Holden's Trust Issues

Holden Caufield does not think that he can trust anybody. Throughout the book Holden shows multiple signs of people trying to help him, but he ultimately pushes them away. I believe that this stems from his original problem when he lost both of his brothers. He trusted that his family would stay and protect him, but when Allie died and D.B. "sold out," his parents sent him away. So to Holden, the word trust means betrayal. When Allie passed away, Holden thought that Allie had left him. He knew in his mind that Allie did not die on purpose but Holden could not decide who else to blame. He "broke all the windows in the garage...even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon...but [his] hand was already broken." (Salinger 39) And to literally add insult to injury, the fact that he could no longer put his hand into a fist constantly reminded him of Allie's departure. According to Holden, It had not been long after Allie's death when D.B. left. When D.B. Left, to Holden, that was the ultimate betrayal. At the time of the narrative, D.B. lived "out in Hollywood...being a prostitute" (2). The one word Holden used the most was probably phony. When his brother sold himself out, Holden probably became furious for leaving and called him a phony. Holden's bitterness towards "phoniness" probably came from the betrayal he received from his brother. But this still did not anger him as much as the betrayal he received from their parents. Holden believes that his parents hate him because they keep shipping him to different schools after he continues to get kicked out of them. He thinks that they are disappointed and ashamed of him. At the beginning of the story, he predicted that they will be "pretty irritated about [getting kicked out again]...[since] this is the fourth school [he's] gotten kicked out of" (9). He thinks that his parents have given up on him and just keep sending him to different schools to keep him out of trouble. Due to his emotional trauma, Holden cannot trust anyone anymore. He tries to make friends with a lot of people throughout the book, but something always came up that would not allow him to. This probably came from his belief that he will be betrayed and humiliated if he got to close. So he tried to be friends, but his subconscious made excuses to push these people away. He begins realizes this at the end of the book when he begins to leave New York, but his sister, Phoebe, tries to go with him. He realizes that him pushing his sister away is just what his family did to him, and he does not want to scar his sister as well, so he decides to stay.