Describe three characters encountered by Holden during his time in New York and explain their importabce to the novel.

Along the novel Holden Caulfield comes upon some people which affect him in different ways. He meets among others his younger sister Phoebe, his ex-girlfriend Sally and Sunny the prostitute. They all stand for particular stages in his adolescence. They influence Holden through his journey into the adult life, which he doesn’t want to be a part of. Phoebe reminds him of the innocence of childhood which he admires greatly. Sunny stands for sexuality that Holden doesn’t want to accept. Sally stands for forethought in contrast to Holden’s impulsivity.

Phoebe Caulfield is Holden’s younger sister and the one that supports Holden when he’s feeling down. Phoebe is the one in the novel that stands for innocence, something that Holden wants to protect from adults and their phoniness. Holden sees that he is in a mission to be the Catcher in the Rye, to save the young kids from fall over the edge into adulthood, and who is the best one to save first, if not his sister?
A clear example of this is when he tells her to go in the merry-go-round when they are in Central Park. Even though both he and she know that Phoebe is too old for riding the carousel, Holden does not only let her, he is the one that insist about getting in the carousel.
Phoebe is also the one that forces Holden into adulthood, telling him that he must let go of his boy dreams, to grow up and be a man.
Sally Hayes is a very good-looking girl that Holden has known for a very long time. Sally is a smart girl, even if Holden thinks the opposite. He thinks that she is an imbecile because she tries to be logical and cautious. She makes him confront the reality, which is that he can’t live in Neverneverland forever and ever and that he has to grow up. He proposes Sally to follow with him far away, and with the money he has still left from his journey in New York, they will live together, and when they run out of money, they will get a job. He doesn’t see any problems with this, according to him, brilliant idea. Sally, on the other hand, thinks Holden’s idea is immature, childish, and irresponsible, something she would never do. They start
arguing and both go their ways.
Sunny the prostitute is the one that stands for Holden’s unreachable sexuality. The sex that
Sunny stands for is the sex when you meet someone you haven’t met before, “just does it”, and never meet again. This is according to Holden the worst form of sex that you can
experience.
The sex Holden strives after is the more sensual and social kind of sex. The reason why he doesn’t want to make love to Sunny is because not only he has just met her, but she is
unsocial and vulgar. One thing you can notice is how he keeps mentioning things about Sunny’s childish behavior and looks, at one time he says “She was very nervous, for a
prostitute…I think it was because she was young as hell. She was around my age.” He also talks about the childish way Sunny speaks. The childish way she acts and looks may be one of
the reasons of why he does not want to sleep with her. I believe that Holden refuses to take away her innocence, even though she is a prostitute.

Holden is heavily affected by the people he meets in New York, and his life takes a turning point after this weekend. Phoebe, Sally, and Sunny, all try to force Holden into adulthood in their different ways. Holden realizes that he can’t always be the catcher in the rye, the children have to grow up and there is nothing he can do to stop them from falling down the cliff into the adulthood.