How come in Catcher In The Rye he says never to say good luck to someone when you leave?

Question

How come in Catcher In The Rye he says never to say good luck to someone when you leave?

Answer 1

Because he is a cynic, existentialist, and pessimist. He doesn't believe in luck or tradition. He is a rebel who questions everything. Phew!

Answer 2

I've always thought that Holden thinks it's "crappy" to say good luck to people because it implies that for things to go well they will need luck.

In other words, when you say good luck you are sort of saying that something is wrong enough for it to take luck to improve, it isn't going to happen naturally. That might just be me though.

Answer 3

The Catcher in the Rye is a classic.  There are numerous free on line resources that can help you with your study of this novel, most of which analyze the story, discuss themes and symbolism and other literary devices, and give character sketches.  If you do a search you will find many helpful resources.  Additionally hundreds of questions have been asked here on Y!A about The Catcher in the Rye so do a search for it in the Yahoo Answers search window and you will find lots of Q’s and A’s that should help you.