Chronology of Catcher in the Rye - Mrs. Morgan

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Chronology of Catcher in the Rye

Morgan – English 9

Saturday

New York City

Morning: As team manager, Holden travels to New York City with the fencing team for a match.

While riding the subway , he loses the team's fencing equipment.

 Annoyed and sulking, he buys himself a red hunting hat while still in the city.

Pencey Preparatory School in Agerstown, Pennsylvania

 At about 2:30 in the afternoon, Holden returns to Pencey Prep .

 Standing on Thompson Hill during a football game, Holden reveals he's being dismissed from

 school for failing his classes (except for English).

He visits his history teacher, Mr. Spencer to say goodbye. Spencer lectures him, telling him that

“life is a game.”

Returning to his dorm, Holden introduces us to his roommate Stradlater and to his neighbor ,

Robert Ackley .

 Holden goes into town with Mal Brossard and Ackley .

He returns to the dorm and writes a composition for Stradlater .

Stradlater returns from a date with Jane Gallagher , Holden's childhood friend who liked to keep her “kings in the back row.”

He has a fistfight with Stradlater over Jane Gallagher . Holden is bloodied.

At about 11:30 pm, he wakes up Ackley .

Holden decides to leave Pencey for New York City .

He sells his typewriter for twenty dollars.

About midnight, Holden Caulfield leaves school: "Sleep tight, ya morons!"

Overnight Saturday — Sunday

Agerstown to New York City

 Holden boards a train to New York City.

 While riding the train, he meets Ernest Morrow's mother and assumes the identity of Rudolf

Schmidt (the janitor).

New York City

 Arriving at Penn Station, Holden calls his old girlfriend, Sally Hayes .

 Grabbing a taxi, he asks the cabbie where the Central Park ducks go in winter.

He checks into the Edmont Hotel and finds it full of perverts.

Holden calls Faith Cavendish , whose name is given to him by Eddie Birdsell at Princeton, hoping

 for a date.

Alone, he goes to the Lavender Room and meets Marty, Laverne, and Bernice Krebs , (visiting from Seattle and here to see the “stars”) who stick him with the check. He gives the pseudonym

Jim Steele.

Leaving the Lavender Room , Holden wants to call Jane Gallagher . But he doesn't.

He takes a taxi to Ernie's in Greenwich Village instead, asking the cabbie ( Horwitz ) where the

Central Park ducks go in winter.

Holden finds Ernie's full of jerks. There, he meets Lillian Simmons (an old girlfriend of D.B.)

 and Captain Blop , phony Navy guy.

From Ernie's , Holden walks two miles back to the Edmont Hotel .

 Back at the hotel, he meets an elevator operator named Maurice , who offers to set him up with a

 five-dollar prostitute.

Sunny , the prostitute, arrives at Holden's room. Holden pays the five dollars just to talk.

 Sunny leaves. Holden sits in a chair and talks to his dead brother Allie .

Holden goes to bed and tries to pray.

Maurice and Sunny arrive at Holden's door. They want five more dollars.

 Holden refuses and is punched in the stomach by Maurice . They take the money and leave.

Holden pretends he has bullets in his gut. Eventually, he finds sleep.

Sunday

New York City

 At around 10:00 am, Holden wakes up after a very short sleep.

He calls Sally Hayes and makes a date with her for that afternoon.

He then checks out of the Edmont Hotel .

Taking a taxi to Grand Central Station , he stores his luggage in a locker there.

Holden walks to a nearby "sandwich bar" for breakfast. There, he meets two nuns. After a

 conversation Holden donates ten dollars to the nuns and offers to pay their check.

After leaving the sandwich bar, Holden walks down Broadway, where he notices a father, mother, and little boy walking down the street. The little boy is singing "If a body catch a body coming through the rye.” It is around noontime.

He then stops into a record store and buys a jazz recording of " Little Shirley Beans " sung by

Estelle Fletcher for his younger sister Phoebe .

He walks to the theater and buys two tickets for the play "I Know My Love" for his date with

Sally Hayes .

With time to spare, Holden goes to Central Park looking for Phoebe .

He walks across the park to the Museum of Natural History but decides not to go in.

He instead takes a taxi to the Biltmore and meets Sally Hayes .

Around 2:00 Holden and Sally arrive at the theater for the play which stars " the Lunts.

" During intermission Sally meets an old friend, George "something.”

After the play, Sally and Holden go ice skating at Radio City , where Holden goes into a tirade against conformity, which invites an argument with Sally .

After the date, which is a disaster, Holden stops at a drug store to eat a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted. He telephones Jane Gallagher but there is no answer.

Holden then calls his old friend Carl Luce , his advisor from Whooten . They make plans for

 drinks that night.

Alone, Holden goes to Radio City where he takes in the Christmas pageant and a movie. In the theater he notices a woman crying over the movie but ignoring her little son.

Around 10:00 pm, Holden meets Carl Luce at The Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel on 54th

Street . They have an argument and Luce storms out.

Holden gets very drunk at The Wicker Bar . He calls Sally Hayes and pretends his gut is full of bullets. In the men's room, some flitty guy cautions him to “go home".

In a drunken stupor, Holden finally leaves the bar. It is about 1:00 am.

He wanders into Central Park and finds himself at the lagoon. There, he drops the " Little Shirley

Beans " record, breaking it.

Holden decides to sneak home to see his sister, Phoebe .

Overnight Sunday — Monday

New York City

 Holden walks home and sneaks into his family's apartment. Feeling “swell” for once, he wakes up

Phoebe .

He gives Phoebe the pieces of the broken record and Phoebe guesses that Holden has been kicked

 out of school.

Holden tells Phoebe his dream of being “the catcher in the rye.”

 He gives Phoebe his hunting hat; then calls Mr. Antolini (his English teacher from Elkton Hills)

 from the apartment.

Returning to Phoebe's room, Holden tells her his plans of going out west and she gives him her

Christmas money.

Holden's parents come home. He avoids them and leaves the apartment.

Holden goes to Mr. Antolini's apartment . They have a long conversation.

He goes to sleep on the Antolinis’ couch but is awakened up by Mr. Antolini petting him.

Holden leaves Mr. Antolini's confused and shaken. It is about 5:00 am.

Monday

New York City

 Holden walks to Grand Central Station .

He sleeps on a bench in the Grand Central Station waiting room.

About 9:00, Holden wakes up and walks up Fifth Avenue. He feels himself disappearing and

 appeals to his brother Allie to help him.

He buys paper and pen at a stationary store and writes a note to Phoebe to meet him at the museum at 12:15.

He walks to Phoebe's school and delivers the letter to the office who will give it to Phoebe.

Holden notices obscene/profane graffiti on the school walls and tries to scratch it away.

 He goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and meets two young boys there. Together, they

 visit the mummy exhibition.

Holden encounters more obscene/profane graffiti in the museum.

At 12:10 Holden is waiting for Phoebe at the museum entrance.

At 12:35 Phoebe arrives wearing Holden's red hunting hat and carrying a suitcase.

She tells Holden that she is going with him out west. They argue.

Holden follows Phoebe as they enter Central Park . Holden gives in. He will not leave home.

 Phoebe then follows Holden to the Central Park Zoo .

Phoebe rides the Central Park Carousel as Holden watches.

It begins to pour but Holden will not move out of the rain.

 Overwhelmed by happiness, Holden cries.

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