The Catcher in the Rye: Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis

By this point, Holden has spun completely out of control. Sad and alone, he gets drunk because he thinks this is a way to drown his feelings. He also most likely sees drinking as a way of posturing as an adult, though the end result is that he winds up acting childish and stupid. Once more, he thinks about calling Jane, but he can’t because to speak to her while drunk would obliterate his idea of their relationship as an innocent and pure bond unsullied by the hardships of adulthood. Accordingly, he calls Sally instead, knowing that his relationship with her has already been ruined, meaning there’s nothing he can do to make things worse.

Holden is unwilling to acknowledge his loneliness and sadness, but this doesn’t mean he can keep himself from exhibiting his emotions. In keeping with this, he discovers that he’s crying as he exits the bathroom, and although he claims to not know why, it seems likely that he must understand—on a certain level—that he’s deeply lonely. After all, why else would he invite the woman at the hat-check to go on a date? Unable to maintain a connection with anyone, he has spun out of control and thrust himself into the adult world, which only makes him feel more alienated and alone.

Unlike the ducks in the Central Park lagoon—who have adapted to the cold weather—Holden has trouble with adapting to the natural transitions in his life. As a teenager, he struggles constantly with change and is in the midst of something of an identity crisis, trying to figure out where he fits into a world that he finds largely overwhelming and abhorrent. The shattering of Phoebe’s record only makes it even more difficult for Holden to believe that he can preserve a sense of childhood innocence. When he thinks of his own funeral while sitting next to the lagoon, he romanticizes the idea of eternal stasis, seeing death as perhaps the only way he’ll ever be able to resist change. In addition, imagining his own funeral allows him to think about how sorry everyone in his life would be if he died, thereby helping him believe that the connections he has made are more meaningful than they actually seem.

Holden manages to snap out of his morbid fantasy about death by focusing on Phoebe—or, more specifically, on his relationship with Phoebe, which is one of the only things in his life that gives him a sense of belonging, acceptance, and love.