Comparison between Holden and the rattle in the car

Emmaline Russell

Kagan took her car to be looked at for a rattle that was driving her crazy. However no one was able to hear the sound she was describing. This connects to Holden on a very deep level. Holden has a rattle relative to what was written in the bottom of Kagan’s column. The death of his brother Allie is a constant noise to him. This is evident when Holden flashbacks to a memory, because they all in some way relate to Allie. The memory of Allie and knowing he will never create more is too much for Holden to handle. This is evident when Holden recalls the night in the garage after the day of Allie’s death. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the windows with my fist, just for the satisfaction of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn’t do it.” Not only does this memory remain with him but a physical nagging as well. Holden occasionally talks about the chronic pain from the night in the garage, “My hand still hurts me once in a while, when it rains and all, and I can’t make a real fist any more- not a tight one,” Another instance when Holden describes Allie’s baseball mitt. His brother had wrote poems all on the mitt to keep himself entertained in the outfield. When Stradlater asked Holden to write and English paper for him, Holden wrote about the mitt. Stradlater yelled at Holden when he saw the essay, one because it didn’t fit the requirements, and second because he didn’t know the importance of it. It’s like when Kagan took her car to the shop and they couldn’t hear any rattle. Stradlater never knew Allie or of him. The lack of importance fed into an outburst of disrespect. Holden had the opportunity to open up about it, but because of Stradlater’s reaction, Holden decided to keep on living his inclosed life.