English 3201
The Catcher in the Rye
Chapter Questions
Chapter 1
1. He wrote this terrific book of short stories…now he’s out in Hollywood,
D.B., being a prostitute.” (1-2)
Holden introduces the theme of phoniness through his comment upon his
bother, D.B.. He respected his brother when he was a “regular writer” (1)
and called him “my favourite writer.”(18) However, now that he writes for
the movies, he thinks his brother is a sellout and that is why he uses the
term, “prostitute”. He sells something that Holden views as sacred and
personal – his unique and individual talent to write – for a Jaguar that
“damn near cost him four thousand bucks.”
2. “Pencey was full of crooks. Quite a few of these guys came from these
very wealthy families, but it was all full of crooks anyway. The more
expensive a school is, the more crooks it has…” (4)
Holden’s cynicism becomes apparent quite early in the novel. He always
speaks in extremes and generalities and his criticisms are just a way of
Holden distancing himself from a society he feels no part of and a society
he feels no desire to be a part of.
Chapter 2
1. “The funny thing is, though, I was sort of thinking of something else while
I shot the bull.” (13)
Holden talks to Professor Spencer, who has just failed him in History, and
Spencer is trying to help Holden gain direction in his life. Holden pretends
to listen but really thinks of Spencer as a “nice old guy who didn’t know his
ass from his elbow,” (8) Holden hates being “surrounded by phonies” but
readily admits he is “the most terrific liar you ever saw.” (ch.3; 16)
2. “…I just couldn’t hang around there any longer…his sad old bathrobe
with his chest showing…” (15)
Holden is disgusted by the lack of physical hygiene of so many characters
in the novel -Stradlater, Ackley and Spencer. His disgust with Spencer,
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Ackley and Stradlater symbolizes his disgust with the world in general. Just
as Holden loses his innocence towards the world and the beauty that he
saw in it in his youth disappears, so too it is with people. The more you get
to know people, the more disillusioned you become by their flaws and
imperfections. People, like the society they inhabit, don’t hold up well to
scrutiny and the dignity we attribute to them often seems misplaced as
we grow and lose our child-like naiveté and innocence. Holden is openly
disgusted with people and society because he uses self-imposed
alienation to distance himself from a world that has let him down and, he
finds, is nothing like the world he believed in as a child. As we age, we
often find our parents, our teachers, our peers, our jobs, our mates to be
nothing like the romantic naïve preconceptions we hold on to for so long.
3. “I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy
and frozen over.” (13)
The ducks and the frozen pond are two of the more important symbols or
motifs in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Holden’s curiosity about the
ducks symbolizes his child-like and innocent curiosity about the world in
which he lives. It is an innocence that is being rapidly striped away by a
cold and “frozen” world that drives the ducks south and Holden into
emotional seclusion. The frozen pond symbolizes this cold, cruel, unfeeling
and unforgiving world. However, the fact that the ducks come back
every Spring suggests that this alienation does not have to be permanent.
It is not impossible for Holden to once again feel a part of the world that
has cast him aside and that he, in turn, is pushing aside for his own
emotional well-being.
Chapter 3
1. a) “Ackley…was about six four-with lousy teeth…I never even once
saw him brush his teeth. They always looked mossy and awful…Besides
that, he had a lot of pimples.” (19)
b) “[Ackley’s] ears were dirty as hell” and “he was always cleaning his
fingernails.” (22)
Ackley’s disgusting physical habits isolate him from the society that
assaults him. He and Holden are more alike than Holden would like to
admit as is evident by the fact that they are the only boys not at the
football game. While Holden’s isolation is self-imposed by his cynicism,
Ackley’s is created by his unattractive exterior. The end result, however, is
the same. Both characters are protected from the dangers of intimacy
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and interaction by their retreat from the world they exist within. Again,
Ackley, like Spencer, symbolizes the unattractiveness of a world and the
people in it when both are scrutinized too closely. The fact that Holden
openly states his disgust of Ackley symbolizes his disgust with the world he
has come to find is nothing like the one he envisioned as a naïve innocent
child. The fact that he tolerates Ackley and, as can be seen throughout
the book, tries his best to include him in activities with others, shows how
he recognizes himself in Ackley and recognizes his own desire for some
kind of connection to other humans.
2. Holden “put on [his] new hat and sat down and started reading Out of
Africa.” (19) This is very ironic that Holden puts on this rather unusual red
hunting hat indoors but, despite how cold it is outside, does not wear it
when he goes near the football field or when he goes out to visit Spencer.
This irony highlights the internal conflict in Holden’s head. The hat, with its
unusual appearance, is a symbol of Holden’s desire to be an individual in
a world that is all about conformity. When he wears it, he is asserting his
individuality and his separateness from a world into which he feels he does
not fit. However, when he goes out in public, he does not wear it. This is
ironic because one would think it would be in public where Holden would
most want to assert his individuality. However, the fact that he only wears
it when he is alone suggests he is torn between asserting the uniqueness of
his identity and his desire for interaction and connection. When he goes
out in public, as cynical as he is, what he really wants is to connect to a
world and the people in it. He only pushes that world away because he
fears the world will push him aside anyway.
Chapter 4
1. “You remember what I said before that Ackley was a slob to his
personal babits? Well, so was Stradlater, but in a different way. Stradlater
was more of a secret slob. He always looked all right, Stradlater, but for
instance, you should’ve seen the razor he shaved himself with. It was
alwys as rusty as hell and full of lathers and hair and crap. He never
cleaned it or anything. He always looked good when he finished fixing
himself up, but he was a secret slob anyway…” (27)
While Ackley is obvious in his lack of personal hygiene, Stradlater is a
“secret slob”. He is just as unattractive in so many ways as Ackley but,
superficially, he is more acceptable to the outside world. Either way,
Stradlater is more of a “phony” than Ackley because of the veneer of
attractiveness he presents to the outside world. He is preparing for a date
with Jane Gallagher so it is apparent that he is one of the more sexually
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experienced boys at Pencey and this theme of, the pressure of
adolescent sexuality, is beginning to be presented in the novel. This
theme implies that being sexually active as an adolescent involves being
a fraud and a fake as sex comes not from intimacy in a relationship but
from the illusion of being the kind of person who could be intimate or
could be decent. This outward facade of attractiveness helps to push this
illusion to the forefront. Stradlater’s phoniness and lack of depth is obvious
when he tells Holden he is going on a date with “Jean” Gallagher when
her name is “Jane”. (31) He is only thinking of one thing with Jane and it is
not emotional intimacy or even sexual intimacy. It is just sex.
2. “She wouldn’t move any of her kings. What she’d do, when she’d get a
king, she wouldn’t move it. She’d just leave it in the back row. She’d get
them all lined up in the back row. Then she’d never use them. She just
liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row.” (31-32)
Holden knows Jane and seems to care about her. The fact that he knows
small but intimate details about her, including how she likes to place her
chess pieces and that she is a ballet dancer that “used to practice about
two hours every day” (31) suggests an intimacy far beyond any that
Stradlater is willing to attempt or that Stradlater is capable of. All the while
Holden is telling Stradlater this, all he is doing is “combing his gorgeous
locks” and then “parting his hair all over again. It took him about an hour
to comb his hair.” (32) When Holden says “I kept thinking about Jane and
Stradlater having a date with her and all. It made me so nervous I nearly
went crazy.” (34) he is revealing a lot about himself. He knows Stradlater is
a “sexy [sexual] bastard” (34) and can’t bear the thought of Stradlater
betraying his intimacy with her and in reality, Holden’s innocence. It is yet
one more blow to the romantic and innocent view of something beautiful
that Holden sees or once saw in the world he now abhors. Ironically,
despite Holden’s disgust of Stradlater, he is willing to write an English paper
for him even though he knows he is being used by Stradlater. It highlights
Holden’s desperation to form any kind of bond with any one. He tries to
please Stradlater while at the same time, despising him. He says “I might. I
might not” (28) but he knows he will simply to find any connection, no
matter how superficial and “phony”. That desperation disillusions and
inwardly destroys a part of him.
3. When Stradlater notices his hat and comments upon it he “[takes] off
[his] hat” (29) even though he “still had [his] red hunting hat on” (27)
indoors. He again wears it as a symbol of his individuality and
separateness, but in the company of others he sacrifices that individuality
to try and fit into a world he hates with people he loathes but needs. The
fact that Stradlater immediately asks Holden to write his English
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composition immediately after noting how “sharp” the cap was, tells not
only how superficial and phony Stradlater is but how desperate Holden is
to fit in.
Chapter 5
1. “I and this friend of mine, Mal Brossard,…decided we’d take a
bus…and have a hamburger and maybe see a lousy movie. I asked Mal
if he minded if Ackley came along with us” (35-36)
Holden constantly recites Ackley’s imperfections including “sinus trouble,
pimples, lousy teeth, halitosis” and “crumby fingernails” but, still, he says
“you had to feel a little sorry for [him].” (39) This shows how Holden
recognizes what it feels like to be on the outside looking in and he has a
certain level of empathy for Ackley. Consequently, he wants to include
Ackley in the night out to the movies. He wants to give to Ackley what he
doesn’t receive himself – acceptance and connection – and at the same
time he, himself, wants to connect in any way he can with somebody,
even if it is just Ackley. He highlights Ackley’s flaws as a way of rejecting
him and, thus, alienating himself from society as a form of self-protection.
At the same time, he wants to include Ackley as away of not being
alienated. This contradictory and conflicting set of emotions on Holden’s
behalf, account for a mixture of cynicism and compassion. He is at war
with himself.
2. “[Ackley] started picking at his pimples.” (37)
The constant emphasis on Ackley’s pimples highlights how society focuses
on exterior, physical flaws that are literally and figuratively only on the
surface. Society automatically rejects because of this superficiality and its
own superficiality. Society has no interest in looking beneath the surface
and seeing what an individual is really like. This superficiality of society
and the people in it is what Holden hates and what he views as “phony”.
The pimples on the surface might also symbolize a lack of substance with
respect to Ackley’s inner character. He may very well be an individual of
little depth or quality which is also a factor that leads to Holden’s rejection
of society as a whole. He finds so few in it worthy of seeking any
connection with.
3. “After [Ackley] left, I put on…my old hunting hate.” (37)
Once again, Holden refuses to wear the symbol of his individuality – the
red hunting hat – in public. Like his cynicism, the hat helps him separate
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himself from society by its uniqueness but, at the same time, his failure to
put it on in public demonstrates his desire to in some way, connect to a
world he finds very, very cold indeed.
4. Holden’s description of Allie’s baseball mitt is a way for Holden to stay
connected to his dead younger brother who died of leukemia. When he
talks of Allie, it is not with the same cynicism and disgust he views the rest
of humankind. He sees Allie as “fifty times as intelligent” as him and “the
nicest, in lots of ways.” (38) Now we get a sense, as a reader, for Holden’s
desire to disconnect form society as a way of protecting himself. When
the people you love most disappear, it is hard to count on other
relationships to be ones you can trust in and count on for some form of
permanency. This anger over the loss Holden has suffered manifested
itself in the form of anger when he “broke all the windows in the
garage…the night [Allie] died” (39) but now it comes through in the form
of Holden’s cynicism and contempt for the world and the relationships he
longs for but which ultimately end up being unfulfilling and disappointing.
Chapter 6
1. Stradlater returns home and voices his displeasure over Holden’s
descriptive essay on a baseball glove and was “sore as hell.” (41). The
fact that Holden only did it as a favour for Stradlater highlights how selfish
Stradlater is and how desperate Holden is to connect to anyone. For
someone who is so obviously in tune with Stradlater’s flaws, it is rather
ironic that he would agree to do anything for him. He is just trying to
combat his isolation with some attempt, however feeble, at connection.
2. “[Stradlater] was sitting on the edge of his bed, cutting his…toenails.
(42) Like Ackley’s pimples, Stradlater’s toenails may be a symbol of a
deeper ugliness that he possesses, in his case, his selfishness and vanity as
he walks around “stroking his bare chest.” (41) When Holden says, “You
were always watching somebody cut their damn toenails or squeeze their
pimples” (42) he is really saying “you were always watching some
superficial, selfish and morally ugly individual who never lives up to what
you hope he or she may possibly be.”
3. “I told him he thought he could give the time to anybody he felt like. I
told him he didn’t even care if a girl kept all her kings in the back row or
not… [he doesn’t] even know if her first name is Jean or Jane.” (44)
Holden despises Stradlater for being able to have sex (“give the time to”)
with Jane (who Holden cares deeply about) but lacks the capacity for
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any other kind of deeper intimacy, the kind of intimacy to know a girl likes
to keep “all her kings in the back row.” Adolescent sexuality is a theme in
The Catcher in the Rye. This physical desire is a strong one in adolescent
life but just as powerful is the disappointment that comes when an
adolescent realizes that sex does not automatically bring intimacy. In
fact, it may help to breed alienation and isolation as a result of its
potential to disappoint. This passage shows not only the shallowness and
moral bankruptcy on Stradlater’s part but it also shows a certain depth of
character on the part of Holden, despite his surface cynicism and
abrasiveness. As a result of yet another important relationship in Holden’s
life being a disappointing one, he reacts to Stradlater with violence. He
ends up with “blood all over [his] mouth and chin.” (45) but the level of
contempt Holden shows for Stradlater just using Jane as a sexual conquest
reveals how much she means to him. He is equally disgusted by the fact
that Stradlater does not even know her name. This symbolizes Stradlater’s
inability to know who she really is. Again, Stradlater shows his lack of
capacity for any intimacy whatsoever, beyond a deep love of himself
and his appearance. Holden’s anger may also be the result of being let
down by Jane for allowing herself to be seduced by Stradlater. He sees
something in her that makes him want to get closer to her but her
association with Stradlater taints and tarnishes this and possibly makes him
believe she is yet anther person who has failed to live up to his
expectations. All these emotional disappointments are why Holden
detaches himself form the company of others. It is for his own emotional
self-preservation.
4. “…[Holden] heard old Stradlater close the door and go down the
corridor” and then found his “hunting hat” and “put it on.” (45)
Again, Holden’s hat is worn in the absence of human company. If he
wears it and shows his individuality around others, he fears he will be
rejected. Holden’s internal conflict continues.
Chapter 7
1. a) “I just kept laying there…thinking about Jane and all. It drove me
mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere…Every
time I thought about it I felt like jumping out the window.” (48)
b) “I got to feeling so lonesome and rotten I even felt like waking Ackley
up” (50)
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The impact of Stradlater’s being with Jane cracks Holden’s armour of
cynicism and apathy and his vulnerability become obvious as it did in
chapter 5 when he attacked Stradlater. The reader is reminded that
Holden, despite his intelligence and intellectual maturity, is after all, just an
adolescent boy trying to make sense of a world that has stripped away his
innocence far too early. Despite his cynicism, he has a romantic ideal in
his mind when he thinks of Jane, and Stradlater has, somewhat, shattered
this ideal in his mind. It bothers him so much that he even says, “I almost
wished I was dead” (48) and “My nerves were shot” (51). This suggests the
fragility of his emotional state and mental well-being.
Holden is so lost and alone after learning of Stradlater and Jane that his
isolation becomes unbearable and he repeatedly says he is “lonesome”.
He is so lonesome that he “even felt like waking Ackley up” and is not
even put off by the “white stuff on his face, for his pimples.” (46) After his
perceived destruction of his idealistically romantic view of Jane, he needs
connection more than ever, even if it is in the form of someone like
Ackley. Ackley’s disgusting personal hygiene and annoying manner only
serve to highlight how desperate the normally cynical and detached
Holden is at this point. His comment to Ackley about “joining a
monastery” (50) and his action of waking Ackley up to talk about it
shows his internal conflict between isolating himself from and connecting
to society.
2. Holden again “put [his] red hunting hat on and turned the peak around
to the back, the way [he] liked it” (52) when he leaves Pencey and is
away from all the other students at the school. He asserts his individuality
when he has isolated himself from anyone in the school and steps out into
the night all alone. Alone, he can’t be rejected for his individuality.
Chapter 8
1. a) “That hat I bought had earlaps in it, and I put them on – I didn't give
a damn how I looked. Nobody was around anyway. Everybody was in
the sack.” (53)
b) All I did was take off my hunting hat and put it in my pocket.” (53)
Again, Holden's hat symbolizes the individuality he is afraid to assert when
others are around. He is only willing to wear it now because “nobody was
around”. He fears being rejected for who he is so he hides who he is.
When he boards a train and faces the possibility of being exposed to a lot
of people, he takes it off and puts it in his pocket.
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2. a) “'Rudolph Schmidt,' I told her. I didn't feel like giving her my whole
life history.'” (54-55)
b) “She was around forty or forty-five...but very good-looking” (54)
c) “'He's one of the most popular boys at Pencey.'”
d) “'Old Mrs. Morrow didn't say anything, but boy, you should've seen. I
had her glued to her seat. You take somebody's mother, all they want to
ear about is what a hot-shot their son is'” (56)
e) “'But I'll bet, after all the crap I shot, Mrs. Morrow'll keep thinking of him
now as this very shy,modest guy that wouldn't let us nominate him for
president.'”(57)
f) “'I have this tiny little tumour on the brain'” (58)
Holden meets a woman on the train who turns out to be the mother
of a student at Pencey by the name of Ernest Morrow. Holden uses an
alias (Rudolph Schmidt) which symbolizes his refusal to let anyone see who
he really is or to let anyone get to know the real Holden Caulfield. He
“didn't feel like giving her [his] whole life history” because that would have
involved or risked letting someone get close to him. He strikes up these
conversations with total strangers rather than following through on his
desire to call people he cares about (Jane, Phoebe) so as to avoid the
risk of being rejected by people her cares about. If Mrs. Morrow gives him
the brush-off, it is no great loss as she means nothing to him anyhow just as
he means nothing to her.
The fact that he tries to get some kind of intimacy with her highlights
how desperate he is for any kind of intimacy, whatsoever, even if it is only
a short term closeness. When Holden chooses a woman who is “very
good-looking”, it reveals the internal conflict within Holden that makes it
so hard for him to discern the difference between sexual attraction and
real intimacy or love. He holds on to his idealistic view of romantic love all
while his body and mind are driven by the longing of sexual desire and
the longing for sexual fulfillment.
Everything Holden tells Mrs. Morrow is all with the intention of making
her feel good about her time with him and, as a result, making him feel
better about himself as he feels close to her. He does this by telling Mrs.
Morrow that Ernest was “one of the most popular boys at Pencey.” By
making her feel good about her son, he feels good about himself
because she is viewing him with affection and a genuine respect. He likes
the fact that he “had her glued to her seat” and even though “all the
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crap [he] shot” is a lie, it is fitting for the type of intimacy he is establishing
with Mrs. Morrow because this intimacy is also a lie. It is just a substitute for
real intimacy and real caring. Holden ups the stakes even further at the
chapter's end by telling Mrs. Morrow he has a “tiny little tumour on the
brain.” Again, through her feeling sympathy or pity for him, it allows him to
experience something akin to real love and real affection but without the
strings, attachments or complications that come with real love and real
intimate relationships.
Chapter 9
1. a) “Then I thought of giving Jane Gallagher's mother a buzz, and find
out when Jane's vacation started, but I didn't feel like it. Besides, it was
pretty late to call up. Then I thought of calling up this girl I used to go
around with quite frequently, Sally Hayes, because I knew her Christmas
vacation had started already – she'd written me this long, phony letter,
inviting me over to help her trim the Christmas tree Christmas Eve and all –
but I was afraid her mother'd answer the phone and all...then I thought of
calling up this guy that went to the Whooton School when I was there, Carl
Luce, but I didn't like him much. So I ended up not calling anybody.” (59)
b) “I kept toying with the idea...of giving old Jane a buzz...I was going to
tell whoever answered the phone that i was her uncle. I was going to say
her aunt just got killed in a car accident...The only reason I didn't do it was
because I wasn't in the mood. If you're not in the mood, you can't do that
stuff right.” (63)
Yet again, Holden makes excuses not to contact people who seem to
matter to him. His fear of real connection and real intimacy is only
matched by his insatiable desire and longing for it. This struggle within
Holden is part of the confusion that has compromised his innocent
romantic view of a world that is nothing like the one he envisions or longs
for. By not contacting Jane, he is able to keep his view of her and their
“relationship” on some kind of romantic pedestal. He is afraid to test the
relationship for fear that it will not live up to the view of it that he has in his
head. By not contacting Jane, his imaginings of what it would be like if
he were with her are left intact, as fragile as they are.
2. “'By any chance do you happen to know where they go, the ducks,
when it's frozen over.'” (60)
The ducks are once more mentioned and again serve to highlight two
things. First, Holden's curiosity about the ducks shows a childlike
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innocence of the world that contrasts greatly with the adolescent
cynicism he shows towards the adult world. As well, the ducks again
symbolize the alienated and isolated people like Holden who “fly south”
to escape a “frozen” world that is cold and unfeeling.
3. “'Would you care to stop on the way and join me for cocktail?'” (60)
Holden again tries to create superficial intimacy by striking up a
conversation with people, like Mrs. Morrow, who he is not likely to ever see
again. He asks the cabbies to join him for a cocktail because of his
desperate loneliness. However, unlike Jane or Phoebe, he risks nothing by
revealing anything of himself to them because they mean nothing to him.
They can't reject him because he doesn't need them . With Jane it is
different. He is afraid that he does need her and the intimacy she can
provide and this frightens him. He fears he may lose it once he acquires it.
4. “We got to the Edmont Hotel, and I checked in. I'd put on my red
hunting cap when I was in the cab, just for the hell of it, but I took it off
before I checked in. I didn't want to look like a screwball or something.”
(61)
Yet again, Holden refuses too wear his cap in public as he continues to
hide his true self from an ever judgemental world. The cap is what makes
him feel special or unique and different. Sadly, he fears his uniqueness will
make him “look like a screwball or something” to the cruel, cold world
that takes no mercy on anyone who happens to be not like everyone else
or not cut from the same mold as everyone else.
5. a) “You'd be surprised what was going on on the other side of the hotel.
They didn't even bother to pull their shades down. I saw one guy, a grayhaired, very distinguished- looking guy with only his shorts on, do
something you wouldn't believe me if I told you. First he put his suitcase
on the bed. Then he took out all these women's clothes, and put them on.
Real women's clothes – silk stockings, high heeled shoes, brassiere, and
one of those corsets with the straps hanging down and all. Then he put on
this very tight black evening dress. I swear to God...he was all alone too.”
(60)
b) “Then in the window almost right over his, I saw a man and a woman
squirting water out of their mouths at each other.” (62)
c) “The trouble was, that kind of junk is sort of fascinating to watch, even if
you don't want it to be.” (62)
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d) “...I'm probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw. Sometimes I
can think of very crumby stuff I wouldn't mind doing if the opportunity
came up. I can even see how it might be quite a lot of fun, in a crumby
way...to get a girl and squirt water or something all over each other's face.
The thing is though, I don't like the idea. It stinks, if you analyze it. I think if
you don't really like a girl, you shouldn't horse around with her at all, and if
you do like her, then you're supposed to like her face, and if you like her
face, you ought to be careful about doing crumby stuff to it, like squirting
water all over it. It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun
sometimes.” (62)
e) “Girls aren't too much help, either, when you start trying not to get too
crumby, when you start trying not to spoil anything really good. I knew
this one girl, a couple of years ago, that was crumbier than I was. Boy was
she crumby! We had a lot of fun, though, for awhile, in a crumby way.
Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where
the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I
break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit
horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I
broke it the same week...the same night...I spent the same night necking
with a terrible phony named Anne Louise Sherman. Sex is something I just
don't understand. I swear to God...After awhile i sat down in a chair and
smoked a couple of cigarettes. I was feeling pretty horny” (62-63)
f) “'Well, you don't know me, but I'm a friend if Eddie Birdsell's. He
suggested that if I were in town sometime, we ought to get together for a
cocktail or two...I couldn't remember if his name was Edmund or Edward.
I only met him once, at a...stupid party.'” (64)
The above passages highlight Holden’s innocence and his internal
struggle. The kinky sex acts described above show how sex can be used
for physical pleasure without the slightest hint of intimacy or emotional
closeness whatsoever. However, adding to Holden’s confusion is the fact
that while he finds the acts arousing and titillating, he also finds them
“crumby” and is bothered by the fact that “crumby stuff can be a lot of
fun sometimes.” He, in his innocence, has equated sex and intimacy or
romantic love as one and the same. The realization that is beginning to
dawn upon him now is that sex and sexual arousal can have absolutely
nothing in common with intimacy as is evidenced by the couple spitting
water at one another. Though he knows “how it might be quite a lot of
fun”, he feels that if “you really like a girl...then you're supposed to like her
face, and if you like her face, you ought to be careful about doing
crumby stuff to it.” The way he deals with this conflict is by calling up total
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strangers like Faith Cavendish (quote f) who can possibly provide the
sexual turn on that a young, adolescent male is seeking without the
intimacy he so desires but also is so fearful of being hurt by. In the above
quotes, the kinkiness of the sex play symbolizes just how far sex and
intimacy can be. Holden is beginning to see this in himself when he says
“I’m probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw” but admits he
“[doesn’t] like the idea” of sex as nothing more than a turn on. He is
driven by two desires. One is for sexual fulfillment and the other is for
emotional connection. What he doesn’t realize is that for all this to come
in one package is rare and it is when you’ve probably found true love. He
is somewhat ashamed and embarrassed by the fact that his own lust for
sex can be so removed from the loving and caring of true intimacy. He is
bothered by the fact that the phoniness he sees in a person like Stradlater
is also a part of his own make-up as he tries to find sexual pleasure at all
costs. Finally, in his innocence and confusion, he simply admits that “sex is
something I really don't understand too hot.”
Chapter 10
1. “You never saw a little kid so pretty and smart in your whole life...I'm the
only really dumb one.” (67)
Holden is talking about his sister Phoebe here and speaks of her with the
same tone with which he spoke of his dead brother, Allie. He puts himself
down at her expense almost as if he feels unworthy in her presence. Part
of Holden's problem seems to be his guilt for having survived while Allie
died. This has only added to his self-loathing. The fact that he recognizes
himself as being no better than the people he despises for their phoniness
and shallowness causes him to worship someone like Phoebe who he sees
as a truly beautiful human being from the inside out. This also leads him to
find excuses not to call her because he is trying to maintain a certain
distance just in case she leaves like Alliedid when he died.
2. a) “She was really a moron. But what a dancer. I could hardly stop
myself from sort of giving her a kiss on the top of her dopey head...She got
sore when I did it.” (71-72)
b) “I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing
about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much
to look at, or even they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and
ten you never know where the hell you are.”(73)
13
Holden, again, shows his own phoniness as his adolescent sexual drive
causes him to mistake lust for some form of love. Despite the fact that he
views a girl he met at a club as a “moron”, he can't help from falling “half
in love with her”, kissing her on the head and telling her she's a “very good
conversationalist” (72), which is something a moron would not be. It is,
indeed, quite possible to find a person who has personal qualities you
detest, to be quite attractive physically. However, in Holden's naivete
and innocence – and his desperation for some form of emotional and
physical attachment -he mistakes this sexual attraction for love. Once
again, his confusion over the two feelings leaves him not knowing “where
the hell you are” with respect to intimacy and relationships. To fall in love
with and then kiss a total stranger who he views as being a moron
certainly underscores the confused state of mind in which Holden finds
himself. Again, like Stradlater, he is presenting a false face in order to find
sexual fulfillment. However, he is really fooling himself by thinking it is some
form of love he is chasing.
Chapter 11
1. While the previous two chapters focus upon the superficiality of sex and
sexual attraction, chapter 11 is in stark contrast as it finally reveals Holden's
relationship with Jane in a little more detail. From those details we can
see an intimacy quite unlike the sexual superficiality of chapters 9 and 10.
Holden admits he “got...Jane Gallagher on the brain” (76) and discusses
how “[he] really got to know her quite intimately.” (76) He goes even
further to show that maybe he is not as naïve as he seems when he says,
“You don't always have to get too sexy to get to know a girl.” (76)
2. We see this intimacy that is so tender and so loving without any hint of
sexuality – though there are hints of sensuality – in the numerous incidents
Holden reveals about his time spent with Jane one “whole summer long”
(76)
a) “She was the only one, outside my family, that I ever showed Allie's
baseball mitt to..I told her quite a lot about him. She was interested in that
kind of stuff” (77)
Holden's closeness to Jane is not only shown by the fact that he confides
in her about something so personal as Allie but also by the fact that she
“was interested” in what he had to say. Her listening to what he had to
say with interest, shows how she must care for him in the same manner he
cares for her. And that is intimacy.
14
b) “Then she really started to cry, and the next thing I knew, I was kissing
her all over – anywhere – her eyes, her nose, her forehead, her eyebrows
and all, her ears – her whole face except her mouth and all. She sort of
wouldn't let me get to her mouth.” (79)
c) “I held hands with her all the time...That doesn't sound like much..but
she was terrific to hold hands with...We'd get into a...movie or something,
and right away we'd start holding hands, and we wouldn't quit till the
movie was over...you never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand
was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.”
(79)
d) “One time, in this movie, Jane did something that just about knocked
me out...I felt this hand on the back of my neck, and it was Jane's. It was
a funny thing to do...most girls if you see them putting their hand on the
back of somebody's neck...they're doing it to their husband or their little
kid...it's so pretty it just about kills you.” (80)
The kissing here shows intimacy and not sexuality because the kissing of
the eyes and nose and forehead and eyebrows shows a familiarity with,
and a closeness to, that sex doesn't, necessarily, even come close to
achieving. This kind of physical contact, like the touching of the neck in
the quote (d), shows a genuine caring and love for another human being
because it is so devoid of sexual overtones. The kissing of the mouth can
be quite sexual and when Jane “wouldn't let [Holden] get to her mouth” ,
it may not necessarily suggest that she does not like Holden that way. It
may simply be that she does not want to spoil the intimacy and closeness
of this moment with something as trivial and emotionally detached as sex.
The touching of the neck is linked to a husband or a child because there is
no stronger love than the love held for the person you choose to marry
and the child you choose to bear. By comparing Jane's touching of
Holden to the touching of a husband or child is to highlight how close
Jane must feel to Holden to do this. Holding hands (quote c) is the same
kind of intimacy. It is being intimate without being sexual and when
Holden and Jane hold hands for an entire movie “without changing the
position” (79)and without “[quitting] till the movie was over” (79), and
without moving beyond this simple act, it shows, once again, how
intimate two people can get without getting sexual.
Chapter 12
1. “The fish don't go no place. They stay right where they are, the fish”
(82)
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The fish, unlike the ducks that flee the frozen lake - and winter - for the
warmth of the south, stay right where they are and adapt to their
environment. The fish symbolize the individuals who can accept the
coldness and phoniness of society and still find their own happiness within
it by adapting to the world they are forced to inhabit. They are a contrast
to the ducks who represent the people who escape from society because
they find it too inhospitable and alienating. When Holden asks the cab
driver, Horwitz, “Do you happen to know where [the ducks] go in the
wintertime” (82), what he is really asking is “where do the people who
can't cope with the loneliness and cruelty of this world go to find some
sense of peace or even escape?”
2. Holden's loneliness leads to his desperate attempts at connection
when he asks Horwitz,“Would you care to stop off and have a drink with
me somewhere?” (83) He asks a total stranger to have a drink with him
because of his desperate loneliness but the fact that Horwitz is a total
stranger reminds the reader that Holden chooses strangers because they
mean nothing to him. Because of this, he does not have to fear being
rejected by them. This “relationship” offers no risk of pain. It is safe. It is his
way of distancing himself from society for his own emotional well-being
and self-protection but at the same time, not being alone.
3. “It was very phony...I don't even think he knows anymore when he's
playing right or not. It isn't all his fault. I partly blame all those dopes that
clap their heads off – they'd foul up anybody if you gave them a chance.
Anyway, it made me feel depressed and lousy again...”
(84)
Holden is referring to the saxophone player, Ernie, who he sees performing
at a club one night. Ernie is yet one more example for Holden of all the
phoniness and fakery in society. He has to fake what he plays to please
the audience. He puts in “all these dumb, show-offy ripples in the high
notes” (84) because he knows this is what the audience, in their musical
ignorance, applauds. Holden feels Ernie hasn't played what he feels for so
long that he's forgotten how to do it. Ernie symbolizes how, even though
we may hate the phoniness of the world, we, ourselves, have to be fakes
or phonies to survive in this artificial world of our own making. If we do it
for long enough, we start to forget that we, ourselves, have become
phonies. It just becomes the way we survive and keep ourselves
protected.
4. “Anyway, this Joe Yale-looking guy had a terrific looking girl with him.
Boy she was good-looking. But you should've heard the conversation
16
they were having...what he was doing, he was giving her a feel under the
table, and at the same time telling her all about some guy in his dorm that
had eaten a whole bottle of aspirin and nearly committed suicide. His
date kept saying to him, 'How horrible...Don't, darling. Please, don't. Not
here.' Imagine giving somebody a feel and telling them about a guy
committing suicide at the same time! That killed me.” (85-86)
This conversation witnessed by Holden shows the blurred and confusing
line between sex and real intimacy. The boy is obviously “horny” for the
girl as he is “giving [her] a feel” but the conversation about a near suicide
would normally be a serious conversation between two people
connecting on some level of intimacy. Part of the reason why Holden
can't tell the two things apart (sex and intimacy) is that people often fake
intimacy to attain sex. The boy could care less about the individual who
nearly overdosed. He just uses this very personal incident to try and make
the girl think he is a caring and sensitive person. If she thinks this, more
than likely, he believes, he will be able to have sex with her. It seems to be
working for him here. More than anything else, this incident serves as a
contrast to real intimacy and real connection between two individuals
who care deeply for one another.
5. “I'm always saying 'Glad to've met you' to somebody I'm not at all glad
I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff , though.” (87)
Holden's comment comes after just meeting some “Navy guy” for the first
and last time. It highlights how he is beginning to accept the fact that to
survive in this world, one has to put on a false face. To be always honest
and say what you feel and show who you really are is to risk rejection for
not not trying to fit or blend in and be phony and fake just like everyone
else.
Chapter 13
1. “...I took my red hunting hat out of my pocket and put it on – I didn't
give a damn how I looked.” (88)
Holden acknowledges here that his hat is not only part of who he is but,
more importantly, he is afraid to assert his true individuality and identity
when he is out in public. For once, he musters up the courage to not
“give a damn” what others think and let society see at least a part of the
real Holden Caulfield. Unfortunately, for the most part, it is more bravado
than real conviction as Holden continues to retreat further and further
within himself as the novel progresses.
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2. “...I brushed my teeth...then I put on another clean shirt. I knew I didn't
have to get all dolled up for a prostitute or anything, but it sort of gave me
something to do.” (91-92)
Whether Holden knows it or not, the reason he is getting “all dolled up for
a prostitute” is because he is not only trying to satisfy his adolescent sexual
desires, but he is also trying to satisfy his longing for emotional intimacy
and connection. His getting dressed up as if he is going on a date signifies
his desire for intimacy. The fact that he is doing it for a prostitute signifies
his inability to strive for real intimacy and his desire to protect himself from
the emotional mine fields of real relationships, real connection and real
intimacy. A prostitute allows him to keep his emotional distance because
that is what a prostitute does in her profession. Finally, a prostitute can, at
least, satisfy his teenage lust for sexual intercourse. When Holden says, “If
you want to know the truth, I'm a virgin”, (92) the reader can understand
why the conflict at war within Holden is such an intense one. For Holden to
be a virgin at this age only heightens his longing and lust for sexual
connection - as much for curiosity as for “horniness.”
3. “'My name is Jim Steele'” (94) Holden tells the prostitute, Sunny. Once
again he keeps his emotional distance by never letting anyone, even a
prostitute, see the real Holden. This distance - and his alias - allows him to
keep himself safe and protected once more.
4. “I know you're supposed to feel pretty sexy when somebody gets up
and pulls their dress over their head, but I didn't. Sexy was about the last
thing I was feeling. I felt much more depressed than sexy.” (95)
Holden always pictured a girl undressing as a sexy but also, a very
romantic and intimate thing. For him, the two go together. When Sunny
does it, it is very workman-like and does not have a hint of intimacy or
sensuality to it. For Sunny, when she gets undressed, it is the same as
someone else putting on their work clothes. It is just an afterthought. It is
not at all as Holden envisioned it would have been. Sunny's lack of
sensuality makes Holden feel very unsexy and unaroused. In fact, the
sense of disillusionment makes Holden feel “more depressed than sexy” as
his idealistic views of love and sex continue to crack and crumble under
the strain of his naïve romanticism.
5. “'Do you feel like talking for awhile?'” (95)
Holden's question to the prostitute, Sunny, shows Holden's warped sense of
reality and love. He wants to “talk” to a prostitute just as he talked to
18
Jane because talking is a form of intimacy. Unfortuntely, he is paying a
prostitute to have sex, not to talk. Sunny “looked at [Holden] like [he] was
a madman.” (95) because intimacy and talking are the last things on her
mind, as they should be the last things on his mind at this time. If he were
with someone he truly loved, then it would make perfect sense. Because
Holden has sex and intimacy, and love and lust, so mixed up, it leads to
these very incongruent and contradictory situations in Holden's young and
troubled life. Sunny represents something he both wants and despises,
something he needs but fears. He is too scared to, both, call Jane and
sleep with Sunny. He takes refuge in his isolation but this isolation only
intensifies his alienation, his loneliness and, ultimately, his pain.
6. “I thought of her going in a store and buying it, and nobody in the store
knowing she was a prostitute and all. The salesman probably just thought
she was a regular girl when she bought it. It made me feel sad as hell – I
don't know why exactly.” (96)
It makes Holden “feel sad as hell” even though he doesn't “know why
exactly” because he pictures a beautiful woman buying a beautiful dress
to go on a date with a man she loves. He is trying to make the hooker to
whom he has paid cash so she will have sex with him, into this girl he has
envisioned in his romantic, idealistic head. When he begins to realize the
two don't match up very well, his disillusionment makes him “sad” and
only heightens his sense of depression and confusion. This sense of
disillusionment leads him to ask Sunny, “'...Do you mind very much if we
don't do it?'” (96) because by now, Holden “felt more depressed than
sexy” (96)
Chapter 14
1. “I like Jesus and all, but I don't care too much for most of the other stuff
in the bible. Take the Disciples, for instance. They annoy the hell out of
me, if you want to know the truth. They were all right after Jesus was dead
and all, but while He was was alive, they were about as much use to him
as a hole in the head. All they did was keep letting him down.” (99)
The supposed betrayal, in Holden's mind, of Jesus by his Disciples tells
more abut Holden's mental state than it does about the relationship
between Jesus and his Disciples. Holden's discussion of the Disciples
reveals how he feels betrayed and hurt by all the relationships he forms.
He feels let down by Allie's death and by his inability to move to where he
would like to in his relationship with Jane. He views connection and
intimacy as being the first steps to betrayal and pain and it is for this
19
reason he hesitates in forming any lasting and meaningful relationships
with anyone, including members of his own family.
2. “I remember I asked old Childs if he thought Judas, the one that
betrayed Jesus and all, went to Hell after he committed suicide. Childs
said certainly. That's exactly where I disagreed with with him. I said I'd
bet...that Jesus never sent old Judas to Hell...I think any one of the
Disciples would've sent him to Hell...but I'll bet anything Jesus didn't do it.”
(100)
In Holden's continuation of his discussion of the Jesus . Disciple
relationship, he shows, once again, his idealistic and overly romanticized
view of things. He pictures Jesus as an all-forgiving and evercompassionate individual who forgives even the most horrific of sins and
trespasses. Holden sees in Jesus the kind of person who he wishes he had
in his life. This kind of unconditional love is what he longs for because he
feels he is too unworthy to ever be accepted by any normal human being
in society. His self-loathing has led him to look up to yet one more person
with whom he can never form a lasting and intimate relationship. With
Jane, it is a girl he loves but always makes excuses to not call. With Sunny,
it is prostitute with who could never ever love him – as he could never love
her – or hurt him. With Jesus, it is a figure who exists only in the Bible or in
myth or in the mind of only the most faith-filled. Jesus is yet one more
idealized individual and relationship he can hold in his mind as perfect
without the risk of seeing that relationship and idealized view of it come
crashing down in the cruel , cold light of reality.
3. “'You're a dirty moron...You're a stupid chiselling moron, and in about
two years you'll be one of these scraggy guys that come up to you on the
street and ask for a dime for coffee. You'll have snot all over your dirty,
filthy overcoat, and you'll be -'
Then [Maurice] smacked me. I didn't even try to get out of the way
or duck or anything. All I felt was this terrific punch in my stomach.” (102)
Holden reveals two things about himself here. Firstly, he is a very intelligent
young man who is probably a very good judge of character. He knows
exactly what kind of a bully and a thug that Maurice is and the reason
why Maurice slugged Holden in the stomach is, probably, not because of
what Holden said but because what he said is so accurate. Maurice
knows that Holden has him pegged and probably knows more about him
than he would ever be willing to admit about himself. Holden struck a
nerve with Maurice. This passage also reveals that, as mentally unstable
as Holden may be, he is still a person of principle – thanks in part to his
20
overly idealized view of the world. In chapter 13, Holden views himself as
“yellow” (89) when he says he wouldn't have the “guts” (89) to confront
and take a “sock” (89) at the person who stole his gloves at Pencey Prep.
However, even then he acknowledges, “Maybe I'm not all yellow” (89)
and this piece of self-awareness proves to be quite accurate in chapter
14 as Maurice tries to extort $5.00 out of Holden for services provided by
Sunny. The agreed upon price was $5.00 but Maurice says it was $10.00.
Holden stands up to the physically superior Maurice and refuses to pay.
His courage and conviction is even more admirable when he remarks,
“God was I scared” (102) He is beaten for his stand but refuses to give the
money until it is forcibly taken from him. Holden has his own sense of
dignity that he refuses to surrender at any cost – even it it does involve
physical harm to himself.
4. “The goddam movies. They can ruin you.” (104)
The movies, and Holden's dislike for them, symbolizes not only his
romanticized and idealized view of the world he inhabits – and how that
view is not an accurate reflection of reality - but, also, how this view has
caused Holden not to be able to function in the world that he is forced to
inhabit every day. The fake and overly romanticized world of the movies
has “ruined [him]” and as his protective cocoon of innocence falls away,
this world that he sees reflected in movies - and that exists in his head - is
nothing like the one he sees and feels every day. The real world is far more
harsh and painful and unforgiving and far less ideal and romantic. It
shatters him. The movies are just a symbol of the fake world of childhood
innocence that hides the dark cruelties of the adult real world.
Chapter 15
1. “I thought I'd give old Jane a buzz, to see if she was home yet and all,
but I wasn't in the mood.” (105)
Once again, Holden longs to call Jane but makes excuses not to do so.
He desires intimacy with her but fears rejection from her.
2. a) “I used to think [Sally Hayes] was quite intelligent...I think I'd have
found [out that she wasn't] a lot sooner if we hadn't necked so damn
much. My big trouble is I always sort of think whoever I'm necking is a
pretty intelligent person.” (105)
b) “[Sally] gave me a pain in the ass but she was very good-looking.”
(106)
21
Holden's confusion over sex versus love is evident here. Sally turns Holden
on sexually and it clouds his judgement about what kind of a person she
really is. He naively believes that if he is attracted to her then she must
have qualities worthy of loving. He finds her intelligent because he is
looking for it in her. He wants to justify his “necking” with and being
attracted to her. The second quote acknowledges how much she
bothers Holden but because “she was very good-looking” he overlooks
what it is about Sally that gives him “a pain in the ass”. His libido is
clouding his logic and his emotions and is making him think the emotions
he is feeling are real and true.
3. a) “[The nun] had a pretty nice smile when she looked at you. She had
a big nose, and she had on those glasses with sort of iron rims that aren't
too attractive, but she had a helluva kind face.” (109)
b) “'Oh Romeo and Juliet! Lovely! Didn't you just love it?' She certainly
didn't sound like a nun...I mean that play gets pretty sexy in some parts,
and she was a nun and all” (111)
c) “After [the nuns] left, I started feeling sorry that I'd only given them ten
bucks for their collection.” (113)
Like all Holden's encounters that leave him emotionally scarred and
wounded, his encounter with the nuns is no different. Holden has an
overly simplified view of adulthood and an overly idealized and
romanticized view of childhood. This simplistic divide between childhood,
which he sees as innocent and good, and adulthood, which he sees as
phony and evil, causes him much pain as he leaves his own childhood
behind for the adult world he has been thrust into. This labelling of
childhood as good and adulthood as evil, is a good way for him to
rationalize his own opting out of the adult world and his encounter with
Maurice only serves to reinforce this opinion. However, the nuns upset his
world view - and Holden, himself - because they do not conform to his
stereotypical view of all adults and all adult institutions - namely, religion
and the church. Holden views himself as an “atheist” and sees the
church as one more adult institution that likes to control the mind and
suck the individuality out of its blind followers with its phony and superficial
practices. However, the nuns are not “too attractive”, like Ackley, but
unlike Ackley, they seem to possess a decency and a sense of
compassion behind their “nice smile” and “kind face”. With them, it isn't
a mask. The fact that they are open-minded about a sex-filled play such
as Romeo and Juliet shocks him even more. It gets him wondering if it is
possible for some adults and some representatives of adult institutions to
22
not be phony. He is struck so much by their kindness that he regrets not
giving a larger donation because it is very rare for him to encounter such
decency and such a lack of pretense and phoniness. They ate simple
meals (“toast and coffee” [110]) and had simple “straw baskets” (109)
with which to carry their collections and he respects them for doing what
seems to be natural for them. He probably respects them even more
because he knows he lacks this courage to be who he really is in public.
Holden is too afraid to even wear his red hunting hat in public but the
nuns don't mind carrying their ratty straw baskets in the work that they
have chosen to do. The realization that he may be more of a fake than
the adult nuns unnerves and shakes Holden and the world view that has
sustained and nurtured his cynicism and his sense of disconnection for so
long.
Chapter 16
1. a) “I couldn't stop thinking about those two nuns. I kept thinking about
that beat-up old straw basket they went around collecting money with
when they weren't teaching school. I kept trying to picture my mother or
somebody, or my aunt, or Sally Hayes crazy mother, standing outside
some department store and collecting dough for poor people in a beatup old straw basket. It was hard to picture...That's what I liked about those
nuns. You could tell, for one thing, that they never went anywhere swanky
for lunch. It made me so damn sad when I thought about it, their never
going anywhere swanky for lunch or anything. I knew it wasn't too
important, but it made me sad anyway.” (114)
The impact of the nuns on Holden's thinking has obviously been great as
he continues to ponder his encounter with them in chapter 16. The
mentioning of his mother, his aunt and Sally Hayes' mother hints at from
where his cynicism comes. He feels he has been surrounded by phonies
all his life and, as a result, he just assumes every adult is a fake. He is still
trying to process the information that maybe the nuns are not fake or
phony. Holden says about Sally's mother, “If they just dropped their dough
in her basket, then walked away without saying anything to her, ignoring
her and all, she'd quit in about an hour. She'd get bored. She'd hand in
her basket and then go someplace swanky for lunch.” (114) The nuns
impact him so strongly because they are nothing like the other adult role
models he has had in his life to date.
2. “I figured I'd give old Jane a buzz...I should've at least asked [her
mother] if old Jane was home...but I didn't feel like it.” (118)
23
Yet once more, what Holden wants is want he fears most – connection to
someone he cares deeply for. The pain of loneliness is only outstripped by
the pain and fear of loss and rejection.
3. “In the first place, I hate actors. They never act like people. They just
think they do...If an actor acts [a play] out, I hardly listen. I keep worrying
about whether he's going to do something phony every minute.” (117)
Acting. movies is again a symbol of phoniness and the over-simplified and
romanticized view of the world that, in the long run, only serves to hurt us
as we grow up and have our innocence so brutally and cruelly stripped
away.
4. Holden spies a young girl who may know his sister, Phoebe. His
encounter with her reveals to the reader his attitude towards childhood
and children, in general. He offers to tighten her skates and she is very
polite and grateful. Holden remarks, “she was a very nice, polite little kid.
God, I love it when a kid's nice and polite...Most kids are. They really are.”
(119)
His thoughts on the little girl, like his thoughts of Phoebe, are filled with
affection and happiness. He sees children as being good because to
him, they represent childhood, itself. He loves their innocence jus as he
loves the innocence of childhood. They are untouched by the cynicism
with which he has had to shield himself from the onslaught of a cruel and
cold adult world.
5. “I took my old hunting hat out of my pocket while I walked, and put it
on. I knew I wouldn't meet anybody that knew me.” (122)
The hunting hat continues to be a symbol of Holden's true self and his
individuality. His continued fear of someone seeing him in this hat
symbolizes his fear of letting anyone see the real him. He is afraid of being
rejected for his individuality so he hides the hat and himself from the world
by isolating himself from that world.
6. a) “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always
stayed right where it was. Nobody's move. You could go there a hundred
thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those
two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be
drinking out of that water hole...Nobody'd be different. The only thing that
would be different would be you...(121) Then a funny thing happened.
When I got to the museum, all of a sudden, I wouldn't have gone inside for
a million bucks.” (122)
24
b) “Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be
able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them
alone. I know it's impossible, but it's too bad anyway.” (122)
The introduction of the museum as an important symbol in the novel
occurs in chapter 16. The museum symbolizes the hopelessly idealized
world that Holden has locked in his mind. This world is like childhood. It is
unchanging and is forever innocent, free of the complexities of the adult
world with which Holden is unable to deal. He wants to freeze time and
make his world devoid of anything that could taint or destroy the
innocence of childhood. Just as things in “big glass cases” in museums
never change because of their isolatuion, that is how Holden would like
his world to be from birth to death. However, his loss of desire to enter the
museum when he arrives there symbolizes how you can't stop the world
from changing because you can't stop yourself from changing. Even if
the world did remain the same – and it doesn't – it would always look
different to Holden because he is growing up and he is changing. As a
result, his perspective from which he views the world and society is
changing. If he is not the same, then the way he views the world, whether
it has changed or not, will not be the same. Simply put, as he matures, he
has to see the world and the people in it more maturely. He has to grow
up. He has to realize and deal with that simple fact of life. Change is a
certainty in life and Holden's refusal to enter the museum symbolizes his
inability to accept and deal with change. He recognizes that he is always
changing and he is “different” but he does not like it. Until he is able to
adapt to change of any kind – especially the changes that come with the
journey from childhood to adulthood – he will never be able to forge any
meaningful or lasting relationships, nor will he ever be able to find any
permanent happiness in the adult world in which he has to live.
Chapter 17
1. “...I just sat down...and watched the girls...In a way it was sort of
depressing...because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to
all of them. When they got out of school and college, I mean. You figured
most of them would probably marry dopey guys...Guys that get sore and
childish as hell if you beat them at golf...Guys that are very mean. Guys
that never read books. Guys that are very boring...” (122)
Holden, here, is once again watching his idealized view of childhood take
a beating as he has begun to realize that the innocent, romantic dreams
of childhood about love and relationships are probably not realistic. He
thinks about girls as they grow up and how all the romantic dreams they
25
have about the guys they will marry are really just fantasies as they end up
in relationships that are not the least bit ideal, romantic or fulfilling. This links
closely with his notion of being “the catcher in the rye” who saves children
from running through the rye and over the cliff. A part of him wishes he
could save them all from the trauma and sadness of losing their innocent
dreams as they leave childhood and enter the adult world of heartbreak
and disillusionment.
2. a) “Finally, old Sally started coming up the stairs, and I started down to
meet her. She looked terrific...I felt like marrying her the minute I saw her.
I'm crazy. I didn't even like her much, and yet all of a sudden I felt like I
was in love with her and wanted to marry her.” (124)
b) “She had one of those very loud, embarrassing voices when you met
her somewhere. She got away with it because she was so damn goodlooking but it always gave me a pain in the ass.” (124)
c) “...when we were coming out of this big clinch, I told her I loved her
and all. It was a big lie, of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it.
I'm crazy. I swear to God I am.” (125)
d) “'Oh, darling, I love you too,' [Sally] said. Then, right in the same damn
breath, she said, 'Promise me you'll let your hair grow. Crew cuts are
getting corny. And your hair's so lovely.'” (125)
e) “If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's
late?” (125)
f) “I sort of hated old Sally by the time we got in the cab...(128) She really
did look damn good...though.” (129)
Holden again shows his confusion over love and sexual attraction. Sally
gave him “a pain in the ass” and he “hated” her and found her
“embarrassing” but she “looks swell”. Feelings as intense as these
adolescent sexual urges make him mistake them for love and as a result
of his burgeoning sexual desires, he feels like he is”in love with her and
[wants] to marry her.” However, even when he tells her he “loved her and
all” and even “meant it when he said it”, he still knows “it was a big lie”
because it does not fit with his romantic and idealized view of what he
thought love would be like. He feels like he is “crazy” because he can't
understand why he is so attracted to someone he can't stand. In his
childhood innocence, it is not how he imagined love would be and this
confusion leads to his sense of disillusionment and his belief that he is
crazy. Sally is no better as she tells Holden “'I love you, too'” and then
26
makes him promise to “let [his] hair grow”. Her feelings are based on the
same superficial feelings of sexual attraction as Holden's are and this does
nothing to help Holden differentiate between love and lust.
3. “'Look,' I said. 'Here's my idea...What we could do is, tomorrow morning
we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont...It's beautiful as hell up
there...I have about a hundred and eighty bucks in the bank...We'll stay in
these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out. Then, when
the dough runs out, I could get a job somewhere and we could live
somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, we could get married or
something. I could chop all our own wood in the wintertime and all.
Honest to God, we could have a terrific time'” (132)
Holden's naïve romantic notions are in full bloom here as he suggests to
Sally that they run away together to a cabin in the woods and get
married. It is no coincidence that he suggests an isolated cabin away
from society because, once again, it is Holden running away from the real
world to which he cannot connect or deal. However, his idealistic and
overly simplistic view of what he thinks love and marriage and happiness
is shows the reader someone who is not in touch with reality or who is not
yet emotionally mature. He has repeatedly stated his dislike for Sally and
his sudden desire to marry her shows a young boy who is desperately
lonely and will take human connection in any from, whatsoever. When
Sally says to Holden, “'Stop screaming at me please'” (132) and Holden, in
his mind, believes it “was crap, because [he] wasn't even screaming at
her.” (132), it shows both his pleading desperation and how mentally
troubled he is to not realize he is screaming. His impending breakdown is
becoming more and more obvious to the reader as the novel progresses.
Chapter 18
1. “I've watched that guy [who plays the kettle drum] since I was about
eight years old...He only gets a chance to bang them a couple of times
during the whole piece, but he never looks bored when he's doing it. Then
when he does bang them, he does it so nice and sweet, with this nervous
expression on his face.” (138)
The kettle drum player has a small and, seemingly, insignificant part to
play in the Rockette's Christmas show but when he bangs the kettle drum,
he puts every thing into it and obviously enjoys his role. Holden can relate
to him because he is not a phony or a fake like Ernie who tries to please
the crowd by playing “show-offy” stuff that they might like. Neither is he a
phony or a fake like some of the main attractions in the Rockette's show
27
who look like “they could hardly wait to get a cigarette or something.”
(137) Holden can also probably relate to the kettle drum player because
he reassures Holden that, despite his seeming insignificance in this big,
wide universe, he can still matter and have a life and purpose of some
consequence and meaning...and most importantly, be happy within that
life. This gives Holden a sense of hope, no matter how small, when he is
feeling most hopeless.
2. “You take somebody that cries their eyes out over phony stuff in the
movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart.” (140)
Holden watches a movie immediately after the Rockette's show and its
phoniness and it's fake happy ending makes him “...want to puke all over
himself.” (139) because he is beginning to see that movies which have
“everybody at this long dinner table laughing their asses off” (139) are not
a reflection of adult reality. Not every life, as in the movies, ends with a
happy ending where the “homey babe [gets] married...the drunkard gets
his nerves back” or the blind “can see again (139) as they all live happily
ever after. The movies and actors, throughout the entire book, serve as a
symbol of the phoniness of, not only the adult world, but of our idealistic
and overly romanticized childhood view of that adult world. The above
quote goes even further to suggest that people who buy into this fake
view of the world end up being nothing but phonies themselves who, s a
result, are”mean bastards at heart. Holden could quite easily be talking
about himself here as he watches what he, himself, is becoming with his
shield of contempt and cynicism.
Chapter 19
1. This chapter reveals a hint of homophobia on the part of Holden which
is not uncommon for an adolescent who is still discovering his own
sexuality and who is still trying to come to terms with it. It is even more of a
daunting task for Holden because he is still a virgin who, as of yet, lacks
the sexual experience needed to become comfortable with who he is
sexually. He says about an acquaintance, Carl Luce, that “Old Luce
knew who every flit (homosexual) and Lesbian in the United States was. All
you had to do was mention somebody – anybody – and old Luce'd tell
you if he was a flit or not.” (143) Holden becomes so paranoid about
homosexuality - mainly because of his own sexual inexperience - that he
“kept waiting to turn into a flit” (143), himself, because Luce had once said
that “you could turn into one practically overnight, if you had all the traits
and all.” (143) He is so paranoid about it that he even thinks that Luce is
“sort of flitty himself” (143) because he would “goose the hell out of you
28
while you were going down the corridor.” or “”he always left..the door
open...whenever he went to the can (143) Holden finds that, “that stuff's
sort of flitty.” (143) This hint of homophobia is relevant because it comes
into play later on when Holden has his encounter with Mr. Antolini. It
allows the reader to, possibly, have a better perspective on, and a better
understanding of, the “incident” that caused Holden to flee, than Holden
has himself.
2. When Holden meets Carl Luce for drinks, the same irrational behaviour
he displayed with Sally continues as he is crudely personal in his discussions
with Luce. Holden realizes he is “getting a little too personal.” (147) and,
as with Sally, he “was getting excited and...was talking a little too loud”
(147) as he queries Luce about sex and his sex life. Luce is in no mood for
“any typical Caulfield questions” (146) as Holden asks Luce about such
things as whether sex is “better in China” (146) or whether a woman “in
her late thirties” is “better for sex” (145) than a younger woman. Holden's
obsession with sex is only partly because his mind is off-balance. His
inexperience and his desire to try and find out why he can't always
distinguish true love and connection from sexual desire and “horniness”
are also at the core of his constant harassing of Luce. He believes Luce
“lost his virginity when he was only fourteen” (145) and he thinks Luce
“[knows] quite a bit about sex and all” (145) because he would always
have these “sex talks...late at night” (143) while Holden was at Whooton –
another school out of which Holden failed. When Holden's constant
badgering causes Luce to leave, Holden pleads with him to stay because
he was feeling “lonesome as Hell.” (149) Once again Holden makes a
feeble attempt at trying to make a connection to another person but
ends up pushing them away before he gets rejected himself. This is the
pattern that defines all Holden's relationships. He also finds Luce - like Sally
and Ackley and Stradlater - a “pain in the ass” (149) but he'll take any
kind of companionship at this point to combat the painful loneliness he is
experiencing every day. This is another aspect of Holden's relationship
pattern. Rather than call Jane or Phoebe – people he genuinely cares
about – he calls people like Luce and Sally Hayes or makes contact with
prostitutes like Sunny. These are relationships where he has to put nothing
at stake so there is nothing to lose. They simply take the edge of his
loneliness for a very short time. They do nothing to permanently offer any
respite or relief from it. They are just one more part of the shell of
alienation he has woven around himself to protect himself from the
potential pain of real commitment and from the stripping away of his
childhood innocence and romantic idealism.
3. “You know what the trouble with me is? I can never get really sexy – I
mean really sexy – with a girl I don't like a lot. I mean I have to like her a
29
lot. If I don't, I sort of lose my...desire for her and all. Boy, it really screws
up my sex life something awful.” (148)
And this is why he can't have sex with Sunny or go beyond“necking” with
Sally Hayes. Because Holden equates sex with intimacy and love, he
thinks it is wrong to have sex with someone he doesn't love. He may love
Jane, so it follows that she should be the one he has sex with. The only
problem with that is the fact that if he develops a loving and a sexual
relationship with Jane, he has to let her see the real him and he has to
trust she will love him back and not reject him for who he is. He also has to
run the risk of losing that relationship or having it not live up to the
romantic ideal he has in his head – and this is exactly the fear that has
made him cut himself off from people, and from society as a whole, in the
first place. This is, ultimately, Holden's dilemma and not only is it why “[his]
sex life stinks”, (148) but it is why his life stinks. He does one of two things.
He, either, forms meaningless relationships with meaningless people for a
short period of time that only leave him more lonely afterwards, or he
forms no relationship, whatsoever, with the people he truly cares for so as
to avoid the pain of rejection and loss. Either way, it leads to the life of
complete and utter loneliness and hopelessness that eventually pushes
Holden to the mental breakdown that hospitalizes him.
Chapter 20
1. a) “A flitty-looking guy with wavy hair came out and played the piano,
and then this new babe, Valencia, came out and sang...I sort of gave her
the old eye, but she pretended she didn't even see me...I told the
[headwaiter] to ask old Valencia if she's care to join me for a drink...but he
probably didn't even give her the message.” (149)
b) “I felt like giving old Jane a buzz...But when I got inside this phone
booth, I wasn't much in the mood to give old Jane a buzz...so...I gave Sally
Hayes a buzz.” (150)
c) “I sort of tried to make a date with [the hat-check girl] for when she got
through working, but she wouldn't do it. She said she was old enough to
be my mother and all” (153)
The above quotes show Holden again making excuses not to establish a
real relationship with Jane (“I wasn't much in the mood”) and then,
instead, opting to engage in very superficial meaningless ones that can
temporarily dull the ache of his deep loneliness. He fails in his attempts to
pick up the hat-check girl and the singer, Valencia, and to somehow
30
reconcile with Sally Hayes after upsetting her earlier that day. With each
successive failure to connect, Holden withdraws deeper and deeper into
his protective shell of cynicism and loses more faith in himself. As he
becomes more cynical, he becomes more desperate to break out of his
loneliness and risks rejection yet again. And the cycle continues. When
he “[strikes] up a conversation” (152) with Valencia's “flitty-looking” piano
player, he finds “he wasn't too...friendly” (152) as he tells Holden to “go
home and hit the sack”. (152) Holden is so overcome by yet one more
rejection and one more connection he can't seem to make, that, when
he “went out to the hat-check room, [he] was crying...because [he] was
feeling so damn depressed and lonesome.” (153) He is sick and tired of
“all these handsome guys...combing their goddam hair” (a reference to
the superficiality and phoniness he sees in people and society) who then
“beat it on you”. (153) Holden's breaking down and crying seems to fly in
the face of all the cynical and witty comments he usually makes (which,
themselves, are a mask of bravado with which he protects himself) and it
gives the reader yet one more example of Holden's fragile mental state,
as well as a foreshadowing his impending “fall”. On a different note,
Holden's attitude towards Valencia's piano player shows, again, a slight
streak of homophobia as he refers to him as a “flitty-looking guy” who
spends all his time “[combing] his golden locks”. (152) Again, these
comments are setting up the reader for his encounter wit his former English
teacher, Mr. Antolini.
2. a) “Then, finally, I found [the duck pond]. What it was, it was partly
frozen and partly not frozen. Bit I didn't see any ducks around. I walked
around the whole damn lake...but I didn't see a single duck.” (154)
b) “I started picturing millions of jerks coming to my funeral.” (154)
c) “They all came when Allie died...I went with [my parents] a couple of
times, but I cut it out. In the first place, I certainly don't enjoy seeing him in
that crazy cemetery... (156) what nearly drove me crazy [was] all the
visitors could get in their cars and turn on their radios and all and then go
some place nice for dinner – everybody except Allie. I couldn't stand it.”
(156)
d) “I started thinking how old Phoebe would feel if I got pneumonia and
died...She'd feel pretty bad if something like that happened. She likes me
a lot.” (156)
What ties all these passages together is the idea of unexplained
disappearances. It is no coincidence that Holden immediately thinks of
death and funerals immediately after being unable to locate the ducks.
31
The disappearing ducks symbolize people who seem to disappear from
our lives in an instant either through death or just plain leaving. Holden
doesn't know where the ducks are or why they left. The same is true of
Allie. He knows Allie is in a hole in the ground but, being an atheist, does
not take comfort in him being some place better in the afterlife. Just as
the ducks disappeared, so did Allie from Holden's life, and with just as little
explanation or reason. Holden's fear of connecting or loving something or
someone who may be gone in an instant makes the reader understand
why Holden is so alienated and disconnected, and the role Allie's death
played in him feeling this way. The idea of Holden picturing people
coming to his funeral is rather ominous as it hints at a dark destiny for the
novel's troubled young protagonist. On a more positive note, his
realization that Phoebe “likes [him] a lot” and would “feel pretty bad” if
he died, suggests to the reader there may be hope for Holden. He can
still recognize he is worthy of love and is, in fact, loved by someone he,
himself, cares deeply for. This, alone, is reason enough to stick around
and choose life over death.
The reference to a pond “partly frozen and partly not frozen”
symbolizes both the world and the transitional state in which Holden finds
himself. Holden is “partly frozen” because he has chosen to shut down
certain feelings in order to protect himself. He is “partly not frozen”
because it is obvious through many of his comments about Jane and
Phoebe and his mother and even his dead brother, Allie, that he still cares
deeply for them all and he is unable to completely shut himself off from
having these feelings. If he does not get help, he will, eventually, become
fully “frozen” and encounter the “fall” Mr. Antolini fears for him.
The comment about the pond also symbolizes the world in which
Holden lives. Yes, it is a cold and “frozen” world that often seems to be
uncaring and unnecessarily cruel. And, indeed, there are many
relationships that will be painful and hurtful as people come and go
throughout your life. Despite all this, however, if you open yourself up to
other people and believe in your own worthiness, you will find individuals
who will care for you and love you for who you are and you will also find a
sense of purpose that will fulfill and sustain you as you travel through life
from birth to death. Whether the world is “partly frozen” or “partly not
frozen” has as much to do with you, and your perspective on it, as it does
the world, itself.
Chapter 21
1. “It's funny. You take adults, they look lousy when they're asleep and
they have their mouths open, but kids don't. Kids look all right. They can
even have spit all over the pillow and they still look all right.” (159)
32
Holden's complete faith and belief in the beauty of childhood and
childhood innocence is evident as he sneaks home and into D.B's room to
see Phoebe. As she sleeps, he is struck by how beautiful a child looks
when he or she is asleep – unlike adults who “look lousy” – and the
sleeping child acts as a metaphor for childhood, itself, which, in its
innocence, is beautiful and perfect – unlike the “lousy” adult world.
Chapter 22
1. “[Pencey] was full of phonies. And mean guys. You never saw so
many mean guys in your life. For instance, if you were having a bull
session in somebody's room, and somebody wanted to come in,
nobody'd let them come in if they were some dopey, pimply guy.
Everybody was always locking their door when somebody wanted to
come in. And they had this...secret fraternity that I was too yellow not to
join. There was this one pimply, boring guy, Robert Ackley, that wanted to
get in. He kept trying to join, and they wouldn't let him. Just because he
was boring and pimply.” (167)
The theme of isolation and alienation is directly referenced in this passage
as Holden talks about how people like Ackley are made outcasts for
purely superficial reasons. Acceptance and inclusion depend on these
superficial standards set by a phony and judgemental society. This is why
Holden is so afraid to let people see the real him. He is afraid of being
rejected the same way Ackley is. He knows he is a phony, too, and that
he, in his own way, judges Ackley and others the same way the rest of
society does. However, even though he finds Ackley disgusting and
bothersome, he still makes a point of including him in things like going to
the movies. He knows what being isolated feels like. Sadly though, when
he says “I was too yellow not to join...this secret fraternity” that the other
boys would not let Ackley join, it reveals how even though Holden hates
the superficiality and phoniness of the world, and of himself, it also reveals
how he lacks the courage not to be a phony, himself. It is what he has to
do to fit in and not be totally rejected by the world in which he must live
and survive. He hates the isolation and loneliness of his own separateness
and he will do anything to combat it, whether it is paying a prostitute like
Sunny to spend time with him or inviting a total stranger of a taxi cab
driver out for a drink or even joining some phony fraternity that at least
gives him some reprieve from his own loneliness, no matter how temporary
or personally disgusting.
33
2. Phoebe's conversation with Holden sheds some light on why Holden
has trouble dealing with people who care about him and whom he cares
about, himself. When you allow yourself to be intimate with someone else,
whether it be a family member or a lover, you must accept the risk of
them calling you on your phoniness and not letting you get away with
being anyone other than your true self. The people you are close to will
do this because they know you so well. If they care about you and truly
know you, they do not want anyone but the real you. This is why Holden,
even though he may love Phoebe or Jane, also fears intimacy with them.
They can be a mirror into which he is forced to look and see someone
who is not always honest or perfect or true...himself. Phoebe does this for
Holden in their encounter in this chapter. When Holden says to Phoebe
that he flunked out of Pencey because he “'just didn't like anything that
was happening at Pencey'” (169), she refuses to let him off the hook that
easily and she confronts him on his own cynicism when she says to him,
“'You don't like anything that's happening.'” (169) When Holden says that
isn't true, she asks him to, “'Name one thing'” . (169) Holden, when
confronted, suddenly becomes unable to think clearly and says he
“couldn't concentrate ... Sometimes it's hard to concentrate.” (169-170)
Rather than try to find something positive in his life, he avoids even
thinking about it by letting his mind wander. It is no coincidence that
when his mind does wander away from what Phoebe asks him to think
about, it is a young boy named James Castle who he thinks about.
James Castle was another boy who was on the outside looking in at Elkton
Hills (another school Holden had attended). He was bullied by a boy
names Stabile and six of his friends. He eventually escaped them and
their bullying when they came to his room, by jumping out the window to
his death. As in the last chapter, when Holden is confronted by issues that
disturb him – the disappearance of the ducks in chapter 21 and Phoebe's
confronting him on his cynicism towards life in this chapter – thoughts of
death preoccupy his mind. It shows the fragile state of Holden's mind and
how he is veering dangerously close to being not being able to cope with
being alive in this world. When Holden says, “This was about all I could
think of...those two nuns...and this boy James Castle” (170), it also shows
the turmoil that is raging in his head. While James Castle may be a
foreshadowing of his own “fall” and his own bad ending, the nuns may
preoccupy his thoughts because they give him a possible reason to live
and find things that are not phony and fake and people that are, indeed,
good and true and exactly what and who they appear to be. These
thoughts show a young boy teetering on the ledge who could go either
way.
Phoebe, however, keeps pushing Holden and confronting Holden
when she says, “'You can't even think of one thing'” (171) Eventually, the
best he can come up with is, “I like Allie” (171) She, again, won't let him
34
off easily and says, “Allie's dead” (171) When Holden responds by saying
he likes “'sitting here with you, and talking, and thinking about stuff...'”
(171), Phoebe says “'That isn't anything really'” (172) Finally, when Phoebe
suggests he could be a lawyer like his father he says, “'Lawyers are all right
I guess – but it doesn't appeal to me'” (172) He likes the idea of being a
lawyer if he could “'go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time'”
(172) However, he realizes that “you don't do that kind of stuff if you're a
lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge
and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot shot. And besides.
Even if you did go around saving guys' lives and all, how would you know
if you did it because you really wanted to save guys' lives, or
because...you really wanted to...be a terrific lawyer, with everybody
slapping you on the back and congratulating you...How would you know
you weren't being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn't. (172) Holden's
discussion of being a lawyer is quite telling. There is the juxtaposition of his
childhood, romantic and idealistic view of the adult world - lawyers
“[save] innocent guys lives”- with the real world view of lawyers - people
who just “make a lot of dough and play golf” and only do what they do
to be recognized and have “everybody slapping [them] on the back”.
Holden views this as being “phony” and, even more disturbing to him is
the fact that, if he were a lawyer, he might not even be able to tell,
himself, if he were being a phony or not.
What he doesn't realize is that it can be both. Your purpose in life
should be something that offers benefits to others and in doing this, it
should give you a feeling of self-satisfaction and pride that comes when
people acknowledge your accomplishments and skills. When Holden is
able to see a common ground between his innocent, romantic and
idealistic notions of childhood and some of the harsh realities of the real
world, and, then, accept some sort of compromise between the two, he
will be a lot better off emotionally. Not everything has to be totally fake or
totally real. There is a happy medium if he can just grow up and take
some of his childhood idealism and apply it to a world that isn't always
perfect or ideal. Finally, the fact that his father is a lawyer, suggests why
he might feel closer to his mother. Perhaps he sees his father as a fake or
phony or, perhaps, he has this same problem of telling whether his father is
a lawyer for noble reasons or for phony ones.
3. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this
big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around –
nobody big, I mean – except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some
crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go
over the cliff – I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're
going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do
35
all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but
that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy. (173)
It may not be crazy but it may drive Holden crazy – if it already hasn't trying to protect every child from what he perceives is a threat to
childhood innocence – which is what the falling over the cliff represents.
This is his romantic innocent view of the world coming to the fore, yet
again. This passage is one of the most important in the novel because it
explains the symbolism and the significance of the title. Holden's wanting
to be the “catcher” protecting the children from coming blindly out of the
tall rye and tumbling over the cliff to their death, symbolizes Holden's
wanting to protect all the children from losing their innocence and their
idealism as they enter the adult world. The metaphorical death of falling
over the cliff represents a death almost as painful, - the death of
innocence. And with this death comes the birth of cynicism. The tall rye
grass symbolizes the complexities of the adult world that you can't see
coming when you are a child. When a child is running through the rye, he
or she doesn't realize the drop off a steep cliff that is awaiting them, just as
a child does not realize that the adult world is lurking just beyond
childhood and is, in its own way, just as threatening and just as menacing.
However, Holden's detachment from reality is obvious yet again. When
Phoebe asks him to choose something he would really like to do or be, he
chooses something too idealistic to ever be practical. He can't save all
children from being hurt, either by falling over a cliff or by losing their
innocence. However, if he set foot in the real world, he can be the
“catcher in the rye” of a different sort. He could find a purpose that helps
people cope with the pain of adulthood and the painful problems that
come with being an adult. This is what teachers and police officers and
doctors and psychiatrists and councillors and volunteers do all the time.
The loss of innocence, and the loss of some of our idealistic and romantic
notions that go along with it, can't be stopped from happening as we
learn the painful lessons of the adult world, but this loss and pain hcan be
made to be a lot lesser of a burden if there were adults young people
could turn to to cope wit their disillusionment and their suffering. In a
sense, people who do this are catchers in the rye. Holden is too idealistic
and unrealistic to see this yet. But he will have to if his life is to ever have
any meaning or purpose.
Chapter 23
1. “Old Mr. Antolini felt his pulse and all, and then he took off his coat and
put it over James Castle and carried him all the way over to the infirmary.
He didn't even give a damn if his coat got all bloody” (174)
36
Mr. Antolini's caring for James Castle's dead body is significant because it
shows a man who is compassionate and decent and who truly seems to
give himself to the well-being of the young. In a way he is the sort of “the
catcher in the rye” that Holden wishes he could be. This is relevant
because when Holden interprets Mr. Antolini's stroking of his head while he
sleeps as the action of a pervert, the reader is suspicious of Holden more
than Mr. Antolini. Holden has already shown a streak of homophobia and
his behaviour, up to this point, has already been quite irrational and hard
to understand. Salinger chooses to develop Mr. Antolini's character in this
compassionate light for this sole purpose of undermining and
contradicting Holden's negative view of him later on in the novel.
2. “[Phoebe] put the dough in my hand” and said, “'You can take it all....I
tried to give it to her, but she wouldn't take it....Then, all of a sudden, I
started to cry. I couldn't help it. I did it so nobody could hear me, but I
did it. It scared hell out of old Phoebe...and she came over and tried to
make me stop...she put her old arm around my neck, and I put my arm
around her, too, but I still couldn't stop it for a long time.'” (178)
This passage demonstrates two things. Firstly, it shows the fragile state of
Holden's mind. We've seen his mental imbalance before with his shouting
at Sally Hayes and Carl Luce and his attempt to get Sally to run off to a
cabin in Vermont and marry him, among other things. Here, he breaks
down for no other reason than this simple act of compassion and kindness
by Phoebe. His breakdown into crying is so out of character that “it
scared hell out of...Phoebe” and this suggests that Holden's impending fall
is getting nearer and nearer. Secondly, it shows how desperate Holden is
for someone to be there to help him break out of his prison of loneliness.
To him, the world is so brutally cold and unforgiving, and so lacking in
hope, that when he finally does encounter love he is too overwhelmed by
it to keep his composure. What he has with Phoebe is what he longs for
and needs. It is also what he fears because he has already been through
the pain of losing it with the death of his brother, Allie.
3. “...I took my hunting hat out of my pocket and gave it to [Phoebe]...She
didn't want to take it, but I made her. I'll bet she slept with it on.” (180)
Holden's giving of the hat to Phoebe shows the love and intimacy
between them. His giving it is a symbol of a relationship that works two
ways. This is what Holden needs but has been lacking and, sadly, what he
fears because of the emotional commitment and risk that is involved.
Furthermore, the hat has always acted as a symbol of Holden's true self
and identity. His giving it to Phoebe symbolizes his letting her see who he
37
really is. This, as stated, involves a lot of risk because being rejected and
left alone is what terrifies Holden. The exchange shows a still alive
potential in Holden to forge healthy and nurturing relationships with
people who love him and whom he loves. Just as there is an impending
fall over the cliff lurking on Holden's horizon, there is also a hope that the
fall can be prevented before it is too late.
Chapter 24
1. a) “'You don't care to have somebody stick to the point when he tells
you something.'”
“'Oh, sure! I like somebody to stick to the point and all. But I don't
like them to stick too much to the point. I don't know. I guess I don't like it
when somebody sticks to the point all the time.'” (183)
b) “'Don't your think if someone starts out to tell you about his father's farm,
he should stick to his guns, then get around to telling you about his uncle's
brace? Or, if his uncle's brace is such a provocative subject, shouldn't he
have selected it in the first place as his subject – not the farm?'”
“'I didn't feel much like thinking and answering and all. I had a
headache and I felt lousy. I even had sort of a stomach ache, if you want
to know the truth.'” (184)
c) “'...you were cutting classes. Coming unprepared to all your classes.'”
“'I didn't cut any classes...I didn't attend once in a while...but I didn't cut
any. I didn't feel at all like discussing it...I still had this awful headache'”
(186)
Mr. Antolini does the same thing with Holden that Phoebe does. He calls
him on his phoniness and his self-deception. Holden's inability to focus
and commit to anything until it's completion – be it school or a simple
conversation - is a possible symptom of a person who is on the verge of a
mental breakdown. His hatred for staying on topic during his Oral
Expression course, he believes, is the result of being bored. Mr. Antolini
suggests this is just the excuse of a young man in denial who is unable or
unwilling to focus. Mr. Antolini uses logic to explain to Holden why
“digression” from a topic is not always the best thing to do when speaking
publicly. Holden even begins to see Mr. Antolini's point and says, “'Yes...I
guess [a person] should'” stay on the “'subject...that interested him most'”
(184) but he then immediately retreats into his excuse of not being able to
concentrate or pay attention because he has “a headache”. The
headache – or nausea or vomiting – seems to always come when he is
faced with the stress of having his wall of denial and isolation challenged
38
and he is then forced to face issues in the real world. This is what Mr.
Antolini is doing to him here. Holden reacted in the same manner with
Phoebe when his mind wandered off the topic of trying to name one
thing he liked and he started thinking, instead, about young James
Castle's death. Here, he just says he “didn't feel much like thinking and
answering.” He is afraid to face up to his own phoniness while at the
same time condemning and ridiculing it in others. Holden does the same
thing when Mr Antolini confronts him about skipping classes at Pencey.
He says he didn't “cut any classes”, he just didn't attend once in a while.
When he is, again, confronted with the lack of logic in this argument, he
uses the same old excuse of an “awful headache” and he tries to hide
behind the argument that he simply “didn't feel at all like discussing it.”
2. “'I have a feeling that you're riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible
fall... (186) this fall I think you're riding for – it's a special kind of fall, a
horrible kind. The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit
bottom. He just keeps falling and falling...'” (187)
This piece of ominous advice to Holden by Mr. Antolini is an allusion to the
title of the book and to the passage where Holden talks about wishing he
could be the “catcher in the rye” saving all the children from falling over
the cliff. It is rather ironic that the child who will be falling, according to
Mr. Antolini, is Holden. As well, the fall may be a lot worse than just the loss
of his innocence. It may be a total mental breakdown or even his own
demise. Even more ironic, as Mr. Antolini gives Holden advice on how he
can possibly straighten out his life, he is acting, in a way, like Holden's
“catcher in the rye”. Holden's pushing him away in the belief that Mr.
Antolini is a pervert may symbolize Holden's inability to take the advice or
the help that could, possibly, save him. Mr. Spencer, his history teacher,
also tried to help or save Holden earlier in the novel but Holden's view of
the entire adult world and all adults as phony makes him unable to take
the help he needs when he is offered it.
3. “'The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a
cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly
for one.'” (188)
This piece of advice by Mr. Antolini bolsters the argument that he is,
indeed, just a kind-hearted, good Samaritan of a person who is just
looking out for the welfare of Holden; he is not the perverted pedophile
Holden thinks he is. He seems to understand Holden quite well, but even
he probably doesn't understand just how much this statement applies to
Holden. Holden, in his overly romanticized, fake-movie view of the world,
sees death as something that can be romantic. His repeated imagining
39
of himself being shot in the stomach sees him portraying himself as a noble
victim of a cruel and mean-spirited world. Mr. Antolini suggests, with this
saying, that the truly mature person is the person who can fulfill his
purpose or “cause” in life without any fanfare or glory, or foolishly
romantic pretensions. He or she does it because it is who they are and it is
the right thing to do. It just feels right and feels natural as it fulfills them
and makes them happy. The reader can't help but recall Holden's
conversation with Phoebe over becoming a lawyer. He feared that if he
became a lawyer, it would just be for having people “slapping you on the
back and congratulating you.” Holden, himself, would rather be a lawyer
just to help people and because it would bring him personal pleasure as it
offers him a sense of purpose and fulfillment. What Holden fears is that he
would have to be a fake or phony if he was to be a successful lawyer. He
would have to “make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and
buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot shot” or he would not
amount to much as a lawyer and, by extension, person. Mr Antolini is,
basically, saying that if you are not a phony you'll probably be a little less
noticed but you certainly will be happy. It would be like Holden always
wearing his red hunting hat. He would be true to himself and that is the
person you must believe in the most, and be true to, if you are to be
happy. If the rest of the world is phony – and it probably is – stop trying so
hard to be like the rest of the world.
4. “Then something happened. I don't even like to talk about it... (191)
[Mr. Antolini] was...sitting on the floor right next tot he couch, in the dark
and all, and he was sort of petting me or patting me on the goddam head.
Boy, I'll bet I jumped about a thousand feet..I started putting on my damn
pants in the dark. I could hardly get them on I was so nervous. I know
more damn perverts...than anybody you ever met, and they're always
being perverty when I'm around.” (192)
This is, perhaps, the most debated incident in the novel: whether or not Mr.
Antolini really was attempting to molest Holden. As stated, Holden's
uncertainty about his own sexuality (due to his lack of sexual experience),
his already outlandish irrational behaviour in his dealings with Sally Hayes
and Carl Luce, and his apparent adolescent homophobia, tends to make
the reader believe he is overreacting here. Adding to this belief is
Holden's comments as the chapter closes when he says, “When
something perverty like that happens, I start sweating like a bastard. That
kind of stuff's happened to me about twenty times since I was a kid. I
can't stand it.” (193) “Twenty times” of having perverts come on to him
seems a bit exaggerated and this tendency towards overstatement and
exaggeration makes it hard for the reader to trust what he is saying here
about Mr. Antolini is true. All this, coupled with Mr. Antolini's caring nature
40
in the way he picked up James Castle's dead body and his loving advice
given to Holden earlier in the chapter, tends to leave the reader believing
that Holden is o bit paranoid and edging ever closer to the mental
breakdown the reader can see coming. Just a few minutes earlier,
Antolini was warning Holden about his impending “terrible fall” and was
trying to instill in him the importance of a sense of purpose in life and how
an education can help him get there. He tells him, “'...once you have a
fair idea where you want to go, your first move will be to apply yourself in
school'” (189) He goes on to tell him something that directly address what
he is feeling about the phoniness and coldness of society when he says,
“'you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and
frightened and even sickened by human behaviour. You're by no means
alone on that score...Many, many men have been just as troubled morally
and spiritually as you are right now'” (189). He adds that, “'an academic
education will'” (190) help you realize this and sort it all out. What Antolini
is offering here is the form of intimacy that Holden most fears – the kind
that comes from real caring and real trust. Holden's continued inability to
separate sexual intimacy from a more deeply felt emotional intimacy and
caring may be what led to this confusion and to Holden doing what he
always does – fleeing and disconnecting himself from anyone who tries to
get close to him before he gets let down or “left” as he has been “left”
before.
Chapter 25
1. “I mean I wondered if, just maybe, I was wrong about thinking he was
making a flitty pass at me. I wondered if maybe he just liked to pat guys
on the head when they're asleep. I mean how can you tell about that stuff
for sure? You can't. I even started wondering if maybe I should've got my
bags and gone back to his house, the way I'd said I would. I mean I
started thinking that even if he was a flit he certainly'd been very nice to
me. I thought how he hadn't minded it when I'd called him up so late, and
how he'd told me to come right over if I felt like it. And how he went to all
that trouble giving me that advice about finding out the size of your mind
and all, and how he was the only guy that'd even gone near that boy
James Castle I told you about when he was dead. I thought about all that
stuff. And the more I thought about it, the more depressed I got. I mean I
started thinking maybe I should've gone back to his house. Maybe he
was only patting my head just for the hell of it. The more I thought about it,
though, the more depressed and screwed up about it I got.” (194-195)
Yet more evidence of, both, Holden's fragile state of mind and Mr.
Antolini's innocence. Holden, himself, begins to doubt his previous
41
assessment of Antolini as a pervert. He begins to realize that Mr. Antolini
had taken a lot of time and “trouble giving me...advice” and as he
acknowledges his possible mistake in judgement, “the more depressed
[he gets.]” Probably, the most revealing statement made by Holden is
when he says, “...even if he was a flit he certainly'd been very nice to me.”
This statement suggests that Holden's attitude towards Mr. Antolini comes
mainly from his homophobia. He speaks of homosexuality as if it were
some form of evil that is a threat to any one who encounters it. The
above quote also demonstrates Holden's extremes in his reaction to
things. At first he is sure Mr. Antolini is a pervert when he strokes Holden's
forehead. Now he thinks it is himself that is “screwed up”. Just as Holden
cannot trust his own feelings and thoughts, neither can the reader trust
one word that comes out of his mouth or one thought that comes from his
head. His mental state is too much in doubt.
2. a) “While I was walking, I passed these two guys that were unloading
this big Christmas tree off a truck. One guy kept saying to the other guy,
'Hold the sonuvabitch up! Hold it up, for Chrissake!' It certainly was a
gorgeous way to talk about a Christmas tree. It was sort of funny, though,
in an awful way, and I started to sort of laugh. It was about the worst thing
I could've done, because the minute I started to laugh I thought I was
going to vomit. I really did. I even started to, but it went away.” (196)
b) “Anyway, it was pretty Christmasy all of a sudden. A million little kids
were downtown with their mothers, getting on and off buses and coming
in and out of stores.” (197)
The novel is set during the time leading up to Christmas for a reason. The
Christmas season is the time when people seem to be closest to one
another. Families and friends gather around each other and spend time
together that they often don't get to spend during the rest of the year.
Unfortunately, for those who are lonely, Christmas only heightens that
loneliness and reminds them how disconnected from human contact they
actually are. Holden is probably in this category and what makes it even
worse for him is the fact that, for him, Christmas is a direct link back to,
and a reminder of, the innocence and wondrous beauty and carefree,
joyful feeling of childhood. When he hears a man use foul language to
refer to a Christmas tree, he finds it shocking because it detracts from
what he has always thought of a Christmas tree and Christmas as being.
It was “funny” because it was so unusual but it is also “awful” because it is
like saying something ugly or perverse about childhood, itself. Holden is
much more used to thinking of Christmas as it is presented in quote (b)
with “little kids...downtown with their mothers...coming in and out of
stores.” He views this as being much more “Christmasy” than someone
42
referring to a Christmas tree as a “sonuvabitch”. It is yet one more
childhood memory for Holden being tarnished and corrupted by its
contact with the adult world and one more depressing detail that Holden
has to try and deal with as he grows up and enters that adult world.
3. “...I kept walking up Fifth Avenue, without any tie on or anything. Than
all of a sudden, something very spooky started happening. Every time I
came to to the end of a block and stepped off the goddam curb, I had
this feeling that I'd never get to the other side of the street. I thought I'd
just go down, down, down, and nobody'd ever see me again. Boy, did it
scare me. You can't imagine. I started sweating like a bastard – my
whole shirt and underwear and everything. Then I started doing
something else. Every time I'd get to the end of a block I'd make believe I
was talking to my brother, Allie. I'd say to him, 'Allie, don't let me
disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie' and then when I'd
reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I'd thank him.
Then it would start all over again as soon as I got to the next corner. (197198)
Holden's “spooky” feeling of going “down, down, down” after he
“stepped off the...curb” alludes to his discussion of being “the catcher in
the rye” when he wanted to save other children from falling over the cliff.
This passage reminds the reader that it is Holden who is the one in danger
of falling over this “cliff” and that he is the one who needs to be saved by
a “catcher” of some kind. This passage also reminds the reader of
Holden's conversation with Mr. Antolini when he was being warned by his
former English teacher that he is heading for a “terrible, terrible fall” if he
doesn't learn to grow up and leave his childhood and childish idealism
behind. In all three instances, it is the falling away of innocence and the
painful emotional fall that comes with it as we leave childhood naivete for
adulthood reality that is being symbolized by the falling imagery that runs
throughout the book. Holden's talking to his brother, Allie, pleading with
him to not “let [him] disappear”, is significant because it reminds the
reader of the impact of Allie's “disappearance” upon Holden. As
previously stated, Holden is troubled by people and things (the ducks)
that seem to disappear without any warning or reason, whatsoever. He is
afraid of being one of those things that “nobody's ever see..again” and
by pleading with Allie to save him, he is linking Allie's disappearance to his
own inevitable fading away from society and the world until, firstly, he has
contact with no one or nothing and, finally, he just dies. It is a rather
ominous image and foreshadows what seems to be awaiting Holden if he
does not get the help soon that is needed to cope with growing up.
43
4. “...I figured, I'd go down to the Holland Tunnel and bum a ride, and
then I'd bum another one, and another one, and another one, and in a
few days I'd be somewhere out West where it was very pretty and sunny
and where nobody'd know me and I'd get a job...I didn't care what kind
of job it was, though. Just so people didn't know me and I didn't know
anybody. I thought...I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way
I wouldn't have to have any...stupid useless conversations with
anybody...I'd be through with having conversations for the rest of my life.
Everybody'd think think I was just a poor deaf mute-mute...and they'd
leave me alone...and I'd build a cabin somewhere with the dough I made
and live there for the rest of my life...I'd meet this beautiful girl that was
also a deaf-mute and we'd get married. She'd come and live in my cabin
with me, and if she wanted to say anything to me, she'd have to write it on
a ...piece of paper, like everybody else. If we had any children, we could
hide them somewhere. We could buy them a lot of books and teach
them how to read and write by ourselves.” (198-199)
Two things are demonstrated by this passage. Firstly, Holden's desire to
head “somewhere out West..where nobody'd know [him]” symbolizes,
once again, his desire to alienate and isolate himself from the world so as
to avoid any of the pain that can come with intimacy and contact with
others. Pretending to be “one of those deaf-mutes” who would “be
through with having...useless conversations” further demonstrates the
depth and degree of isolation he is trying to find for himself. His intensity of
desire for disconnection is so extreme that it is yet one more symptom and
signal of a very troubled mind. His wanting to “meet this beautiful girl that
was also a deaf-mute” and then “get married...and live in a cabin” shows
not only an overly romanticized view of his existence but also a very
unrealistic and totally out of touch one. His desire to have children with
this deaf-mute girl and then “hide them somewhere” borders on insanity
and symbolizes his total obsession with keeping all children, especially his
own, completely disconnected from the corrupt adult world that is
awaiting them on the horizon just beyond their childhood.
5. “While I was walking up the stairs, though, all of a sudden I thought I
was going to puke again.” (201)
Holden's nausea and fainting spells are rather disturbing because they are
the physical symptoms of an emotionally troubled mind. His mental health
is so precarious and at risk that the stress of it is starting to show up in
physiological effects, of which “[puking]” is one.
6. a)“...while I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy.
Somebody'd written 'F*#* you' on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy.
44
I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how
they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would
tell them – all cockeyed, naturally – what it meant, and how they'd all
think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept
wanting to kill whoever'd written it...I kept picturing myself catching him at
it, and how I'd smash his head on the stone steps till he was good and
goddam dead and bloody.. Bit I knew, too, I wouldn't have the guts to do.
I knew that. That made me even more depressed.” (201)
b) “...I saw another 'F*#* you' the wall...It wouldn't come off. It's hopeless
anyway couldn't. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub
out even half the 'F*#* you' signs in the world. It's impossible.” (202)
c) “That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and
peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you
get there,, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write 'F*#*
you' right under your nose. Try it sometime. I think, even, if i ever die, and
they stick me in a cemetery, and I have a tombstone and all, it'll
say'Holden Caulfield' on it, and then what year I was born and what year I
died, and then right under that it'll say 'F*#* you.' I'm positive, in fact.”
(204)
Holden's being upset by the 'F*#* you' graffiti on the walls symbolizes
Holden's being upset with the things that can threaten a child's
innocence. Holden is afraid some “little kids would see it...and then finally
some dirty kid would tell them...what it meant” and destroy their
innocence to a certain degree. His realization that it was “hopeless” and
that “if you had a million years” you could never “rub out even half the
F*#* you signs in the world” symbolizes that even Holden is beginning to
see the futility of trying to protect childhood innocence from the ravages
of the adult, real world. He is now beginning to see the hopelessness of
trying to “find a place that's nice and peaceful” - which, itself, is a symbol
of childhood - “because there isn't any” once you set foot in the world
outside of childhood. This realization, along with the death of Allie, is,
ultimately, what has led to Holden's depression and desire to withdraw
from a world that he sees as inflicting pain upon innocent children
everywhere.
7. “...I thought I might give old Jane Gallagher a buzz before I started
bumming my way out west, but I wasn't in the mood.” (202)
Holden, again, makes excuses not to call someone who he may be
forced to be intimate with and who knows the real Holden. He isolates
himself from Jane to, yet again, avoid possible rejection by her. He is so
45
afraid that if she gets to know him, she will cast him aside and reject him
for who he is. He likes Jane and, so, the risk of her doing this would be all
the more painful for him to deal with. As a result, he just makes no
contact with her, whatsoever, and, thus, keeps himself safe from her
rejection. At the same time, however, all this only serves to intensify his
own loneliness.
8. “When I was coming out of the can, right before I got to the door, I sort
of passed out...I felt better after I passed out. I really did. My arm sort of
hurt, from where I fell, but I didn't feel so damn dizzy anymore.” (204)
As before (#5), Holden's emotional illness is beginning to show physical
side effects due to the stress he is under. It shows just how in danger
Holden is. Both his body and mind are under siege from the ravages of his
mental breakdown and his inability to deal with the adult world. All this is
the result of Holden trying to cling on to childhood ideals and romantic
views of a world nothing like the one he is beginning to discover as an
adolescent.
9. “And I'd let D.B. come out and visit me for a while if wanted a nice,
quiet place for his writing, but he couldn't write any movies in my cabin,
only stories and books. I'd have this rule that nobody could do anything
phony when they visited me. If any body tried to do anything phony, they
couldn't stay.” (205)
Once again, Holden is trying to fight back threats to his innocent and
naïve childhood view of the world by hiding himself in a cabin in the
woods away from society – and the adult world – where he is protected
from “anything phony”. His statement that, “anything phony...couldn't
stay” shows how out of touch he really is. He thinks he can simply run from
the world and create a place that is safe and where the innocent ideals
of childhood can always thrive and exist and overcome the cruel and
harsh realities of adulthood. No such place exists and no such place can
be created. The sooner Holden realizes this, the sooner Holden will be
able to find happiness in and connection to the real world of adults that
everyone has to eventually find meaning and purpose within.
10.
“'Please, Holden. Please let me go...'
“'You're not going . Now, shut up!...' I was almost all set to hit her. I
thought I was
going to smack her for a second. I really did.”
“She started to cry.” (206)
“'I thought you were supposed to be in a play at school and all...' I
said very nasty. 'Whuddaya want to do? Not be in the play for God's
sake?' That made her cry even
harder. I was glad. All of a sudden I
46
wanted her to cry till her eyes practically dropped out. I almost hated
her. I think I hated her most because she would be in that
play any
more if she went away with me.” (207)
This is a pivotal encounter in the novel because when Phoebe packs up
and decides to leave with Holden it is probably not because she wants to
run away with Holden. It is, more likely, because she wants to protect him
from whatever it it is that is wrong with him. She is showing that she loves
him and cares for him and wants to be with him. Unfortunately, her desire
to be close to him – which is the kid of intimacy he has been craving but
also trying to avoid for the entire novel – is what causes him to push her
away just as he found excuses to push away Jane and Mr. Antolini. He
becomes so desperate to do so that he reacts to this little girl he loves so
much, with anger. He talks of wanting to “hit her” and was even “going
to smack her for a second.” He is so intent on pushing her away that
when he “made her cry”, he “wanted her to cry till her eyes practically
dropped out”. He even begins to “[hate] her” because this way he can
justify distancing himself from her. Not only does he not hate her, he does
not even want to make her cry. However, it is the only way he can drive
her away from him. The reason why he would want to do such a thing is
to not have to deal with the possibility of someone he loves disappearing
out of his life as Allie did. If he can alienate her with his actions, he will be
protected from the possibility of her leaving him. It is one of the central
themes of the novel and this is one of the best examples of this theme in
The Catcher in the Rye.
11. “...she said, 'So shut up.' It was the first time she ever told me to shut
up. It sounded terrible. God, it sounded terrible. It sounded worse than
swearing.” (208)
As with the man cursing the Christmas tree (#2), a small child saying “shut
up” seems obscene to Holden and “worse than swearing” because it
goes against the perfect world that is childhood. In that world, children
don't swear because they have no need to swear. They are always
happy. Like the “F*#* you's” on the wall, Holden sees a child saying “shut
up” as a threat to childhood innocence and Holden's naïve attempt to
preserve it.
12. a) “anyway, we kept getting closer and closer to the carousel and
you could hear that nutty music it always plays. It was playing 'Oh Marie!'
It played that same song about fifty years ago when I was a little kid.
That's one nice thing about carousels, they always play the same songs.
(210)
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b) “...I felt so damn happy all of as sudden, the way old Phoebe kept
going around and around [on the carousel]. I was damn near bawling. I
felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don't know why. It
was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around
and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could have been
there.” (213)
Like the museum, the carousel is a symbol of preserved childhood and
preserved childhood innocence. Time is frozen and everything
associated with that time remains intact and unchanged or untouched
The carousel playing the “same song” it played “fifty years ago when
[Holden] was a little kid” symbolizes this eternal link to the past and to the
possibility of growing up but not growing out of childhood. The carousel
“going around and around” with Phoebe on it makes Holden “so damn
happy” because for one brief moment he is able to live in the childhood
he is fighting so desperately to hold on to and not leave behind. This
image of Phoebe on a carousel is a snapshot of his own childhood frozen
in time where everything is perfect and everyone is happy. A carousel is
the perfect metaphor for this because it is a symbol that is eternally linked
to childhood. It is on children's music or jewelry boxes and countless
children's movies and pictures. It has always been and will always be
associated with the image of children and childhood, itself. For these few
moments Holden is able to believe that childhood and the innocent
beauty and wonder that comes along with it can be something that
never ends or dies. Sadly, it this belief that is at the core of Holden's
inability to function in the real world. He has yet to realize that childhood
is not like a carousel that always goes around to the same music. Life is
always changing and the world is always changing. The sooner Holden
stops trying to prevent this change – and allows himself to change with it
– the better off he will be and, most certainly, the happier he will be.
13.
“She took the dough off me. 'I'm not mad at you anymore,' she
said”
“Then what she did – it damn near killed me – she reached in my
coat pocket and took out my red hunting hat and put it on my head.”
(212)
This exchange of Holden giving Phoebe the money he owes her and
Phoebe giving Holden back his red hunting hat shows intimacy at work
and shows what Holden needs to do to be happy. Every relationship
involves give and take between two people who care about one another
very much. This exchange “damn near killed [Holden]” and made him so
happy because he so seldom gets to experience this give and take of an
intimate and loving relationship. He won't allow himself to do so. At this
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point, here, he is just enjoying the moment he is experiencing with Phoebe
and is not worrying about whether or not she is going to “disappear” out
of his life as Allie did or as the ducks disappeared from the pond. And in
this moment, he is very happy.
Phoebe giving Holden back his red hunting hat also symbolizes
Holden getting back his identity and Phoebe forcing him to be who he
really is when he is with her. The cap is a symbol of the real Holden
Caulfield and Phoebe giving him his hat back is Phoebe saying, in a
symbolic way, that she wants Holden to be himself, and no one else,
when he is with her. This may also be another reason why he is happy
here. He finally has the freedom to be himself as he is with a person who
accepts him and lets him be who he really is. This is what we all want out
of our relationships with the people we love and care about.
Chapter 26
1. “A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here,
keeps asking me if I'm going to apply myself when I go back to school in
September. It's such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean how do you
know what you're going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don't. I
think I am, but how do I know? I swear it's a stupid question.” (213)
2. “D.B. Asked me what I thought about all this stuff I just finished telling
you about. I don't know what the hell to say. If you want to know the
truth, I don't know what I think about it. I'm sorry I told so many people
about it. About all I know is, I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even
old Stradlater and Ackley, for instance...Don't ever tell anybody anything.
If you do, you start missing everybody.” (213-214)
These two passages give a rather conflicting outlook on Holden's future.
The first passage suggests that, even though Holden is undergoing
psychological treatment, he is still quite cynical and pessimistic towards
the world. When asked if he is going back to school in September, he
thinks it's a “stupid question” and focuses on this rather than the fact that
people are trying to help him through his emotional breakdown.
However, the second passage shows Holden admitting that he misses all
the people he encountered throughout the novel and acknowledges
that if you “tell everybody anything” (in other words, allow yourself to get
close to someone) then you “start missing everybody.” He is, basically,
acknowledging that intimacy causes you to care and, yes, miss people.
He is realizing how relationships work and may be even accepting this as
a fact of life. However, when he says, “I'm sorry I told so many people
about it”, we see a hint of the old Holden who wants to keep himself
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isolated from others and the intimacy that comes along with trusting and
connecting with others. The reader is left in doubt as to whether Holden's
fate is a happy one or a sad one and maybe that is a rather fitting ending
for this novel, in particular. This is because, in the real world, happy
endings are never guaranteed and the future is always in doubt. Maybe
Holden's life is like every other life on earth. Every day is a blank page that
can end in triumph or tragedy, joy or sadness. However, as with Holden
and his life, there is always the hope that tomorrow will be a better day
and, ultimately, it is this hope that sustains us and keeps us moving forward
towards our future.
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