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Dear Holden Caulfield, So I guess if you really want to hear about it, I’ll tell you. I mean I wouldn’t wanna creep you out or anything like that. I’m not telling you any of this to make you feel crumby. I’m really not. It’s just that I figure if I don’t tell you, who will for Christsake? Anyway, I guess you could say I’m just an old friend, or maybe even a new friend. Whatever goddam way you wanna look at it and all. You really do need to listen to me about all of this stuff, though, I swear. It’s all the truth. You need to hear it from someone that knows what the hell they’re talking about. Okay, I know, I know, being a teenager isn’t a stroll through Central Park. It’s pretty goddamn difficult. Listen, I don’t really understand why it’s so hard and all, but both you and I know it is. I mean I think pretty much everybody knows. Holden, the best advice I can give you on navigating your way through your teenage years is to just to stay true to yourself. What I mean is, I know that ever since you lost Allie, growing up has been a sonuvabitch. Well, to be honest, I’ll tell you that it’s not going to get any better until you’ve come to terms with his death. Obviously it’s not gonna be the goddamn easiest thing you’ve ever had to do, but you won’t always feel so crumby if you can figure it out. Yes, you’re still in the process of finding yourself, but what will do you a lot of good, is taking your hardships and growing from them. Can I tell you what else kills me about you? You’re never letting anyone help you and all. I’m begging you to surround yourself with some positive people. They just want to help you, Holden. Everyone’s a little phony, including yourself. I know that doesn’t make you feel too hot. I’m going to tell you what you need to do. What you need to do is see your own imperfections and hypocrisies. That’s the only way you’ll ever actually fit in with society. I mean it. The first piece of advice I have for you is to stop being such a goddamn hypocrite. Boy, are you a hypocrite. You’re always calling out everyone else’s flaws while you have the same ones and all. Do you remember that one time you were on the train to Penn Station and you pretended to be some guy named Rudolf Schmidt, telling old Ernest Morrow’s mother you had a brain tumor or whatever? That was beyond phony, if you ask me. This is a time in your life where you need people to turn to; you cannot afford to be shoving people out of your life who have just walked into it. Trust me, I know how much those phonies kill you. I know how much they kill you, but the whole world is full of phonies. It’s probably best for you to learn now, more than ever, that naturally, everyone will form a ‘public self.’ All of the phoniness you’ve seen around you for your entire life has mostly been people experiencing their own public selves. Although it is important and significant to not be oblivious of your surroundings, it is possible to notice the wrong-doings of the adult world without being ignorant, you know what I mean? Try putting yourself in the shoes of those around you and being more understanding of those are discovering themselves, just as you are. (Discovering yourself, that is.) They really are only working on the balance of being true to themselves while also being able to be seen by others how they’d like to be seen. Boy, you need to understand that the people in your life are going through the same self-struggle as you are. You’ve gotta allow yourself to get to know someone better before you start calling them phony and everything. You really do, or you’re gonna be so goddamn lonely for your whole life! Do you want that? I know you don’t want that. I didn’t want that either. I mean you’re always saying “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies!” Then, a few nights later, you’ll go and catch a show with old Sally Hayes, anyway. You can’t just go and contradict yourself all the time like that. But I do think it’s okay for you to act a certain way in public to be accepted by society, I mean you can adapt to how everybody acts, but just don’t take it too far and all. So you can act a certain way in public, but what I’m really trying to say is if you don’t take it too far, boy, you’ll be helping out everyone. You won’t feel crumby because you won’t be such an outcast, and at the same time you’ll be able to accept other people for who they are. Basically that’s all for the first piece of advice I have for you. Well, I hope you’ll take everything I’ve said seriously. I really do, too. I really hope you take everything seriously because that is the only way you won’t have to live through the life I did. If you do, really take this to your head and all I mean, you’re going to do just fine in life, Holden. I wish I’d had someone to give me instructions and advice on what to do in my life and what decisions to make, but I didn’t. So that is why you better appreciate what I’m doing for you, for Christsake. Don’t just waste your time reading this whole goddamn letter and then take nothing from it. That’d kill me. I guess if that’s what you want to do, go right ahead and keep living a crumby life. But I swear to god, if you do the things I’ve told you to such as discovering a public self, appreciating the people you have in your life, making better, more responsible decisions, and recovering from the impact Allie’s death has had on you, not only will society accept you, but you will finally be able to accept yourself, as well.

Growing up and becoming a man is a learning process. There is no way to get around it. For christsake, Holden, you need to attempt to learn to make better decisions, ones that will benefit for you in positive ways. There may be tempting choices at times, such as getting a stripper, but in the end that choice will only make things worse, as it did. Afterward, you felt more depressed then you had before hiring the stripper. And boy did it get you in trouble. You had to deal with getting beat up because they scammed you on the cost. Thinking ahead of time and trying to make an educated decision will help you to feel better, not only after that decision, but in your overall life. I know you have some difficult issues to deal with, but if you make the decision to surround yourself with people who care about you and have good values they will support you to do healthy things and over time your life will begin to take the right course. It will be difficult to do and hard to get used to, but it will be worth it and in time you will be a happier Holden.