In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, there is a variety of minor characters. Jane Gallagher, one of the many minor characters, lived next door to Holden Caulfield when they were younger. When Holden and Jane lived next to each other, they would play checkers all the time. “Yeah. She wouldn’t move any of her kings. What she’d do, when she’d get a king, she wouldn’t move it.
She’d just leave it in the back row. She’d get them all lined up in the back row. Then she’d never use them. She just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row.” (32) The reason Jane would do this was not to help the game, but was because she was a child and just didn’t want to move them. This shows that Jane hadn’t matured yet. The reason why Holden admired Jane so much so many years later was because he didn’t know her any other way.
He thought she was still like a child and that is why Holden still likes her. She hasn’t done anything yet to make him think of her as anything else. Another one of the minor characters is Allie Caulfield. Allie is Holden younger brother of two years that died of Leukemia. “So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie’s baseball mitt.
He was left-handed. The thing that was descriptive about it, though, was that he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green ink. He wrote them on it so he’d have something to read when he was in the field and no one was up to bat.” (38) Just like Jane, Allie did this for no one else. He did this for himself so he wouldn’t be bored when there wasn’t anyone at bat. The reason why these characters are important is because they are a few of the characters that Holden doesn’t find phony.
The Essay on Jane Eyre Character
“The humblest individual exerts some influence, either for good or evil, upon others” said Henry Ward Beecher. Everyone has some type of influence on another, whether it is big or small, good or bad. For example, outside influences, such as other characters, can affect a characters actions and thoughts in either a positive or negative way. In the novel Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte, many ...
The reason why they aren’t phony to him is because Holden doesn’t know them as anyone else except they child that they were when he knew them. They didn’t have any time to become anything that is phony to him. Holden thinks everyone should be like them, and he doesn’t understand that he needs to grow up soon and they are or would be grown up too. Jane Gallagher and Allie Caulfield are just a few of the minor characters that are of great importance to the novel.
