The Catcher in the Rye: A
Chronological Timeline of Events
Chapter 1 – Saturday Midday
• 3:00 PM - Watches football game,
Pencey vs. Saxon Hall
- Watching from Revolutionary War cannon
- Introduces D.B. – Hollywood writer (Holden thinks he sold out
to Hollywood).
- Decides to Visit Mr. Spencer
“I left all the foils and equipment and stuff on the goddamn subway. It wasn’t
all my fault.” (Salinger 3).
Chapter 2
• Visits Mr. Spencer
- Mr. Spencer talks to Holden about his academics, and
reads Holden’s paper to Holden.
- Holden loses interest after Mr. Spencer begins lecturing
him about discipline. Gets annoyed and leaves.
“But I just couldn’t hang around there any longer, the way we were on
opposite sides of the pole, and the way he kept missing the bed
whenever he chucked something at it, and his sad old bathrobe with
his chest showing, and the grippy smell of Vicks Nose Drops all over
the place” (Salinger 15).
•
Chapter
3
Returns to dorm in
Ossenburger Hall,
- Begins reading Out of
Africa by Isak Dinesen
• Robert Ackley
introduced
- Described as “peculiar” and
has more pimples than he should
• Stradlater enters
and mentions he
has a date.
- Ackley leaves after
Stradlater comes in
“They always looked
mossy and awful, and
he damn near made
you sick if you saw
him in the dining room
with his mouth full of
mashed potatoes and
peas or something.
Besides that, he had
a lot of pimples”
(Salinger 19).
Chapter 4
• Stradlater asks Holden to write a descriptive
paper while he is on his date.
- Compares Ackley’s and Stradlater’s
hygiene
- Holden uneasy that Stradlater has date with
Jane Gallagher.
- Wants to greet Jane, but doesn’t.
“He was always asking you to do him a big favor.
You take a very handsome guy, or a guy that thinks
he’s a real hot-shot, and they’re always asking you
to do them a favor” (Salinger 27).
Chapter 5 – Saturday After Dinner
• Mal Brossard, a wrestler,
introduced, and Holden
along with Ackley go to
movies with him.
“You should’ve seen the
steaks. They were a little
hard, dry jobs that you
could hardly even cut.
You always got very
lumpy mashed potatoes
on steak night, and for
dessert you got Brown
Betty, which no body ate”
(Salinger 35).
- Ackley and Brossard
already have seen it, and they eat,
play some pinball, and hang out.
•After returning
at 8:45, Holden
begins the
composition,
finishes at
10:30.
Chapter 6
• Stradlater returns around 11:00 PM.
- Stradlater unhappy at Holden’s topic for the composition, Holden
tears it up.
- Pesters Stradlater about date with Jane Gallagher, Stradlater
refuses to answer.
- Holden strikes, gets pinned, continues insulting, until Stradlater
lands one on the face.
“It probably hurt him a little bit, but not as much as I wanted. It probably
would’ve hurt him a lot, but I did it with my right hand, and I can’t make
a good fist with that hand. On account of the injury I told you about”
(Salinger 43).
Chapter 7
• Holden goes to spend night with
Ackley.
- Cannot sleep, decides to leave Pencey and not
wait until Wednesday.
“All of a sudden, I decided what I’d really do, I’d get the hell out of
Pencey” (Salinger 51).
Chapter 8 – Very Late Saturday/Early Sunday
Morning
• Holden walks to train
station to go to New
York City.
• At a stop at Trenton,
a woman boards the
train.
- She notices the Pencey
Prep sticker, and asks Holden if
he knows Ernie Morrow, her son.
- Tells lies about Ernie, tells
her his name in Rudolf Schmidt,
and says he has a brain tumor,
and is leaving early for surgery.
“She had nice voice. A nice
telephone voice, mostly. She
should’ve carried a goddamn
telephone around with her”
(Salinger 54).
Chapter 9
• Arrives at Penn
Station
- Wants to call
someone, sister Phoebe
probably asleep, brother
D.B. in Hollywood, does not
feel like calling Jane
Gallagher, and Sally
Hayes’s mother hates him.
Takes cab to Edmont hotel,
looks out window and sees
people doing strange
things in courtyard, thinks
of Faith Cavendish, who he
calls to set up a date, but
she offers for tomorrow,
and Holden hangs up.
“Then I thought about calling up
this guy that went to the
Whooton School when I was
there, Carl Luce, but I didn’t like
him much” (Salinger 59).
Chapter 10
• Lavender Room – nightclub at Edmont
Hotel
- Tries to order alcohol – his height and grey hair
usually allow him to do this
- Makes small talk and dances with 3 women from
Seattle – they are uninterested in him – he leaves after
paying for drinks
“They probably thought I was too young to give anybody the
once-over. That annoyed hell out of me – you’d’ve thought I
wanted to marry them or something” (Salinger 70).
Chapter 11
• Recollects about Jane Gallagher
- Summer homes in Maine were next door, and met
when his mother went to talk to them about their
Doberman laying waste on their lawn.
- They were close, he showed her the baseball glove,
comforted her, etc.
“When she was talking she got excited about something, her mouth
sort of went in fifty directions, her lips and all. That killed me. And she
never really closed it all the way, her mouth” (Salinger 77).
Chapter 12
• Takes cab to Greenwich Village nightclub
called Ernie’s
- Listens to Ernie play
- Talks to cab driver,
Horwitz, about ducks
among other things.
piano, drinks scotch
and soda, meets Lilian
Simmons (D.B. used to
date her), leaves to get
away from her.
“We’d get into a goddam movie or something, and right away
we’d start holding hands, and we wouldn’t quit till the movie
was over” (Salinger 79).
Chapter 13
• Walks 41 blocks back to hotel
• In elevator, operator offers to send prostitute for 5 dollars
and Holden accepts
• Sunny arrives, and Holden just wants to talk, and after
seeing her disinterest, he gives 5 dollars and tells her to
leave, although Sunny says it’s a 10 dollar charge.
“The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed
than sexy, if you want to know the truth. She was depressing”
(Salinger 96).
Chapter 14 – Early Sunday Morning
• Smokes and reminisces about Allie
• Maurice returns and pins Holden to wall, and allows
Sunny to get 5 more dollars, punches Holden in
stomach.
• Imagines taking revenge, and finally goes to sleep.
“Boy, I felt miserable. I felt so depressed, you can’t
imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to
Allie” (Salinger 98).
Chapter 15 – Morning 10:00 AM
• Calls Sally Hayes in morning to set up date for 2:00 PM.
• Eats sandwich at bar, sees nuns, talks with them about
Romeo and Juliet
• Donates 10 dollars to them, and realizes he needs
money for date
"You think they're intelligent and all, the other person, and have a
good sense of humor, that they don't give a damn whose suitcases
are better, but they do." (Salinger 109).
Chapter 16 – After Breakfast
• Goes down Broadway
- Picks up “Little Shirley Beans” for Phoebe, and buys
tickets for show called I Know My Love.
• Travels to ice skating rink to see if
Phoebe is there.
• Goes to Museum of Natural History, sees
models of Eskimos and Indians, etc.
"If Phoebe had been there, I probably would have, but
she wasn't" (Salinger 122).
Chapter 17
• 2:00 PM, Holden to Biltmore Hotel to
meet Sally, who is late, arriving at 2:10
PM
- After cab ride and show, they go ice skating
at Rockefeller Center
- Holden begins to rant about “phonies” and
that they should run away together, leaves
without Sally
"You never saw so many phonies in all your life, everybody smoking
their ears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear
and know how sharp they were" (Salinger 126).
Chapter 18 – Early Evening
• Goes to drugstore and has sandwich and
malted milk
• Calls Carl Luce, decide to meet later
that night
- Goes to see a show at Radio City Music Center
- Makes way to Wicker bar
"The part that got me was, there was a lady sitting next to me that cried all
through the goddam picture. The phonier it got, the more she cried. You'd
have thought she was kindhearted as hell, but I was sitting right next to her,
and she wasn't. She had this little kid with her..." (Salinger 139).
Chapter 19 – 10:00 PM
• Meets Carl Luce
- Pesters him about subjects Carl does not
want to bring up, and Luce gets annoyed and
questions his mental health.
- Luce leaves after being annoyed too much.
"You still going around with that same babe you used to at Whooton?
The one with the terrific-" (Salinger 144).
Chapter 20
•
Holden stays at bar and gets drunk.
- Calls Sally, insists on talking to her after grandmother says she is asleep.
- Leaves a bad impression after they are unable to understand his slurred speech
- Tries to make date with lounge singer Valencia and then hat-check girl, who is very nice
to him
- Goes to Central Park to see ducks.
- Running low on money, decides to visit Phoebe.
"Witty bastard. All I ever meet is witty bastards" (Salinger 152).
Chapter 21 – Middle of Evening
• Sneaks into home, finds Phoebe in
D.B.’s room
- Phoebe is excited and starts talking about recent
news in her life, realizes Holden has been expelled
- Holden leaves to get cigarettes.
"She's very affectionate. I mean she's quite affectionate, for a child.
Sometimes she's even too affectionate. I sort of gave her a kiss"
(Salinger 161).
Chapter 22
• Comes back and gets Phoebe to listen
to what he has to say
- Holden speaks what will probably happen to him
when his parents find out he was expelled. (Military
school)
- Phoebe asks him what he wants to do with his life,
and he mentions lyrics about being “catcher in the rye”
- Phoebe tells him he misquoted a song.
"Allie's dead- You always say that! If somebody's dead and
everything, and in Heaven, then it isn't really-" (Salinger 171).
Chapter 23
•
Calls Mr. Antolini who was Holden’s teacher at Elkton Hills, and is shocked that Holden had
been expelled again, tells Holden he can stay the night.
- He dances with Phoebe, parents come home, he waves smoke away, hides in closet as
phoebe is tucked in by mother.
- Phoebe gives Christmas money she was saving (A whopping $8.75), and Holden gives
her red hunting hat.
“In between numbers she's funny as hell.
She stays right in position. She won't even
talk or anything. You have to stay in
position and wait for the orchestra to start
playing again" (Salinger 175).
Chapter 24
"The mark of the immature
man is that he wants to die
nobly for a cause, while the
mark of a mature man is he
wants to live humbly for one"
(Salinger 188).
• Holden arrives at Mr. Antolini’s house, after they are
done with a dinner party
• Begin speaking of Holden’s downfall as a student, coffee
from Mrs. Antolini breaks tension
• Holden wakes up and Mr. Antolini is stroking his head,
which scares Holden and he leaves.
Chapter 25 – Monday Morning
•
•
Spends night at Grand Central Station wakes up at 9 AM, and
decides to hitchhike west
- Goes to Phoebe’s school and leaves a note for her to meet
him at Museum of Art
- Holden guides kids to mummies, Phoebe arrives with
suitcase, wants to go with Holden
- Holden says he’s not going anywhere, Phoebe gives hat
back angrily
Travels to zoo, where makes his final decision that he will not
leave leave, and Phoebe and him are at peace again.
"I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to
know the truth. 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've been there" (Salinger 213).
Chapter 26 – Some Time in the Immediate Future
• In rest home, tells he will be enrolling in
school again in the Fall.
- He has no
opinion on
everything
that happened
throughout the
story.
•He misses people he met during his
adventures.
Sources
Newman, Gary. “Garry’s Mod”. 6 April. 2006. Team Garry. 14 January
2007. <http://gmod.garry.tv>.
Newell, Gabe. "Steam." 31 Oct. 1996. Valve Corporation. 14 Jan. 2007
<www.steampowered.com>.
Salinger J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, and
Company. 1951.