel that Holden has also felt a lot of pain and anguish from his brother's death and how his mom was still sad over her son's death even though it's been so long. He learns from this pain, and he uses it in the future for the greater good for himself. Holden finally knows what he has to do in his life and that is one of the reasons why i really enjoyed the ending, because throughout the whole story Holden had no idea what he wanted to do, but in the end, he finally finds what he truly wants to do for his happiness. ** ==== ==== You Young

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I found the ending to be somewhat lacking in substance, meaning, I don’t feel like Holden has really changed THAT much. He still seems to be very judgmental, and his emotions seem to be easily swayed by what is seemingly an almost unrelated event. Such as his constant depression over little things. Such as when he had to sleep with his feet touching the floor. I could understand being irritated by that situation but depressed is far too strong of a word, especially when his discomfort is in many ways, self-inflicted. Towards the end, I was actually getting worried about Holden’s physical and mental health, because he seemed to be developing several problems through out the story. Such as his hallucinations about seeing and talking to Allie at the end of every street corner, his chain smoking habit, the sore on his lip, occasional paranoia, sudden blackouts, and diarrhea. The most positive outcome of Holden’s little excursion through New York City was his decision to receive psychiatric help.

~Moses

In my opinion, I thought that the ending of the story was unexpected. Throughout the moments Holden went through, he finally changes his feelings towards the phony world he once said. I would rather say that the ending was quite interesting of how Holden's view toward people and society changes. I think it was fun to read this book which shows how the character, Holden who viewed the society as a phony world, changes as the story goes on. I was actually surprised when Holden thinks about seeing Phoebe before he leaves. This proves to us that after going through all the communication and relationship with people, Holden slowly tells his inner feelings about how he was so happy in the situation with Phoebe. I started to like how he says "I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even old Stradlater and Ackley, for instance..... Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." (214) This quote meant a lot in Holden's story because it shows how Holden became fit in the phony world even though the novel was only a span of couple days. Hikari

-Hazelle- ||
 * I didn't enjoy the ending of "The Catcher in the Rye" because Holden finally goes home after beating around the bush. Personally, I felt that the ending was abrupt as only now Holden decides to go home. I felt that Holden was an idiot in how he never wanted to just go home and face his mom like he would have to in the end. I wanted a more exciting ending rather than he's just going home. I'm glad he did decided to go home to Phoebe, but I agree with Hae Min, that the ending was inconclusive as Holden just doesn't want to explain what was going to go on afterwards. I felt Holden was just plain irritating throughout the novel, I agree with Josephine, Angella, and Youyoung that Holden does finally learn the valuable lessons from his time from leaving Pencey to the time he's with his sister. I also felt that the novel was too long for what happened over only a span of a couple days.

Overall I enjoyed the ending of the book __The Catcher in the Rye,__ though I felt it was rather sudden. I would've certainly liked it more if he told us all the things that he wasn't interested in, at the end of the book, so that we can get a clearer more definite understanding of how the story ended, and what he plans to do, but that may have well been the point, to leave the readers with their own interpretation of what happened next to our strange, spontaneous main character. So I agree with my classmates that the ending was lacking in composition, but i couldn't have found a more "Holden" way of ending the story. Honestly I was expecting the ended to be even worse, but I feel that it made up for a lot of things, by letting the readers interpret the end and future any way they please. I also found Holden's personality to be quite charming in the weird sense of the word, for his brutal honesty that I can unexpectedly relate to, because some of his side comments are realistically true. I agree with Grant and Christian that Holden does have seem to matured, and I do believe that this time when he goes to school, he will be more responsible and open to actually try and apply himself. I also agree with Josephine that there are many ways for someone to interpret Holden’s life and that we can learn from our everyday experiences. This ending, just as Byron said, seems to be the most fitting for a characters such as Holden, and I very much enjoyed the book. -Gabriella


 * I've found that the ending to the story was satisfying. Holden has been searching for people to love him all this time when they were really right in front of him. Holden is finally with people who care about him and he will probably feel less lonely. he has found that people around him actually care about him and i believe he realizes that when he sees Phobes attitude towards the end of the story. I do agree with kristina and others who believe the ending is vague, but this is true for most stories we read. We always wonder things like what happens to Ang in avatar after he defeats the fire nation, or what happens to all those disney princesses after they're happily ever after, or what happens to the children in Narnia after they grow up, the fact is that stories usually have a vague ending. In the end Holden realizes he needs to be more mature about everything in his life by getting his act together. That is why i like the ending of the //Catcher in the Rye//. **
 * -Tino **

I actually really liked the story because it really showed how Holden really got mature over the course of the story. I felt like I could relate to Holden throughtout the story. I really liked the ending of the story because Holden was showing how much he cared for Pheobe because he stayed for her in the end and he also decides to go to school. I felt really proud of Holden in the end of the story because he decides to go to school in the end. So, I think the overall ending of the story was really good.

-Michelle

I am very pleased with the ending of the story, //The Catcher in the Rye//. Holden has been longing for and trying to find people who will love and care for him. I agree with Tino that the people who Holden is trying to find are right in front of him. I think the ending of the story is a little surprising, because I expected deeper trouble and conflict; however, the story is really about the journey of Holden discovering himself, and searching for people to love and be with. I believe that Phoebe’s innocent heart reaches and touches Holden, and that she plays a great role, helping Holden to come back to his family. Overall, I like the ending of the story although, as Tino and others say, it is a little vague. The resolution of //The Catcher in the Rye// appeals to me because Holden is able to discover himself and find out that the people who truly love him are his family.

- Jong Seok Lee

I was not entirely satisfied with the ending that J.D. Salinger had left for us in //The Catcher in the Rye//. Holden's refusal to discuss anymore about his experiences and story, and what he plans to do, drives me crazy. I was expecting more of a dramatic ending, either a happy one, where he decides to really start applying himself to life, an straightens himself up, or a more devastating ending, where he ends up completely warped and twisted, having absolutely no idea what to do with his life, and spends most of it in some sort of mental hospital, or maybe a lunatic asylum, or maybe even goes of to the west and builds a cabin. Instead, we are left with a more ambiguous ending. His last words, "Don't tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody", really do leave you with mixed feelings. Maybe he's still suffering from his experiences, and is having a hard time coping with them. You could say he still dreads communicating with others, and may even still feel lonely. Or, maybe he's finally looked over his past experiences, and has actually began to value all the people he's met, no longer seeing them as useless and depressing 'phonies'. I hope that he continues on with the little enlightenment he gained from spending the afternoon at the carousel with Phoebe at the end. I hope he really does quit running away from everything, accepts movement into the real and adult world, copes with its pressures, and straightens himself up.

-- Devin Johnson //p.s. sorry it's late! I forgot to tell you that I was going to use an N.C. for today//