English 3201
The Catcher in the Rye
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, 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
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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 childlike 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 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
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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 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
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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 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.
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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 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 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
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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)
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
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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.
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
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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 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
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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 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 gray-haired, 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)
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c) “The trouble was, that kind of junk is sort of fascinating to watch, even if you don't
want it to be.” (62)
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 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
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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.” (7172)
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)
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
11
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.
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
12
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)
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
13
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 JoeYale-looking guy had a terrific looking girl with him. Boy she was
good-looking. But you should've heard the conversation 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
14
part, it is more bravado than real conviction as Holden continues to retreat further and
further within himself as the novel progresses.
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.” (9192)
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 workmanlike 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 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
15
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 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 ever-compassionate 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
16
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 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.
17
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)
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
18
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 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 beat-up 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)
19
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)
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
20
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 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 good-looking but it always gave me a
pain in the ass.” (124)
21
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 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.”
22
(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 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
23
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 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 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)
24
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 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 “flittylooking” 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
25
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. 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
26
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)
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
27
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.
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 off easily and says, “Allie's dead” (171)
When Holden responds by saying he likes “'sitting here with you, and talking, and
28
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 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
29
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)
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
30
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 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
31
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 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 kindhearted, 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
32
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 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
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
33
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 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
34
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 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. (197-198)
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
35
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.
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.
36
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. 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)
37
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 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.
“'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 wanted her to cry till her eyes practically dropped out. I alm
10/
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.
38
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)
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
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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.
“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)
13/
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 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)
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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 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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