What was your life's turning point?

Does anyone know the climax or turning point in the book the Catcher & the Rye?

• I'm doing a reading log, and the question wants me to tell How the events of the plotline building to a climax or turning point. I don't really know what the turning point in the Catcher & the rye is though. Can you tell me one?

• Answer:

  Depending on how symbolic you want to get, I can identify a few possibilities. At a deep symbolic level, the turning point is the moment Holden passes out in the bathroom. Once he comes to, he feels better. He decides to run away, but first say goodbye to Phoebe. What happens with Phoebe is what turns his whole perspective around. Holden has been falling all through the novel. Ever notice the number of times he slips and nearly falls? He slips on a patch of ice on his way to say goodbye to Spencer, he slips on peanut shells on the stairs on his way out of Pencey, he trips over a suitcase on his way to open the door for Sunny, he goes ice skating with Sally Hayes and they're falling all over each other, he almost falls in the lake looking for the ducks. Think about his "catcher" scenario...kids are falling off a cliff. Where's Holden? On the edge. Well, when he finally falls in the bathroom, it's like he's taken that great plunge into adulthood. He's no longer on the edge and the rest of the novel shows the resolution he comes to. On a less symbolic level, I see a great turning point when he's meeting Phoebe to say goodbye to her. He sees her crossing the street, wearing his hunting hat and carrying his suitcase. He really gets the point that she's following in his footsteps. She's turning into him, and he doesn't like it one bit. So when she says she's coming with him, he changes his mind. She has to stay and finish being a kid like she's supposed to. Right there he decides not to leave, and that sets up the resolution at the carousel.