I have been re-reading The Catcher in the Rye and the other day while I was reading, I came to a point in the novel that made me think of Neil McDonald:
"What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse" (Salinger 4).
This passage had me wondering if maybe that's exactly what Neil was looking for during his last evening in Glengarry.
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(I love that book, by the way)
ReplyDeleteI think this is a pretty good reading of Neil. Had he not acted like a child, obsessed with his cards, he would have had a proper sending off, and the closure that would have softened the blow of uprooting. Because he acted like a child, he was thrust into the grown up world - of having the world thrown at you when you least expect it.
This all seems to relate to the issue of closure. Humans are, I think, generally sensitive and emotional beings. Leaving a place, especially for a child, can of course be difficult. Moving away can represent such turns in life- the first time you move away from home in particular can be scary, exciting and saddening all at once. The passage you found highlights the importance of saying good-bye. Neil's quest throughout much of the novel seems to be for closure, for the opportunity to say goodbye, in the face of such prominent changes.
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