Reading Journal 4: 2/4

Throughout the story, Holden makes several references to an ex-female friend of his, whom he had liked as a girlfriend but never really did anything with - Jane Gallagher. Every time he thinks of her, he also contemplates giving "...old Jane Gallagher a buzz," but he never does, for one reason or another (always amounting to his being scared to) (Salinger 202). Paranoia about ailments was common back then (the magazine article he reads about hormones and cancer (pages 195-196)) and identification and treatment of those ailments by the afflicted themselves (under supervision/advision) was the norm' (the modern-day health tonics of the late 1800's). Holden admits often that he is crazy; Salinger's almost mythic portrayal of Jane leads the reader to believe that perhaps she is a method of self-medication that he is too timid to pursue.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951

(pages 201-204) Holden, while writing a letter to Phoebe in her school, notices an obscene statement (rhyming with "truck fume") and thinks about killing the supposed bum who wrote it while cleansing the wall of it. He comes across another statement of condemnation and finds it scratched in the wall (still in the school). Holden, after delivering his letter, goes to the Museum to wait on old Phoebe. Walking down the corridor to the mummies, which was lined with stones from the tomb of a Pharoah, sees yet another "Eff You," "written with a red crayon or something (Salinger 204)." Already extremely depressed and deprived, Holden comments that it is impossible to find a place of peace, for rest, as the world will always ruin the proverbial paradise of secluded narrow passages dead men are shut up in. Salinger explains the intensity of Holden's "manic," shall we say, depression, always qualified by Holden as "sort of," by alluding to the fact that so long as Holden breathes, his mind/shortcomings will prevent any semblance of happiness from staying long.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951

Holden's little sister is pretty much the only thing he has to live for - his world. When Phoebe reads his letter stating his plan to leave his life behind for the West, she meets him with a suitcase full of clothes, as she wants to accompany him. Holden becomes greatly angered: "I thought I was going to smack her for a second... 'I thought you were supposed to be in a play at school and all,'... I almost hated her. I think I hated her most because she wouldn't be in that play any more if she went away with me (Salinger 206-207)." Holden makes mental plans for her to visit him in his self-built cabin on holidays, as he couldn't live without her in his life. But for the world to follow him in his pursuit of autonomy would defeat his purpose and deprive the world of continuing and enjoying its own revolutions. Phoebe, life incarnate, would prevent him from achieving solitude, his apparent sought after method of self-medication; Holden desires to live a martyr for himself - the most convoluted, perhaps noble, even, cause of all. Phoebe, mad at Holden's denying her her request, "...turned her back on [him]... She can turn her back on you when she feels like it (207)" Yet it is Holden who aspires to leave behind his/the world.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951