The title of the book comes from a children's song. Holden imagines that his ideal job as an adult would be as "a catcher in the rye". Holden believes "a catcher in the rye" protects innocent children from getting hurt. Holden wants to preserve and protect children and their innocence from the "phony" world of adults.
About the Book
Author: JD Salinger
Setting
Early 1950's America, after WWII, the country in entering a prosperous, industrial era
Pencey Prep School and New York City
Narrator
First Person Narrative
17 year old, Holden Caulfield (the main character or protagonist) is the narrator.
Is Holden a reliable narrator?
The story is told only from Holden's point of view.
Holden is telling his story to a therapist
Holden uses the dialect of a teenage boy (cursing) to make the story more believable
Themes
1. Alienation to Protect Yourself
Holden doesn't feel "he belongs". He purposely tries to be an outsider to protect himself. Holden is more comfortable alienating himself from family and friends. He chooses "not belonging" before he can be excluded by others.
2. The Pain of Growing Up
Like most novels about teenagers, Holden discovers that it is painful to grow up, change, mature and be responsible.
3. Phoniness in the World
"Phony" is used throughout the novel. Holden is disgusted by the adult world, he considers most every adult a phony. He wants the world to be simple. But even Holden is admittedly a compulsive liar.
Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1 (Pages 1-6) "Some
madman
stuff"
Main Character Holden Caulfield is at a psychiatric hospital or "a mental health facility" and he begins to explain why he thinks he is there.
“I’m not going to tell you my whole goddamn autobiography or anything. I’ll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy.” (Page 1)
Holden's
older brother, DB, is a writer in Hollywood for the
movies.
“How he’s out in Hollywood, DB, being a prostitute. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s movies. Don’t even mention them to me. “(Page 2)
Tells the reader he went to Pencey Prep, but was expelled for failing 4 out of 5 classes
Manager of the fencing team-lost their equipment in NYC
Holden is a loner and outsider. All the other students are at a football game
Chapter 2 (Pages 6-16) "Life
is game and
Holden doesn't want to play by the
rules"
Holden goes to visit one of his teachers, Mr. Spencer.
Mr. Spencer is old. He has the grippe (flu). Holden flunked his history class.
Mr. Spencer tells Holden,
"Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.” (Page 8)
Holden likes and respects Mr. Spencer but leaves his house when Mr. Spencer begins to lecture him about life.
Holden does not want to follow rules.
Chapter 3 (Pages 16-26)
"Ackley, the slob,
pops his pimples"
“I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful.” (page 16)
Holden goes back to his dorm room in Ossenburger Hall (Ossenberger is a rich alumnus that owns funeral parlors)
Holden is wearing his red hunting hat (backwards)
Ackley, a student who lives next door visits Holden
According to Holden, Ackley is a “slob”, irritating and has poor hygiene. Ackley pops his pimples, cuts his toenails over the floor and barges into Holden’s room uninvited.
Chapter 4 (Pages 26-35)
"Stradlater, the
secret slob has a date with Jane"
Holden spends chapter 4 talking to his roommate Stradlater in the bathroom.
Stradlater is very handsome and conceited (cocky), and a secret slob (dirty, rusty razor)
Stradlater is getting ready for a date with a girl that Holden knows from summer vacation.
Holden becomes obsessed with Stradlater's “date” with his old friend Jane.
Chapter 5 (Pages 35-39)
"Writing an Essay about his brother
Allie"
A typical Saturday night at
Pencey Prep--they serve steak in the dining hall, Holden and a few
friends throw snow balls and go into town to eat some hamburgers
and see a movie.
Holden writes a descriptive
composition for his roommate Stradlater about his brother Allie's
baseball glove. Allie was left-handed and wrote poems all over his
baseball mitt in green ink.
The reader learns:
Allie died from leukemia when he was 11 years old (July 18, 1946)
Holden is 2 years older than
Allie, so he was 13 when his brother died.
Holden describes Allie as
intelligent, with red hair and "it
wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member of the family.
He was also the nicest, in lots of ways." (Page
38)
Holden was
devastated by his brother's death. He slept in the garage that
night and was physically aggressive. He punched out all the windows
in the garage. "they were going to
have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in
the garage." (Page 39)
Chapter 6
(Pages 40-46) "The Big Fight with
Stradlater"
Holden is sitting around in his
dorm room waiting for Stradlater to get back from his date with
Jane.
Mentally, he seems disconnected from reality. Can't remember, argumentative, can't stop talking, fascinated by blood
Holden opens this chapter
telling the reader "Some things are
hard to remember...I was so damn worried." (Page
40)
Holden seems angry at
Stradlater and picks a fight with him, calling Stradlater "a
sonuvabitch and a moron" repeatedly.
Right before the fight Holden
writes, "Boy I was getting nervous. I
just had this feeling something had gone funny." (Page
42)
They fight and Stradlater has
to hold Holden down and ends up punching him in the face to get
Holden to shut up.
After the fight, Holden tells
the reader, "I had blood all over my
mouth and chin and even on my pajamas and bathrobe. It parly scared
me and it party fascinated me." (Page 45)
Chapter 7 (Pages 46-52) "Depressed and Lonesome in his Dorm
Room"
Holden is agitated (can't sit still or fall asleep) after his fight with Stradlater. He goes next door into Ackley's room and wakes him up.
Ackley asks Holden
about the fight, but Holden refuses to answer
Ackley.
Holden
repeatedly states in Chapter 7 that he is depressed and
lonesome.
"I got up and went over and looked out the
window, I felt so lonesome. I almost wished I was dead." (Page
48)
"Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damm
lonesome." (Page 48)
"It was so depressing out in the street...I got
feeling so lonesome and rotten." (Page
50)
"It was very, very, quiet and depressing in the
corridor." (Page 51)
Holden suddenly
makes a decision to leave Pencey Prep that night. He packs his
bags, sells his typewriter and leaves.
"I just didn't want to hang around anymore. It
made me too sad and lonesome." (Page
51)
"My nerves were shot." (Page
51)
Holden is crying
when he leaves.
Chapter 8 (Pages 53-58) "Lies
on the train to New York"
Holden is
taking the train home to New York in the middle of the
night.
He meets Mrs.
Morrow on the train, she is the mother of a student at Pencey Prep,
Ernest Morrow.
Holden tells Mrs.
Morrow one lie after another. He lies about his
name.
"Rudolf Schhmidt, I told her, ' I didn't feel
like giving her my whole life history. Rudolf was the name of the
janitor of our dorm." (Page54)
Holden actually
hates Mrs. Morrow's son,
Ernest.
"Her son was
doubtless the biggest bastard that
ever went to Pencey, in the whole crumby history of the school."
(Page 54)
"That guy
was about as sensitive as a goddam
toilet seat." (Page
55)
"You take a
guy like Morrow...they don't just
stay a rat while they're a kid. They stay a rat their whole life."
(Page 57)
Holden knows he is lying and cannot stop.
"Then I started shooting the
old crap around a
little bit." (Page
55)
"Then I really started
chucking the old crap
around." (Page
56)
"The I started reading the timetable I had in my pocket. Just to stop lying. Once I get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like it. No kidding. Hours." (Page 58)
Holden even lies
about having a brain
tumor.
"I have to have this
operation...I have this
little tumor on the brain...It's a very tiny one. they can take it
out in about two minutes." (Page
58)
Chapter
9 (Pages
59-66) "Where do those ducks go in the
winter?"
Holden arrives in
NYC at Penn
Station.
Holden is worried
about the ducks in Central
Park.
"Then I
thought of something, all of the sudden.
"Hey listen" I said, "You know those ducks in that lagoon right
near Central Park South? that little lake? By any chance, do you
happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen
over? Do you happen, by any chance? (Page
60)
Perhaps,
Holden is identifying with the ducks because he feels he
has no
place to
go?
Takes a cab to the
Edmont
Hotel.
It is the middle of
the night and he desperately wants to talk to
someone and go out for a
drink.
Holden people
watches at the
hotel.
Chapter 10 (Pages
66-76)
"Dancing and Drinking
Coke"
Holden wants to
call his little sister, Phoebe, but is afraid his parents will find
out he is in New York and got kicked out of
school.
Holden tells the
reader about his little sister
Phoebe
Holden genuinely
likes Phoebe. Phoebe is still young, a child and innocent. (not
phony)
Holden feels he is
the dumb one in his family. "I'm the
only really dumb one." (Page
67)
Holden goes to the
bar at the
hotel.
He tries to buy
drinks but the waiter refuses to serve
him.
Holden dances with
3 girls at the next table, but he clearly does not like
them.
Going to
the nightclub depresses him. "There isn't a nightclub in the world you can
sit
in for a long time unless you can at least buy some liquor and get
drunk. Or unless you're with some girl that really knocks you out."
(Page
76)
Chapter
11
(Pages 76-80) "Obsessing over Jane
Gallagher"
Holden becomes obsessed with memories of Jane Gallagher.
"All of a sudden, on my way out to the lobby, I got old Jane Gallagher on the brain again." (Page 76)
"I know old Jane like a
book--I still couldn't
get her off my brain. I knew her like a book." (Page
76)
Cannot stop
thinking about her date with
Stradlater.
"thought about her and
Stradlater sitting in that
goddam Ed Banky's car, and though I was pretty damn sure old
Stradlater hadn't given her the time" (Page
76)
Holden knows Jane
from 1 summer vacation they had in Maine, they were next-door
neighbors
Holden considers
Jane very special, because he shared something very personal with
Jane. He showed Jane the poetry on Allie's baseball
mitt.
"She was the only one, outside
my family, that I
ever showed Allie's baseball mitt to, with all the poems written on
it. She'd never met Allie." (Page
77)
Holden suggests
that Jane has a very bad relationship with her stepfather, Holden
calls him "a booze
hound"
"I never did find out what the
hell was the
matter." (Page
79)
Chapter 12
(Pages 81-87) "Going to Ernie's, the Ducks AGAIN and more phonies
"
Holden
is still feeling
restless.
He takes a cab to a
nightclub called
Ernie's
In the cab he talks
with the cabdriver named
Horowitz
Holden is still worried about the ducks. He asks the cabbie about the ducks in Central Park.
"I thought maybe he
might know about the
ducks...You know the ducks that swim around in it? In the
springtime and all? Do you happen to know where they go in the
wintertime, by any chance?..The ducks. Do you know by any chance? I
mean does somebody come around in a truck or something and take
them away, or do they fly away by themselves--go south or
something?" ( page
81)
Holden seems worried that the ducks must leave Central Park (a change). The ducks symbolize loss on innocence, growing up and changing.
The cab driver doesn't want to talk about the ducks, He talks about the fish in the pond instead. The cabbie gets angry with Holden.
At the
nightclub,listens to Ernie play the piano but Holden is not
impressed. He says Ernie "was
stinking it up." and "it made me feel depressed and lousy again
and
I damn near got my coat back and went back to the hotel." (Page
84)
Holden sits at a
"bad table" drinks Scotch, smokes cigarettes and is "surrounded by
jerks". He listens to other people's conversations and is
bored.
Holden sees Lillian
Simmons, an old girlfriend of his brother DB. Holden talks with
Lillian but he thinks she is obnoxious and leaves the nightclub to
get away from
her.
"I didn't have
any goddam choice except to
leave...I certainly wasn't going sit down at a table with old
Lillian Simmons and that Navy guy and be bored to death. So I
left.
It made me mad, though, when I was getting my
coat. People are always ruining things for you." (Page
87)
Chapter 13 (Pages 88-98) "Holden is a coward"
Holden
walks 41 blocks from Ernie's back to the
hotel.
He is
cold, misses his gloves that he imagines were stolen at
Pencey
Prep.
Holden imagines an elaborate confrontation with a boy from Pencey about getting his gloves back, but realizes he is a coward and would never confront anyone.
"It's not fun to be yellow.
Maybe I'm not all
yellow. I don't know. I think maybe I'm just partly yellow and
partly the type that doesn't give a damn if they lose their
gloves." (Page
89)
When Holden gets back to the hotel, the elevator operator offers to get a prostitute for Holden for $5.
"Innarested in a
little tail t'night?" (Page 91)
(Interested in a little tail
tonight)
Holden is flustered
and confused and accepts the
offer.
As he waits for the
prostitute, Holden realizes he is not very aggressive with
women (a coward) and admits he has never slept with a
girl.
Later a prostitute
named Sunny shows up, she takes off her dress, sits on Holden's lap
and tries to seduce
him.
Holden gets
nervous. He wants to talk to Sunny, He offers her a
cigarette.
Holden lies AGAIN.
He makes up a story about having surgery and says he can't have
sex.
"Boy, I was getting nervous. 'The thing is, I had an operation very recently. ..On my wuddayacallit--my clavichord...it's in the spinal canal. I mean it's quite a ways down in the spinal canal...I'm still recuperating." (Page 96-97)
Holden
pays Sunny $5 and asks her to leave. Sunny insists that the price
was $10.
"This is a five. It costs ten...Ten for a throw." (Page 97-98)
Chapter 14 (Pages 98-104)
"Sunny and Maurice shake down Holden for more
cash"
Holden is
sitting in his hotel room very early in the morning, smoking
cigarettes and feeling
miserable.
He begins talking
out loud to his dead brother Allie, where he
changes a childhood event that occured before
Allie died. In this new version, Holden lets Allie go on a bike
ride with him and Bobby to shoot BB
guns.
"I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I
do that sometimes when I get depressed. I keep
telling to go home and get his bike and meet me in front of Bobby
Fallon's house." (Page 98)
Holden gets in bed and tries to pray.
"I can't
always pray when I feel like it. In the
first place, I'm sort of an atheist. I like Jesus and all, but I
don't care too much for most of the other stuff in the Bible."
(Page 99)
Holden is in his
pajamas in bed, when Sunny and the elevator operator, Maurice come
to his
room.
Sunny and Maurice
insist that Holden give them more money, another
$5.
Holden and Maurice argue. Maurice shoves Holden
Sunny takes the
money out of Holden's wallet and wants to
leave.
Maurice and Holden
continue to argue and Maurice slaps Holden
around.
Holden imagines he has been shot in the gut by Maurice.
Holden goes
to the bathroom and
cries.
Chapter 15 (Pages 105-113) "Nuns with cheap suitcases eating in the diner"
Holden wakes up on Sunday morning.
Calls Sally Hayes on the phone and makes a date to go to see a matinee (afternoon movie) even though he does not like her very much.
"She gave me a pain in the ass, but she was very good-looking (Page 106)
Holden is still avoiding and hiding from his parents and does not want to go home until Wednesday.
Holden takes his luggage and puts them in a locker at Grand Central Station.
Holden checks his wallet for money and reveals to the reader that "I'm a goddam spendthrift at heart. What I don't spend, I lose. " (Page 107)
Holden talks about his dad. "My father's quite wealthy...He's a corporation lawyer...he's always investing money in shows on Broadway." (Page 107)
Holden is very hungry and goes to a diner to get something to eat.
2 Nuns come into the diner with cheap suitcases.
Holden goes on a rant about the nuns' cheap suitcases and mentions that his roommate, Dick Slagele, from the Elkton Hills School had cheap suitcase.
"I hate it when somebody has cheap suitcases...It depressed the holy hell out of me." (Page 108)
Holden starts talking to the nuns.
The nuns pay attention to Holden.
He gives them a $10 donation.
He talks to the nuns about reading in school. (Romeo and Juliet) Holden is embarassed to talk to nuns about "that play that gets pretty sexy" in parts.
Romeo and
Juliet-Allusion
"I felt much sorrier when old Mercutio got killed than when Romeo and Juliet did...Mercutio, he was--it's hard to explain. He was very smart and entertaining and all. The thing is, it drives me crazy if somebody gets killed--especially somebody very smart and entertaining and all--and it's somebody else's fault. Romeo and Juliet at least it was their own fault." (Page 111)
References to the play
Holden doesn't like Romeo (romatntic and a player) reminds Holden of Stradlater and Holden is not very good with the girls
Holden likes Mercutio. Mercutio died. It was not Mercutio's fault. Mercutio was intelligent and entertaining (LIKE HOLDEN'S BROTHER ALLIE WHO DIED FROM LEUKEMIA)
Holden tried to pay for the nuns' food at the diner. He really enjoyed talking to them.
Holden reveals his feeling about religion. He mentions his father used to be Catholic, until he married Holden's mother. He thinks that Catholics want everyone to be Catholic.
Chapter 16 (pages 113-122)
"Not going in there
for a million bucks"
After breakfast, Holden is
walking around NYC thinking.
He thinks the nuns are very
"unselfish" and does not know anyone else like them.
He wants to buy a record called "Little Shirley Beans" for his sister Phoebe because it is a sexy song.
"It was a very old, terrific record that this
colored girl singer, Estelle Fletcher, made about twenty years ago.
She sings it very Dixieland and whorehouse, and it doesn't sound at
all mushy." (Page 115)
JD SALINGER USES THE TERM "COLORED" THIS WAS ACCEPTABLE LANGUAGE IN THE 1940'S AND 50'S. THE WORD COLORED IS A RACIAL SLUR TODAY. OVER TIME, LANGUAGE CHANGES.
Sees a family coming home from church and a little boy singing.
"If a body catch a body coming the the rye. He
had a pretty little voice, too...It made me feel better. It made me
feel not so depressed anymore." (Page 115)
Buys record for
Phoebe.
Tries to call Jane, hangs up
when her mother answers.
Buys movie tickets, but observes once again that actors are phonies.
"I hate actors. They never act like people...I
keep worrying about whether he's going to do something phony every
minute.(Page 117)
Decides to go to Central Park
to look for his sister Phoebe, she likes to go skating
there.
Walks to the Museum of Natural
History to look for Phoebe.
Holden likes museums,
"The best thing, though, in that museum was that
everything always stayed right where it was." (Page
121)
Holden observes that museums stay the same, but people change all the time.
"The only thing that would be different would be
you. Not that you'd be so much older or anything. It wouldn't be
that exactly. You'd just be different that's all. (Page
121)
Holden gets to the museum and suddeny refuses to go in.
"When I got to the museum, all of a sudden I
wouldn't have gone inside for a million bucks." (Page
122)
Chapter 17 (Pages
123-134) "Holden acts like a
madman"
Holden
meets Sally at the Biltmore Hotel.
"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. I swear to God I'm crazy. I admit it.
(Page 124)
They make out in the taxi on the way to the
theater.
The actors in the movie annoy Holden
(AGAIN)
Sally annoys Holden when she flirts with a boy
during intermission.
After the movie they go ice-skating at Radio City
and Holden begins to fall apart emotionally. "I'm in bad shape. I'm in
lousy shape." (Page
131)
shouts at Sally
comes up with a scheme to run away with Sally to
a cabin in Vermont and get married
their argument escalates
Holden calls Sally "a royal pain in the
ass"
He tries to apologize and admits he may be losing
it. "I apologized like a madman."
(page 134)
Holden leaves Sally at the ice
rink.
Chapter 18 (Pages 135-141) "Thinking about Jane and stuck up guys, Allie and the Kettle Drummer and Not Going to War"
Holden
leaves the skating rink and goes to a drugstore and eats a swiss
cheese sandwich and a malted milk.
He thinks about calling Jane,
AGAIN, but does not. He finally, calls her but gets no
answer.
Holden remembers a time he saw
Jane at a dance with a boy Holden thought was a show-off.
Jane told Holden the boy had an inferiority complex (poor
self-esteem)
Holden decides girls make
excuses that boys feel inferior so they can date arrogant
guys.
"It's a funny thing about girls. Every time you
mention some guy that's strictly a bastard--very mean,or conceited
and all--and when you mention it to the girl, she'll tell you he
has an inferiority complex." (Page 135)
Holden calls Carl Luce, a boy
he knows from the Whooton School. The agree to meet for drinks that
night.
Holden kills time by going back
to Radio City Music Hall to see a movie.
The Rockettes are performing the Christmas Show. Holden thinks the show is ridiculous.
"It's supposed to be religious as hell, I know,
and very pretty and all, but I can't see anything religious or
pretty...old Jesus probably would've puked if He could see it."
(Page 137)
Holden remembers how he and
Allie used to go to the Christmas show to watch the kettle drum
player. The drummer had a very small part, but did his job
well.
The movie Holden watched was
about the Army. Holden says he would never join the
military.
"I swear if there's another war, they better just
take me out and stick me in front of a firing squad...Anyway, I
sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever
another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll
volunteer for it, I swear to God I will. (Page
141)
Chapter 19 (Pages
141- 149) "Holden meets Carl Luce at the Wicker
Bar"
Holden
goes to the Wicker Bar.
"The Wicker Bar
is in this sort of swanky hotel, the Seton Hotel...and the phonies
are coming in the window." (Page 141)
"If you sat around there long enough and heard
all the phonies applauding and all, you got to hate everybody in
the world, I swear you did." (Page
142)
Carl Luce was an expert on sex at the Whooten School.
"Old Luce. what a guy. He was supposed to be my
Student Adviser when I was at Whooten. The only thing he ever did,
though, was give these sex talks and all, late at night when there
was a bunch of guys in his room. He knew quite a bit about sex,
especially perverts and all." (Page
143)
Carl Luce arrives at the bar and Holden keeps trying to get Carl to talk about sex.
Carl refuses to
talk about sex.
"Same old
Caulfield. When are you going to grow up?" (Page
144)
"Oh God, Is
this going to be a typical Caulfield conversation?" (Page
145)
"Listen.
Let's get one thing straight. I refuse
to answer any typical Caulfield questions tonight. When in the hell
are you going to grow up?(Page
146)
Carl Luce refuses
to talk about sex, no matter, how many question Holden asks. Carl
tells Holden he needs
psychoanalysis.
"I told you the last time I
saw you what you
need." "You mean go to a psychoanalyst and all" (Page
148)
Holden asks Carl if
he has ever been analyzed by his father (a psychiatrist). Carl does
not answer
him.
Carl gets fed up
with Holden and leaves the
bar.
Chapter 20 (Pages 149-157)
"Drunk and Lost in Central
Park"
Holden
gets very, very drunk after Carl Luce leaves the Wicker
Bar.
"Boy, I sat at that goddam bar till around
one o'clock or so, getting drunk as a bastard...I could hardly see
straight " (Page 150)
Holden tries to
make a date with the singer at the bar and the coat-check girl.
Denied!
Calls Sally Hayes
very late at night and wakes her family up. He promises to help her
decorate her Christmas tree.
Holden goes to
men's room to try to sober up, soaks his head and hair in cold
water in the sink.
Holden leaves the
Wicker Bar to go find the ducks in Central
Park.
Drops and breaks
the record he bought for Phoebe.
"Then something terriblehappened just as I got in
the park. I dropped old Phoebe's record." (Page
154)
Holden continues to emotionally break down
"When I'm drunk I'm a madman." (Page
151)
1. Begins to cry
"I was crying and all. I don't know why.
But I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed
and lonesome." (Page 153)
2. Pretends he has been shot
" When I was really drunk, I started that stupid
business with the bullet in my guts again." (Page
150)
3. Gets lost in
Central Park, cannot find the duck
pond
"I've lived in New York all my life, and I know
Central Park like the back of my hand...but I had the most terrific
trouble finding that lagoon that night." ( Page
154)
4. Imagines he will
get pneumonia and die
" Boy I was shivering like a bastard, and the back of my hair, even though I had my hunting hat on, was sort of full of hunk of ice. That worried me. I thought probably I'd get pneumonia and die. I started picturing million of jerks coming to my funeral." (Page 154)
5. Holden says his
mother isn't over Allie's death. But neither is
Holden
"When Allie died...I wasn't there. I was still in
the hospital.I had to go to the hospital and all after I hurt my
hand." (Page 155)
"I felt sorry as hell for my mother and father.
Especially my mother, because she still isn't over my brother Allie
yet." (Page 155)
6. Thinks about his own funeral
"I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense
enough to just dump me in the river or something. anything except
sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch
of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants
flowers when you're dead? Nobody." (Page
155)
7. Thinks about
going to the cemetery to Allie
grave
"I know it's
only his body and all that's in the
cemetery, and his soul's in Heaven and all that crap, but I
couldn't stand it anyway. I just wish he wasn't there." (Page
156)
Holden decides to
go home to see Phoebe one last time, in case he dies of
pnuemonia.
"Finally what I figured I'd do, I figured
I'd better sneak home and see her, in case I died and all. (Page
156)
Chapter 21 (Pages 157-)
"Holden sneaks into his
house"
Holden
arrives at his apartment building.
There is a new
elevator operator and Holden lies to him to gain access to his
family floor.
Holden sneaks in
the apartment and looks for his sister
Phoebe.
Phoebe is asleep in
DB's room.
Holden watches her
sleep, he thinks children look great when they are
sleeping.
"She was laying there asleep, with her face sort
of on the side of the pillow. She had her mouth way open. It's
funny. You take adults, they look lousy when thy're asleep and they
have their mouths way open, but kids don't." (Page
159)
Being with Phoebe
makes Holden feel good.
"I felt swell for a change. I didn't even feel
like I was getting pneumonia or anything any more. I just felt
good, for a change." (Page 159)
He is amused that
Phoebe has made up another new middle
name.
"That killed me. Her middle name is
Josephine, for God's sake, not Weatherfield. She doesn't like it,
though. Every time I see her she's got a new middle name for
herself." (Page 160)
Holden reads
Phoebe's notebooks.
"I sat there on DB's desk and read the whole
notebook. It didn't take me long and Ican tead that kind of stuff,
some kid's notebook." (Page
161)
Holden and Phoebe
talk. Phoebe is very excited to see her brother and talks about one
thing after another, her school play, her friends and a bully at
school.
Phoebe realizes
that Holden is home early and must have gotten kicked out of
another school.
"How come you're not home Wednesday?" (Page
164)
Phoebe keeps
telling Holden their father will kill Holden when he finds out that
he has been kicked out of another
school.
"You did get kicked out! You did...Daddy'll kill
you...Daddy's gonna kill you!" (Page 165)
Holden leaves Phoebe's bedroom
and goes into the living room to smoke.
Chapter 22 (Pages 166-174) "
I want to be the Catcher in the Rye"
Holden
returns to Phoebe's room to talk to her.
Phoebe is angry that Holden has
been kicked out of school again.
"she turned her crazy face the other way. she was
ostractizing the hell out of me. Just like the fencing team at
Pencey when I left all the goddam foils on the subway." (Page
166)
Holden tells Phoebe that she
doesn't understand how much he hates school and all the
phonies.
"It was one of the worst schools I ever went to,
It was full of phonies. And mean guys. You never saw so many mean
guys in your life." (Page 167)
Phoebe responds that Holden
hates everything and she challenges Holden to tell her just one
thing he really likes.
"You don't like anything that's happening...You
don't like any schools.You don't like a milliion things. You
don't." (Page 169)
Holden stops listening to Phoebe.
"I couldn't concentrate too hot. Sometimes it's
hard to concentrate." (Page 169)
Daydreams about James Castle, a
boy he knew at the Elkton School who committed suicide by jumping
out a window because he was being bullied at Elkton
School.
"Old James Castle...he jumped out the window. He
was dead, and his teeth, and his blood were all over the place, and
nobody would even go near him...All they did with the guys that
were in the room with him was expel them. They didn't even go to
jail." (Page 170)
Holden tells Phoebe that he
really likes Allie, but Phoebe says that doesn't count because
Allie is dead.
"I like Allie...And I like doing what I'm doing
right now. sitting here with you, and talking and thinking about
stuff...Allie's dead...Just because somebody's dead, you don't just
stop liking them, for God's sake--especially if they were about a
thousand times nicer thatn the people you know that're alive and
all." (Page 171)
Phoebe demands to know what Holden is going to do with his life.
"All right, name something elso. Name something
you'd like to be." (Page 172)
Holden tells Phoebe he wants to
be "the catcher in the rye"
He imagines a huge rye field
where he will protect children from falling off the edge of a
cliff. "If a body catch a body comin'
through the rye"
"You'd know what I'd like to be? I mean if I had
my goddam choice?...That's all I'd 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." (Page
173)
Phoebe tells Holden that the lyric he is reciting is wrong. The actual line from the poem is "If a body meet a body comin' through the rye."
Holden leaves Phoebe's room to
go call an former teacher named Mr. Antolini.
"I wanted to phone this guy that was my English
teacher at Elkton Hills, Mr. Antolini." (Page
173)
Chapter 23 (Pages
175-180) "Holden Dances with Phoebe and Borrows her Christmas
Money"
Holden calls Mr. Antolini
a favorite teacher to go stay at his house. Holden admires Mr.
Antolini very much because he was the only teacher that took care
of James Castle's dead body.
Holden returns to Phoebe's room
and dances 4 dances with her.
"I took my shoes off, and then I danced with her
for a while. She's really damn good. I don't like people that dance
with little kids, because most of the time it looks terrible. I
mean if you're out at a restaurant somewhere and you see some old
guy take his little kid out on the dance floor. Usually they keep
yanking the kid's dress up in the back by mistake and the kid can't
dance worth a damn anyway, and it looks terrible, but I don't do it
out in public with Phoebe or anything. We just horse around in the
house. It's different with her anyway, because she can dance."
(Page 175)
Holden's parents come home and
Holden hides in Phoebe's closet.
Holden decides to leave his
parents' house.
He is running out of money and
borrows Phoebe's "Christmas money" $8.65.
"Listen. You got any dough, Phoebe? I'm
practically broke. Just my Christmas dough. For presents and all. I
haven't done any shopping at all yet...You can take it
all. You can pay me back...How much is it, for God's sake?...Eight
dollars and eighty-five cents,Sixty-five cents. I spent some."
(Page 179)
Holden is upset and
crying right before he leaves.
"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 the hell out of Phoebe when I started doing it., and she
came over and tried to make me stop, but once you get started, you
can't just stop on a goddam dime." (Page
179)
Holden gives Phoebe his red hunting
hat.
"Then I took my hunting hat out of my coat pocket
and gave it to her. She likes those kind of crazy hats. She didn't
want to take it, but I made her. I'll bet she slept with it on."
(Page 180)
Reluctantly, Holden
leaves his family's
apartment.
"I didn't give much of a damn any more if they
caught me. I really didn't. I figured if they cuaght me, they
cuaght me. I almost wish they did, in a way. (Page
180)
Chapter 24 (Pages
180-193) "Mr. Antolini warns Holden he is headed for a
fall"
Holden
goes to Mr. Antolini's apartment. The Antolini's have just had a
dinner party and the place is a
mess.
Holden notices that
Mrs. Antolini is much older that Mr.
Antolini.
Mr. Antolini
had obviously been drinking, and he continues to
drink.
Holden and Mr.
Antolini have a long discussion about a class Holden took called
"Oral Expression" (giving
speeches).
Mr. Antolini is
worried about Holden and tries to give him advice, but Holden is
too tired to listen to
him.
"Frankly, I
don't know what the hell to say to
you Holden. I have a feeling that you're riding for some kind of a
terrible, terrible fall. But I don't honestly know what kind...Are
you listening to me? (page
186)
Mr. Antolini makes
up the couch for Holden to sleep
on.
After Holden falls
asleep, he wakes up suddenly to find Mr. Antolini stroking his
hair.
Holden is sure that
Mr.Antolini is making a homosexual pass at
him.
"I woke up
all of a sudden. I don't know what
time it was or anything, but I woke up. I felt something on my
head, some guy's hand. Boy, it really scared the hell out of me.
What it was, it was Mr. Antolini's hand. What he was doing
was, he was sitting on the floor right next to the 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.
(Page 191-192)
Holden panics
and leaves.
"Boy, I was
shaking like a madman. I was
sweating, too. 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." (Page
193)
Chapter 25
(Pages 194-213) "Holden Has a
Breakdown"
Holden
takes the subway to Grand Central Station and sleeps on a
bench.
He reads a magazine
at the train station and it depresses him because the articles are
about hormones and
cancer.
"I started reading...I looked
exactly like the
guy in the article with lousy hormones. So I started getting
worried about my hormones." (Page
195)
"I'd had this sore on the
inside of my lip for
about two weeks. so I figured I was getting cancer." (Page
196)
Holden leaves Grand
Central and sees 2 men delivering Christmas trees and it depresses
him because they are
cursing.
"One guy kept saying to the
other guy, 'Hold the
sonuvatbitch up! Hold it up, for Chrissake!" It certainly was a
gorgeous way to talk about a Christmas tree." (Page
196)
He tries to eat
breakfast but when he tries to eat he is
nauseous.
"I didn't eat the doughnuts. I
couldn't swallow
them too well. The thing is, if you get very depressed about
something, it's hard as hell to swallow." (Page
196)
Holden is on 5th Avenue and Holden is imagining that he will disappear if he crosses the street.
"I kept walking and walking up
Fifth Avenue...all
of sudden, something very spooky started happening. Everytime I
came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddam curb, I had
this feeling that I'd never get to tthe 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." (Page
198)
Holden talks to his
dead brother for
help.
"I was talking to my brother
Allie. I'd say to
him, 'Allie, don't let me disappear.'" (Page
198)
He is going to go
"out West", but wants to say good-bye to Phoebe before he
leaves.
"I decided I'd go away. I
decided I'd never go
home agin and I'd never go away to another school agian.
Idecided I'd just see old Phoebe and sort of say good-bye to her
and all, and give back her Christmas dough, and then I'd start
hitchhiking my way out West."(Page
198)
Out West Holden
states he will pretend to be deaf and mute, so he does not have to
talk to
anyone.
"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 though
what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That
way I wouldn't have to have any goddam conversations with anybody."
(page
198)
Holden imagines
living in a house in the woods and getting
married.
"I'd build a little cabin
somewhere...right near
the woods, but not in them, because I'd want it to be sunny...I'd
meet this beautiful girl that was also a deaf-mute and we'd get
married." (Page
199)
In Holden's
imaginary future out West he would have children, but hide them
from the world. They would NOT go to
school.
"If we had any children, we'd
hide them
somewhere. We could buy them lots of books and teach them how to
read and wrote by ourselves." (Page
199)
Holden goes to
Phoebe's school. This upsets him because he finds curse words on
the wall in the
school.
"You can't trust anybody in a
goddam school."
(Page
201)
"I saw something that drove me
crazy. Somebody'd
written 'Fuck You' on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy...I
figured it was some perverty bum that'd sneaked in the school late
at night...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" (Page
201)
Holden finds
another curse
word.
"I went down by a
different staircase, and I saw
another 'Fuck You' on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand
again, but his one was scratched on, with a knife or something. If
you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half
the 'Fuck You' signs in the world. It's impossible." (Page
202)
Holden goes to the
museum to wait for Phoebe. In the mummy room he finds more curse
words on the
wall.
"Then, all of a sudden, you'd
never guess what I
saw on the wall. Another 'Fuck You'...That's the whole trouble. You
can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there
isn't any." (page
204)
Holden imagaines
when dies that someone will write curses on his
tombstone.
"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 'Fuck You.' I'm positve
of that" (Page
204)
Holden passes out
in the
museum.
"When I was coming out of the
can, right before I
got to the door, I sort of passed out. It was a funny thing,
though. I felt better after I passed out...I didn't feel so damn
dizzy any more." (Page
204)
Holden meets Phoebe
on the steps of the museum and they argue, because she wants to run
away with
him.
"I was almost all set to hit
her. I thought I was
going to smack her for a second. I really did...I wanted her to cry
till her eyes were practically dropped out. I almost hated her."
(Page
207)
Holden finally
promises he will not run
away.
Phoebe and Holden
go to the zoo, Phoebe is still angry at Holden and refuses to talk
to him.
Finally, Holden and
Phoebe go to the park and Phoebe rides the
carousel.
"That's one thing about
carousels, they always
play the same songs." (Page
210)
Holden watches
Phobe on the carousel, he sits in the pouring rain and
cries.
"It began to rain like a
bastard. In buckets, I
swear to God...I stuck around on the bench for quite a while. I got
pretty soaking wet...I felt so damn happy all of a sudden." (Page
213)
Chapter 26 (Pages
213-214) "The Missing
Details"
The
story ends exactly where it began. Holden is "talking" to his
therapist in the rest home. The reader does not know if Holden will
actually get
better.
Holden fills the reader in on some missing details of his story.
He went
home.
He is sent to a
"rest home" to recover from his
breakdown.
Holden is in
therapy..
He is planning on
going back to school next
fall.
Holden is tired of people asing him if he is better and will "apply himself" in school.
"It's such a
stupid question, in my opinion. I
mean how do you know wht 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." (Page
213)
Holden regrets
ttelling so many people how he was
feeling.
"I'm sorry I told
so many people about it." (Page
214)
Holden seems to
have changed a little, He may even value other
people.
"I sort of
miss everybody I told about. Even old
Stradlater and Ackley, for instance. I think I even miss that
goddam Maurice." ( Page
214)