I was trying to feel some kind of good-bye. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-bye or a bad good-bye, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t you feel even worse.

This line is spoken by Holden Caulfield in J. D. Salinger’s novel *The Catcher in the Rye* (1951), during his departure from Pencey Prep after being expelled. Alone and emotionally raw, Holden tries to summon a deliberate sense of farewell—something he feels he has often missed when leaving schools or other phases of life. The moment occurs amid his broader crisis of adolescence: he is restless, alienated, and preoccupied with authenticity, yet also deeply sensitive to loss and transition. His insistence on “knowing” he is leaving reflects his desire to impose meaning and emotional closure on experiences that otherwise feel abrupt and disorienting.

Holden’s reflection captures a paradox of leaving: even painful good-byes can be preferable to departures that happen without acknowledgment. The quote suggests that grief and discomfort are not the problem; rather, it is the numbness or unreality of unmarked endings that intensifies suffering. Holden’s need for a conscious farewell reveals his longing for control and coherence in a world that feels arbitrary and phony. More broadly, the passage speaks to a universal psychological need for closure—rituals of ending help people process change, preserve memory, and recognize that a chapter of life has truly concluded.