Outline

1. Introduction a. Hook: Growing up as a teenager is not easy, especially without the people you love and cherish. b. Thesis: Holden has gone through his life dealing with the feeling of being alone without Allie. i. When Stradlater asks Holden to write his composition, Holden writes it about Allie's baseball mitt. ii. Holden refused to accept the death of Allie and slept in the garage. iii. Holden envisions killing Maurice after being punched for the payment of Sunny.

2. Body One: Holden still think about Allie even years after his death. a. "So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie's baseball mitt. It was a very descriptive subject. It really was. (Salinger 38) Holden could have written Stradlater's composition about anything, but he chose to write it about Allie which means that he still thinks about him. b. "He wrote them on it so he'd have something to read while he was in the field and nobody was up. He's dead now. He got leukemia and died while we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You'd liked him." (Salinger 38) Holden really appreciated Allie because he still remembers specific details like the date of his death of off the top of his head. c. "Besides, I sort of liked writing about it." (Salinger 39) Holden likes to write about Allie because it makes him feel like Allie is still around and he can remember the good times they had.

3. Body Two: After the death of Allie, Holden has no one to comfort him and didn't know how to express his emotions. a. "I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all of the windows in the garage." (Salinger 38-9) After the death of Allie, Holden couldn't contain himself having to face reality that Allie is gone. b."I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all of the goddamn windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all of 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." (Salinger 39) When Holden ultimately could not hold in his feelings for Allie, he finally let out all of his emotions expressed Allie's loss. c. "It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit it, and you didn't know Allie." (Salinger 39) Holden is interpreting how even though it was a stupid act of punching the windows, but the fact that the loss of Allie was so hard for Holden, punching out the windows was a necessary act.

4. Body Three: a. "I wasn't knocked out or anything, though, because I remember looking up from the floor and seeing them both go out the door and shut it. Then I stayed on the floor a fairly long time, sort of the way I did with Stradlater. Only, this time I thought I was dying." (Salinger 103) Holden always has the feeling of death in his mind, even after a non-fatal fight. b." But I'm crazy. I swear to God I am. About halfway to the bathroom, I sort of started pretending I had a bullet in my guts. Old Maurice had plugged me. Now I was on the way to the bathroom to get a good shot of bourbon or something to steady my nerves and help me //really// get into action." (Salinger 103-4) Holden tries to seek revenge because he feels that if he dies than someone should go down with me, like the way he wanted to go with Allie when he died. c. "What I'd do, I'd walk down a few floors-holding onto my guts, blood leaking all over the place-and I'd ring the elevator bell. As soon as Old Maurice opened the doors, he'd see me with the automatic in my hand and he'd start screaming at me, in this very high-pitched, yellow-belly voice, to leave him alone. But I'd plug him anyway. Six shots right throught his fat hairy belly." (Salinger 104) Holden tries to seek revenge because he feels that if he dies than someone should go down with me, like the way he wanted to go with Allie when he died.

5. Conclusion a. The Fact that Holden chooses to write about Allie shows how much he still thinks about him. b. Allie's death changed the life of Holden. All Holden wanted, was to be alone at the time. He could not hold in his emotions. c. Holden is not taking care of himself with getting involved with bad people.