Holden Caulfield's Use of the Second Person in Catcher in the Rye: To Whom Was He Writing?

    Holden Caulfield, the narrator of Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye shares a unique relationship with the reader through second-person direct references and a presumed bond. We are not only granted access to his inner monologue, true emotions, and societal reflections, but are also inherently expected to agree with him in every instance. My perspective on this “personal” relationship which I shared with a fictional character shifted, however, after reading the book’s penultimate scene where Holden watches Phoebe on the carousel. As Holden recounts this rather fond memory, he says “God, I wish you could’ve been there,” and I suddenly realized this “you,” was not referring to me personally, but to his younger brother Allie (275).  

This line contains the most compelling reference to the book’s reader in the narrative because Holden doesn’t imply that we’d “get it” or absent-mindedly reference our existence mid-conversation, but ends this fond memory by acknowledging the reader. This intentionality is crucial because there’s a sensible pause, a break from this happy memory to state that it would have been even better had “we” been there. Additionally, the word choice of  “could’ve” is significant because he didn’t say “I wish you were there,” but rather he wished we could have been there, indicating there was no way it could’ve happened. I would argue this impossibility isn’t because we aren’t a part of his fictional realm, but that his very real brother no longer is either. 

While the significance of the second-person placement and wording led me to wonder who the narrative was truly directed towards, Holden’s personality did too. He holds strong opinions about the world and people around him and finds “phoniness” particularly infuriating.  Holden’s pessimistic attitude leads him to criticize nearly everything and everyone around him, importantly excluding, however: his siblings. Though he doesn’t appreciate that his older brother, D.B., is a "prostitute" in Hollywood, even this critique comes from his deep admiration of D.B.’s writing abilities (4). Holden has nothing negative to say, however, about his other two siblings: Allie and Phoebe. In fact, when Phoebe asks him to name one thing he likes he answers, “I like Allie… and I like doing what I’m doing right now. Sitting here with you and talking” (222). We (the reader) seem to share these privileges Holden allots only to his siblings of both his true thoughts, and a certainty that we will “get it.” It, thus, is logical that this “reader” could actually be intended to be the brother he knows very well. 

In fact, I believe many of Holden’s attitudes towards the world can be attributed as responses to Allie’s death, further supporting the notion that his reader (Allie) would understand.

Holden’s primary societal complaint of “phonies,” describes those who feel one way and behave another. Perhaps this criticism is a mere reflection of Holden’s internal warfare between the grief he faces from the passing of his brother and his outward presenting image. Holden consistently boasts his ability to know others better than they know themselves, so it’s very possible that he perceives everyone around him to be a “phony,” because he (the “expert”) feels this way internally. I propose that Caulfield’s hatred of phoniness is truly a coping mechanism to distract himself from the pain he hides. No one would understand the need for this coping mechanism better than the one who caused the need for it: Allie. 

However, I could understand an argument against this theory of Holden writing to Allie due to the wording of some passages. For example, he writes on page 88: “My brother Allie, the one that died, that I told you about, was a wizard.” This quote would support an argument that the “you” here isn’t directed towards Allie, but us (random readers). While I would agree with that particular use of wording, I hypothesize that Holden’s “person,” will always be Allie. Towards the end of the book, for example, at the precipice of his mental health crisis, Holden mentions that he asked Allie to help him cross the street safely, embodying a guardian angel-type spirit. I would argue that Holden wanted to write his story to Allie, but was occasionally reminded of his death; so in those moments he chose to write about Allie, to commemorate and remember his dear brother. 

Finally, the physical setting of the raining carousel scene further established my theory that the targeted reader for Catcher in the Rye was not us, but Allie. In chapter 20, Holden had previously explained his strong dislike of cemeteries in the rain. He wrote, “That’s what nearly drove me crazy. All the visitors could get in their cars and turn on their radios and all and then go someplace nice for dinner- everybody except Allie” (202). In the penultimate scene, however, his disdain for this weather event turns into ultimate peace as “all the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel, so they wouldn’t get soaked to the skin or anything, but I stuck around on the bench for quite a while” (275). In this moment, Holden embraces the very situation he dreaded Allie facing alone, and in fact finds peace in it. Perhaps in that moment, Holden found peace in the revelation that the rain wasn’t so bad, that he was okay, and Allie was too. I know the “you,” was Allie, though, because even if he was okay, Holden still wishes he “could’ve been there” (275).