The Catcher in the Rye: Post 2

I think that chapter 5 of The Catcher in the Rye shows a different and somewhat emotional side of Holden. He shows us that he has a side that has seen grief and has to deal with it. He seems somewhat afraid to right out tell us that he experiences sadness, but he gives us enough details that we can see that he really is normal in that regard. "Old Allie's baseball mitt. I happened to have it with me, in my suitcase, so I got it out and copied down the poems that were written on it." (39) He tells us that he has this very nostalgic side by saying that he just keeps this old baseball glove in his suitcase. He tries not to make that big a deal of it, but you can tell that it really does mean a lot to him. Holden then reminisces about how great Allie was, and how much we would've loved him. I can't really relate to Holden in the aspect of experiencing the grief he must've felt when his brother died, but I can understand the idea of trying to hold on to better memories. This is something that he almost seems to feel ashamed of, but he still wants to talk about it. I think he almost recognizes that this is something we all feel and all try to hold on to.