*
Chapter 6-15
* Holden’s worrisome thoughts:
* “When I really worry about something, I don’t
just fool around. I even have to go to the
bathroom when I worry about something. Only, I
don’t go. I’m too worried to go…” (pg 40)
* Holden’s experience with Stradlater has made
him worry about Jane and their date.
* Why is Holden so worried about someone he has
not seen in years?
*
* Stradlater takes the paper and says how wrong it
is written
* “You always do everything assbackwards… No
wonder you’re flunking the hell out of here… You
don’t do one damn thing the way you’re supposed
to. I mean it. Not one damn thing.” (pg 41)
* Stradlater tries to make himself seem smarter than
Holden, although he knows how to “Play the game”
* Holden rips up the paper
* Irony: Holden is the
smarter and more sensitive than
the two
*
*Holden tries to find out about the date, yet nothing is
revealed.
*Physical violence:
*Holden tries to punch Stradlater
*Stradlater wrestles Holden to the ground, tries to
reason with Holden
*Holden continues to insult Stradlater forcing Stradlater
to grow upset and beat up Holden
*Holden loses this battle and foreshadows lost battles
pertaining to growing up.
*
* Holden places his red hunting hat on, looks at
himself in the mirror:
* “It partly scared me and partly fascinated me.
All that blood and all sort of made me look
tough.” (pg 45)
* I’m a pacifist, if you want to know the truth.”
(pg 46)
* irony
*
* Holden wakes up Ackley, asking if he can sleep in his room with
his roommate gone.
* Holden lies about the fight: “Yeah, I was defending your goddam
honor… I couldn’t let him get away with that stuff.” (pg 48)
* Holden asks about joining a monastery
* Reality of monastery: “Do you have to be Catholic and all?” (pg 50)
* Holden’s view of religion
* Holden’s view of escaping society
*
*Holden decides to leave Pency after
thinking due to the tormented and
lonely feeling of Jane supposedly
having sex with Stradlater
*Flees to New York City
*Escaping society and Pency
*Crying and anger showing more of
depression, not typical teenage
sadness
*“Sleep tight, ya morons!” (pg 52)
*
* Train ride of lies to Mrs. Morrow
* Rudolf Schmidt (Janitor)
* Lies about Ernest’s behaviors: “He adapts himself very well to
things. He really does.” (pg 55)
* Bleeding nose: “I got hit with a snowball.” (pg 56)
* Type of boys Ernest was: “He’s one of the most popular boys at
Pency. Did you know that?” (pg 56)
* Presidential election: “ … Ernest wouldn’t let us nominate him.
Because he’s so darn shy and modest and all. He refused….Boy, he’s
really shy. You oughta make him try to get over that.” (pg 57)
* Reason for leaving Pency early: brain tumor
* Holden’s dislike of phoniness, yet he himself has spun a web of lies
* Lies gives him a sense of superiority over people: given him power
* Excuse of loneliness
* Not wanting to grow up, yet dealing with women, makes himself older
*
* Holden wants to call someone reaching Penn Station
* D.B
* Phoebe
* Jane
* Sally Haynes
* signs of his loneliness, self-apposed alienation, depression, he has
friends, just won’t contact them
* In cab, asks the driver about the ducks in the lagoon while wearing
his hunting hat
* Both show his immature behavior and thoughts
*
* Holden’s view of cross-dresser and the couple who spits their drinks at
each other
* “I was probably the only normal bastard in the whole place—and that
isn’t saying much.” (pg 62)
* Idea Holden is not normal and he recognizes it
* Sees falseness in the adult world
* People’s actions are a sexual arousal for Holden
* He thinks he is a sex maniac yet, he says he doesn’t understand sex at
all
* Ideals about girls, “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.” (pg 62)
* Wants to call Jane, yet calls Faith Cavendish instead
* She will not meet him tonight, and that is not good enough for Holden
* He sees Jane as innocent and perfect, where sex as dirty.
*
* Holden’s depiction of Pheobe:
* Beautiful
* Intelligent
* Skinny (Roller-skate skinny)
* Nice
* Long hair
* Too affectionate
* Very emotional
* Holden’s view of his family members compared to
the view of himself
* Pheobe is the only person he can really talk to
*
* Holden again pretends to be older than he is even though he
hates adulthood by ordering a drink at club: “I ordered a
Scotch and soda and told him not to mix it.” (pg 69)
* Girls at the night club:
* Views as morons due to their behavior
* Their language
* Their ability to hold a conversation
* Distraction
* Obsession with movie stars
*
* Holdens’ flashback of Jane:
* Innocence with games: checkers, golf
* Views are idealistic and un-sexual: held-hands
* Jane becomes emotional when step-father asks
for cigarettes
* Comforting Jane with kisses everywhere but lips
* Enjoys comforting and protecting Jane
* Connection between Allie and Jane
* Jane only person he has showed baseball glove to with
poetry
* Holden becomes depressed: reality sets in
*
* Cab ride with Horwitz
* Asks about ducks: second adult to view Holden as odd with this
comment
* Horwitz discusses the fish frozen in the lagoon
* Arrives at Ernie’s
* Believes Ernie to be a snob: “People always clap for the wrongs
things.” (pg 84)
* Discusses the type of people in club: “Joe Yales” (pg 85)
* “Imagine giving somebody a feel and telling them about a guy
committing suicide at the same time! They kill me.” (pg 86)
* Meeting of Lillian:
* More alienation and avoidance
* “People are always ruining things for you.” (pg 87)
*
*Holden and the prostitute: Sunny
*“It’s no fun to be yellow” (pg 89) (foreshadowing)
*“Depressed and all. I almost wished I was dead.” (pg 90)
*“If you want to know the truth, I’m a virgin.”(pg 92)
*“Anyways, I keep stopping. The trouble is, I get to feeling
sorry for them. I mean most girls are so dumb.” (pg 92)
*Lies of operation: “I had an operation very recently… On my
wuddayacallit—my clavichord.” (pg 86)
*Holden still pays Sunny
*What does this say of Holden?
*Why does this chapter make this novel so controversial?
*
* Holden’s flashback of Allie and excludes him from a game
* Feels guilty and wants to begin to pray
* He is an atheist
* Thinks ministers are
phonies, actors, hiding their true selves. “They sounds so phony
when they talk.” (pg 100)
* Sunny and Maurice enter the room
* Holden’s “yellowness” comes out when they take his five dollars
* Continues to insult Maurice until he punches him in the stomach
* Believes he is in the movies:
* Revenge: Imaginary gun, shoots Maurice, back to the room, Jane wiping his cuts
*
View of actors and movies: make believe
* Holden wants to jump out the window: commit suicide
* “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like
jumping out the window.” (104)
*
* Sally Hayes: Holden calls to setup date
* Holden views her as dumb simply for dating Holden
* References his family
* Father: phony (successful corporate lawyer)
* Mother: has suffered nervous breakdown like Holden
* Holden worried about what his expulsion would do to her:
* “That’s another reason why I hated like hell for her to know I got the ax again.” (pg
107)
* Holden’s meeting with the nuns:
* Romeo and Juliet conversation: nuns comfort with its sexual context
* Holden’s
contrast of thoughts and words: adult sophistication vs. adolescent
fixation on sex.
* Gives the nuns donation of ten dollars
* Contradicts him being an atheist
* Upset he cannot give more: “I was sorry anyway, though Goddam money. It
always ends up making you blue as hell. (pg 113)
*