The Catcher in the Rye Chapter 26 Sanjeevi Visagamoorthy
The chapter begins at the end of Holden story, with him summing up his thoughts about what’s going to happen to him at his new school next September. He is still criticising the way people and the society act even in his closing statements. He recounts how when D.B came to visit him in the rest home from Hollywood, he didn’t feel like telling D.B about all the events that had occurred throughout the book. His closing statement ends with him saying, “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
The tone conveyed throughout this chapter is Holden’s continuing feeling of loneliness and solitude. Even when D.B, his own brother visits him from Hollywood, Holden continues to isolate himself by not bothering to talk to D.B about the events that happened since Pencey Prep. In this sense the reader feels a certain connection to Holden, as it seems that Holden would rather converse with a stranger (the reader), than with his family, as he has no connection to them. He alienates himself throughout the entire book, and his solitary nature is conveyed clearly in the closing statements of the book. He still seems scared and alone, and he continues to dread communication, however the use of the words “…missing everybody”, shows that perhaps Holden has started to lose the cynical nature that had surrounded him throughout the book. Although he is still afraid of reaching out to people, it shows that he is not as bitter and repressed as he was earlier in the book.