Mr.Caulfield, the doctor will see you...

Old Holden is making my heart break. Clearly he is crying out for help--doing all he can to get kicked out of multiple schools, running away, screaming for someone to just let him talk. Here is the sum of it, as I can recall: After his tangle with the pimp and prostitute and his breakfast with the two nuns, Holden decides to call Sally Hayes and see if she wants to see a show (a live show of course, since the movies depress the hell out of him). She agrees and they go--Holden knows that the actors are a bunch of phoneys, but for the most part he doesn't say anything for Sally's sake. The thing that is ridiculous to me about him taking old Sally out is that he doesn't even like her, we all know he is in love with Jane. Somehow, though, he is afraid to really talk to the people he cares the most about (like Jane and Phoebe). Anyway, after the show they go ice-skating and this is where the heartbreak comes in. Holden confesses that he is sick of school, sick of New York, sick of all the phoneys in the world. He asks Sally to run away with him to Vermont to live in the woods where he could chop his own firewood and all. Of course she goes nuts and tells him he is ridiculous and they end up parting ways unamicably.

This is when I started to see the signs--I must be dim or something. Like any teenager struggling with depression, Holden is doing everything he can to get someone to help him--I think he has called 30 people in one day! But because everyone is such a phoney, they don't get it. I just want to grab him and sit him down next to Hurley in that crazy mental institution. Then at least they would both have someone real to talk to who would listen to them for about the first time in forever.

I am on p. 149, have a nice day.