The Catcher in the Rye English 3201/2201 - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

The Catcherin the Rye

English 3201/2201 Chapter Summaries And NotesSlide2

Chapter OneAs the novel opens, the narrator, Holden Caulfield, speaks directly to the reader from a mental hospital or sanatorium in southern California. He says that he will tell us (the readers) of events occurring around Christmastime of the previous year. First, however, he mentions his older brother, D.B., a writer who now works in nearby Hollywood and visits Holden nearly every weekend.

Holden's story, in the form of a long flashback, begins around 3 p.m. on a Saturday in December, the day of the traditional season-ending football match between his old school,

Pencey

Prep (in

Agerstown

, Pennsylvania) and rival Saxon Hall. Holden, a junior at

Pencey

, can see the field from where he stands, high atop Thomsen Hill. He has been expelled and is on his way to say good-bye to Mr. Spencer, his history instructor. At the end of the chapter, Holden arrives at Mr. Spencer's house and is let in by his teacher's wife.Slide3

NotesHolden tells us he will tell us about some “madman” stuff that happened to him last Christmas before he got hospitalized. This indicates that he had a mental breakdown and something traumatic has happened to him but he doesn’t go into any details.

It bothers him that D.B. sold himself out because originality is important to Holden and he detests phonies.Holden tells the story in a bitterly cynical voice. Beneath the surface of his tone runs an emotional, idealistic current.

Holden thinks that ugliness and hypocrisy ruins the innocence and beauty of the world. Holden connects with the world in an idealistic level. He feels its flaws so deeply that he tries to protect himself with cynicism. Slide4

Chapter TwoSpencer's farewell turns into a lecture on discipline, and Holden's mind drifts. He wonders about the ducks down at the lagoon near Central Park South in New York City. Where do they go when the lagoon freezes in the winter? Does someone take them to a zoo? Do they fly away? He reflects on Mr. Haas, the phony headmaster at Elkton Hills, one of Holden's previous schools. Haas was very charming to successful-looking parents, but if a boy's mother were fat or his father poorly dressed, the headmaster snubbed them cruelly.

Holden finally manages to escape from Mr. Spencer's lecture, claiming he needs to get to the gym to retrieve his equipment. He has second thoughts about leaving "old Spencer" but mainly wants out. Politely turning down a cup of Mrs. Spencer's hot chocolate and promising to write, he gladly leaves.Slide5

NotesHolden is innocent and desperately searching for a way to connect with the world that does not cause him pain.

He is an unreliable narrator and the reality of the situation is different than the way he describes it. Holden feels bad for Spencer even though he disgusts him. He leaves Spencer’s abruptly because he doesn’t want to be confronted by his actions.Slide6

Chapter ThreeHolden returns to

Pencey where he lives in the Ossenburger Memorial Wing of the new dorms, reserved for juniors and seniors. Ossenburger

is an alumnus who has made a fortune in the undertaking business.

Pencey

named a wing of the new dormitories after him in thanks for a large donation.

Ossenburger

attended the first home football game earlier in the fall and bored the students, especially Holden, with a long-winded, corny, cliché-filled oration at chapel the next morning. A student named Edgar

Marsalla

finally countered with his own loud breaking of wind, much to Holden's delight.

The dorm room is empty and cozy. Holden tries on a red hunting cap, with a long bill, which he bought for a dollar in New York that morning. He relaxes with a good book,

Isak

Denisen's

Out of Africa

,

until he is interrupted by Robert Ackley who rooms next door and enters through a shower that the two rooms share. Ackley is a nuisance and ruins the mood.

Ward

Stradlater

, Holden's roommate, comes in from the football game and asks to borrow Holden's hound's-tooth jacket as he prepares to go out for the evening.Slide7

Holden admits that he’s a liar. He calls himself immature and it is ironic that he has gray hair (possibly trauma or stress).

He says he feels like he is disappearing every time he crosses the road (maybe because someone he loved disappeared?)He rants about phonies at his schools (Elkton Hills).He puts his red hunting hat on backwards (individual, unconventional). It is protection for Holden. He uses it to hide and also to stand out at same time.

Robert Ackley is a loner and outsider like Holden. They are use a critical, bitter exterior to shield themselves from the world. Intimacy and interaction are what both boys need and fear the most.Slide8

Chapter FourAlthough the dorms have showers separating rooms, the toilets and sinks are down the hall. Having nothing better to do, Holden accompanies his roommate,

Stradlater, as he prepares for a Saturday night date. Holden is first shocked and then concerned when he learns that his roommate's date that night is Jane Gallagher, a friend of his from the summer before his sophomore year. Holden repeatedly says he should go downstairs to say hello to Jane, but he never does.

Stradlater

talks Holden into writing an English theme paper for him. Holden returns to his room and is joined by Ackley, whose company Holden doesn't mind, because listening to Ackley distracts him from thinking about Jane.Slide9

NotesPossible quote that Hinckley and Chapman may have picked up on: “I shoot people in this hat”.

Holden clearly has deep feelings for Jane and does not want to see her used or abused by Stradlater. This is a theme in the book-the pressure of adolescent sexuality.

He sees Jane as pure and innocent and indicates that she had a rough childhood (divorce, alcoholic stepfather and possible sexual abuse). He never forgot that she always kept her kings in the back row.

He keeps saying that he should go say hi to Jane but he never does. This is pattern we will see from Holden again and again. He wants to connect but never follows through because he is terrified and unable to deal with relationships.Slide10

Chapter FiveAfter a lacklustre trip to town with Ackley and another student, Holden settles in to compose the descriptive theme paper for

Stradlater. He decides to write about his brother Allie's left-handed baseball glove. Allie died of leukemia on July 18, 1946, while the family was vacationing in Maine. Holden was 13 years old at the time, Allie two years younger. Holden finishes the essay around 10:30 p.m.Slide11

Holden idealizes Allie, praising his intelligence and sensitivity. The poem covered baseball glove is a perfect symbol for both. Yet, he remains silent about his emotional reaction to Allie’s death. He alludes to his reaction almost in passing. Allie’s death plays a major role in his psychological breakdown. The cynicism that he uses to avoid expressing his feelings may result from Allie’s death.

Holden leaves Pencey

abruptly, to escape the torment of his environment. What he does not realize, is that he carries the torment with him, inside himself.Slide12

Chapter Six and SevenThe events of the rest of the evening are a little blurred in Holden's memory.

Stradlater returns around 11:00 or so and reads the theme paper Holden has written, while unbuttoning his shirt and stroking his chest. Stradlater is in love with himself. Of course, he doesn't understand Holden's choice of a baseball glove for a descriptive essay and condemns it. Holden grabs the paper and tears it up.

Holden becomes increasingly agitated about

Stradlater's

date with Jane. Although he can't know exactly what happened, his roommate's glib comments enrage him.

Stradlater

taunts him, and Holden misses with a wild punch.

Stradlater

holds him down but lets him up. Holden calls

Stradlater

a moron and gets a bloody nose for his trouble.

Stradlater

leaves. Holden decides to spend the night in Ackley's room, can't sleep, thinks of visiting Mal Brossard but changes his mind, and decides to "get the hell out of

Pencey

," instead of waiting until Wednesday to leave. He plans to rent an inexpensive hotel room in New York City and stay there until Wednesday, when he can go home.Slide13

When Holden thinks about Jane and Stradlater

together, he feels like jumping out the window. He also says “I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I were dead”.Holden remembers when he was on a double date with Stradlater who tried to force himself on a girl.

He cries as he leaves

Pencey

because once again he has failed to connect with anyone.

On page 51 he says “My nerves were shot”.Slide14

Chapter Eight and NineIt is too late to get a taxi in

Agerstown so Holden walks to the train station. He lowers the earflaps on his hunting cap to protect against the cold. En route to New York City, he is joined at Trenton by an attractive woman who turns out to be the mother of a classmate, Ernest Morrow. Holden introduces himself as Rudolf Schmidt, actually the name of the custodian at his dorm, and invents several flattering stories about the woman's son, "Old Ernie." When Mrs. Morrow asks why he's leaving school before the end of the semester, he tells her that he has to return home because he has a brain tumour and that he must have surgery.

When he arrives at New York's Penn Station, Holden considers telephoning several people but ends up calling no one. He takes a cab to the

Edmont

Hotel where he observes unusual happenings from the window of his shabby room. His phone call to Miss Faith Cavendish, a young lady whose sexual reputation precedes her, ends without any plans to meet.Slide15

NotesWe see Holden’s tendency to lie when he meets Mrs. Morrow on the train. He lies to her to make her feel better about her son, to make her like him, and to draw attention from himself and his own story.

Salinger cleverly manipulates the narrative to signal that there is more to the story than what Holden admits or describes.Holden’s constant lying in this section is a sign of immaturity and imbalance.

It bothers him that sexual attraction can be separate from respect and intimacy and that sex can be casual or kinky.Slide16

Chapter TenHolden claims that it is still early, but it is actually quite late. However, the Lavender Room, a lounge off the lobby of the

Edmont Hotel, is still open. After providing a detailed recollection of his younger sister, Phoebe, Holden visits the Lavender Room and meets three women, tourists from Seattle.Slide17

NotesNotice the color red: Allie, Phoebe and Holden’s red hunting hat are red. Thus, he associates the color with innocence, purity and childhood. Holden idealizes children and thinks that all adults are corrupt and evil.

He desperately tries to connect with the three tourists in the Lavender room. At the same time, he is very critical and judgemental towards them. He does this to protect himself. Holden tries to show himself as a smooth, cool man in this scene, but we can tell that he reality of the situation is different than the way he describes it.Slide18

Chapter ElevenThis short chapter is devoted almost exclusively to Holden's recollections of Jane Gallagher. Sitting in a "

vomity-looking" chair in the lobby of the Edmont Hotel, he remembers how they met and what they did the summer before his sophomore year. He thinks he knows her "like a book." Despite the late hour, Holden still is not tired. He decides to visit Ernie's Nightclub in Greenwich Village.Slide19

NotesIt is possible that Jane was sexually abused by her stepfather (she refuses to talk to him and cries) but she denies it. Jane cannot put her pain into words, and Holden understands because he feels the same way. Holden’s relationship with Jane is not sexual (he has never even kissed her on the mouth). Yet, he idealizes the connection they had. Their intimate moments were free of phoniness.

Holden embarks on a manic quest for interaction.

His thoughts are always on other people but he never mentions himself. He avoids introspection and reflection on his own shortcomings and problems by focusing on others, usually through a critical and dismissive lens. Slide20

Chapter TwelveOn the way to Ernie's, Holden discusses ducks, fish, and winter with the cab driver. At the club, Holden expresses his opinions concerning the aesthetics of performance, Ernie, the crowd in general, and a nearby couple in particular. Lillian Simmons, a former girlfriend of D.B., pops by his table with her date, a Navy officer. Holden declines her invitation to join them, saying he was just leaving.Slide21

NotesHolden is so desperate for connection that he even tries to connect with the cab driver and the piano player in the bar. All his attempts to connect fail.

Holden’s curiosity about the ducks and the fish is mentioned again.Holden likes to imagine that he is a mature person who perceptively sees all the hidden details around him, but in actuality, he is just a kid. Once again, Holden’s inability to understand the world around him-or perhaps his unwillingness to acknowledge the world around him-reveals his deep disconnection and isolation.Slide22

Chapter ThirteenHolden is tired of taxis and walks the forty-one blocks back to the hotel, wearing his red hunting cap with the earflaps down, missing his stolen gloves, and bemoaning his cowardice. The elevator man, Maurice, doubles as a pimp and offers to provide Holden with female companionship for "five bucks a throw" or fifteen dollars for the night. Holden agrees to go for "a throw" in his room, 1222, but almost immediately regrets it. The hooker calls herself Sunny; Holden tells her his name is Jim Steele. Although they do little more than talk, because Holden is more depressed than ready to have sex, Sunny says that her fee is ten dollars. Holden pays her only five, and she leaves, calling him a "crumb-bum."Slide23

NotesOn page 90 Holden says : ”I almost wished I was dead”.

Holden feels sorry for girls because he feels like they lose their brains when affected by guys. Thus, he says he stops when they tell him to (he also stops because he’s scared).Holden describes himself as yellow. If someone stole his possessions he would confront them but not fight them. He says the worst part about fighting is he can’t hit someone in the face and look at their face. He doesn’t want to deal with the pain of hurting someone.

Holden is disturbed by

Sunny’s

youth and her green dress hanging in the closet makes him sad. She also has a childlike voice.Slide24

Instead of dealing with real people and situations, Holden daydreams about Phoebe’s innocence and Jane’s warmth.

Holden wants to live in a beautiful world, but the pressure of his emerging sexuality and the demands of his loneliness compel him to enter into encounters with people like Sunny and Maurice. Such encounters are so far removed from the idealized encounters that he fantasizes about that he leaves them much more wounded and hurt than before. He takes refuge in isolation, but this isolation only deepens the pain of alienation and loneliness.Slide25

Chapter FourteenIt is dawn on Sunday by the time that Sunny exits. Holden smokes a couple of cigarettes and reflects on his relationship with his deceased brother, Allie, as well as his feelings about religion. He is summoned by a knock on the door. Sunny has returned with Maurice and demands the rest of the ten dollars. Holden resists and is roughed up by the pimp.Slide26

NotesHolden shows signs of madness-starts talking aloud to Allie. He is clearly not over it and feels haunted and guilty (didn’t take him shooting bb guns once).

Holden says he’s an atheist and makes sacrilegious comments (calls ministers phone).Stubborn-refuses to give Maurice and Sunny money.Child-like/fragile-cries when Sunny takes the money.

His mouth continues to get him in trouble-provokes Maurice to hit him.Slide27

Delusional and hypocritical-he pretends he has a bullet in his stomach and imagines himself shooting Maurice like a scene in a movie.

Insomnia (often symptom of depression) and suicidal-he feels like jumping out the window but he doesn’t want people to look at him all “gory”. He would be self-conscious and insecure even when dead.Compassionate/caring nature-the way he helps the nuns.Slide28

The encounter with the nuns also leaves him hurt and wounded because he has constructed a simplistic divide between childhood, which he sees as innocent and good, and adulthood, which he finds superficial and evil. This worldview allows him to maintain his cynical barrier of defence; he is able to rationalize his loneliness by pretending that every adult around him is phony and annoying. The scene with Maurice and Sunny reaffirms his notion that adults are corrupt but his interaction with the nuns confuse him because they are adults but also good. They also don’t conform to his religious stereotypes (the nun likes

Romeo and Juliet

).Slide29

Holden often retreats into childhood memories when faced with a sexual encounter.Why does Holden pretend to be in the movies if he hates them so much? He uses it to avoid the situation and dealing with his feelings. It’s an escape and he can be someone else.Slide30

Chapter FifteenHolden awakes around 10:00 Sunday morning. He phones an old girlfriend, Sally Hayes, and makes a date to meet her at 2:00 p.m. to catch a theatre matinee. Holden checks out of the hotel and leaves his bags at a lock box in Grand Central Station. While eating a large breakfast (orange juice, bacon and eggs, toast and coffee) at a sandwich bar, he meets two nuns who are schoolteachers from Chicago, newly assigned to a convent "way the hell uptown," apparently near Washington Heights. They discuss 

Romeo and Juliet

, and Holden gives them a donation of ten dollars.Slide31

NotesWhy does Holden plan a date with Sally Hayes even though he thinks she is a phony and not very intelligent?

His mother also has mental issues-possibly genetic. She hasn’t been healthy since Allie died and is “very nervous”. Implies the same has happened to Holden even though he never tells us or explains his emotions.Why does he hate cheap suitcases? He is not a snob he feels bad for other people.Slide32

Chapter SixteenWhen Holden finishes his conversation with the two nuns, it is almost noon. He has two hours until he is to meet Sally at the Biltmore Hotel so he goes for a walk toward Broadway. He wants to buy a recording, for Phoebe, of an old song called "Little Shirley Beans." Along the way, Holden notices an apparently underprivileged family walking home from church. The young son is walking in the street and singing (Coming through the rye).

Fortunately, the first music store that he visits has a copy of the record. Holden tries to telephone Jane, but her mother answers so he hangs up. Still burdened with the responsibility of procuring theatre tickets, he chooses a play, 

I Know My Love

, that he thinks Sally will like because it stars the

Lunts

. He decides to visit Central Park in hopes of finding Phoebe who often skates there on Sundays. He almost visits the Museum of Natural History but decides not to go in. Although he doesn't feel like going through with the date, he catches a cab to meet Sally at the Biltmore Hotel as planned.Slide33

NotesThere is a link to the title on pg. 115. “If a body catch a body coming through the rye”. It is significant that Holden hears a little boy singing this song.

He tries to call Jane but hangs up when her mother answers because once again he is not “in the mood”. He makes excuses for the fact that he is terrified of participating in an adult relationship. He cannot handle it. We see the way he idealizes and loves kids when he ties up a little girl’s skate, tries to find his little sister Phoebe, and watches two kids on a see-saw.Slide34

Important Symbol-The MuseumWhy does he love the museum? He wants life to freeze like the exhibits and never change. He also links it to happy childhood memories (a time before he was broken?). He hates change because he doesn’t want to grow up and also possibly because of the intense changes that happened when Allie died. Also, Holden can judge the exhibits but they can’t judge him. He wishes to return to childhood.

Why does he walk to the Museum of Natural history and not go in? Maybe he is frustrated by it now because he knows his life is changing and he can’t do anything about it. The museum reminds him that real life is nothing like the exhibits and simple and frozen the way he wants it to be. It represents his tragic , hopeless fantasizing and , his inability to deal with the real world and his unwillingness to think about his own shortcomings.Slide35

Chapter SeventeenSally is ten minutes late but looks terrific in her black coat and matching beret. She is thrilled that they will get to see the

Lunts and is impressed by the performance. Holden is less than thrilled, first by the performance on stage and then by Sally's performance in the lobby. He dislikes the way she talks with an Andover student named George. After the show, they go ice skating at Radio City. Holden tries to talk with Sally about things of real importance to Holden. He asks her to run off to Massachusetts and Vermont with him. The date ends badly, and he walks out.Slide36

NotesIn this chapter, Holden really starts to break down and we see him act manic, unstable and irrationally.

He doesn’t even like Sally yet falls in love with the minute he sees her and tells her he loves her. He says he meant it when he said it too.At the Lunt show, he is shown to be hypocritical again when he criticizes people for smoking and being phony.

We see hints of his madness when Sally asks him to stop screaming and he says he isn’t. He has no idea how upset and delusional he is.Slide37

He goes on a rant about everything he hates about society. Why would he prefer horses over cars? (real/living not phony).

He immaturely asks Sally to run away with him to Vermont and live isolated from society and get married. He doesn’t want to go to school or college, just live without associating with others (very similar to how the author lived his life). His dream is oversimplified, idealized and a fantasy. His solution to dealing with complex modern life and relationships is to not deal with them all and just run away.

He calls Sally a pain in the ass and makes her cry and he laughs at her like a madman. Holden is losing touch with reality and unable to deal with life. His date with Sally shows how ill-equipped he is to deal with real people and situations. Sally is not a complex character, yet Holden fails to connect with her and offends her.Slide38

Chapter Eighteen and NineteenIt is late afternoon or very early evening on Sunday. Holden telephones Carl Luce, whom he knew during his days at the

Whooton School. Carl is three years older and was his student adviser. They agree to meet for a drink at the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel at 10:00 p.m. With time to kill, and since he is there already, he attends a stage show and movie at Radio City Music Hall. He sees the

Rockettes

, the Christmas pageant, and a war film. At the bar, Holden manages to get served, this time, even though he is underage. When Luce arrives, he reveals that he is dating an older woman, a Chinese sculptress in her late thirties who lives in Greenwich Village. He leaves for a date after having drinks with Holden.Slide39

NotesOnce again, Holden is shown to be a hypocrite when he goes to see a movie at Radio City.

He calls the Christmas show phony and says Jesus would have puked if he had seen it.We see Holden’s attention to detail and compassion for the underdog when he discusses his love for the kettle drum player.He is annoyed by the lady in the movie who cries like a phony over the movie but it not kind enough to let her child go the bathroom.

He ends the chapter with a death wish. If there was another war, he says he would sit on top of the atomic bomb. Sounds like frightened bravado we have seen him display before (with Maurice and

Stradlater

).Slide40

Holden is uncomfortable with sexuality, especially homosexuality. Holden shows hints of homophobic views. He wonders if Carl Luce is a “flit”. He is terrified that he may suddenly turn gay.

He is supposed to be meeting Carl Luce for an “intellectual” conversation, but all Holden talks about is sex in an immature way. Carl a couple times that Holden hasn’t changed and is still immature and should see a psychoanalyst.Holden gets upset that Carl called his former lover a whore and defends her honour. Once again we see Holden’s compassion and protection or women. He also says that sex should be meaningful.

He is desperate for Carl to stay. With each failure to connect, he loses faith in himself and withdraws deeper into his cynicism.Slide41

Holden wants Luce to give him some kind of guidance and insight into adult sexuality, but his attempts are clumsy and immature, and Luce refuses to interact with him the same way they had in the past.Slide42

Chapter TwentyHolden stays at the bar and gets quite drunk. He decides to telephone Jane Gallagher but calls Sally Hayes instead. She tells him to go home and go to bed. Holden strikes up a conversation with the piano player. He tells Holden to go home and go to bed. Holden asks the hatcheck girl for a date. She tells him to go home and go to bed. Ignoring the unanimous advice, Holden heads for Central Park to look for the ducks. The search is in vain, and he manages to break Phoebe's record in the process. Holden reflects on Allie's funeral, which he could not attend because he was in the hospital with his broken hand (and possibly for emotional evaluation). His memory of Allie's grave at the cemetery depresses him. Finally, he decides to sneak home and visit Phoebe in case he dies, too.Slide43

Holden continues his desperate attempts to connect when he tries to connect with the singer at the bar Valencia, the piano player, the hat check girl and calls Sally.

His actions get increasingly manic. He gets very drunk and starts to pretend he has a bullet in his stomach again. He starts crying in the bar without knowing why, goes to Central park in the freezing cold with his head soaking wet looking for ducks.On the way he drops and breaks the record of “Little Shirley Beans” that he had bought for Phoebe. This symbolically represents the broken state that Holden is in, and his broken innocence/childhood. Notice that he doesn’t throw the broken pieces of the record away though (possible healing or redemption?).Slide44

His morbid fascination with death is shown again when he starts thinking he will die of pneumonia (there are hunks of ice in his hair) and imagines his funeral and how phony it would be. This leads him into reflection on Allie’s death. He carries around guilt that he didn’t attend Allie’s funeral (he was in the hospital).

Very cynical: “Who wants flowers when your dead? Nobody”. Hurts him to visit Allie’s grave in the rain because it reminds him that everyone else can get in out of the rain and go home but Allie cannot.Slide45

Though Holden does not mention his imbalances, we can see how little control he has over his situation and himself and the danger he is in.

His thoughts about Allie’s death may lie at the root of his manic behaviour. Allie is gone forever and Holden does not believe in the afterlife. He is troubled and threatened by unexplained disappearances (the ducks).The pond itself is also a symbol for Holden and for the world as Holden sees it: “partly frozen and partly not frozen”, in a transitional state between childhood and adulthood

. His curiosity about the ducks also reveals a childlike quality; a willingness to pay attention to details that are usually ignored (a quality he shares with his siblings). Holden associates adulthood with an unwillingness to explore mysterious questions, but there are many questions he is unwilling to explore himself. He never questions what the duck pond means to him or why memories of Allie’s death bothers him.Slide46

Chapter Twenty OneHolden wants to visit Phoebe at the family apartment, in the middle of the night, without his parents' knowledge. Fortunately, there is a new elevator operator on duty who does not recognize him. Holden pretends to be visiting the

Dicksteins who have an apartment on the same floor as his parents. Using his key to enter, Holden sneaks to Phoebe's room only to realize that she now is sleeping in D.B.'s room because he is away in Hollywood; she likes the huge desk and bed. Holden peruses items on her desk, by lamplight, until he wakens Phoebe. She reveals that their parents are out for the evening and will return very late. The maid is in the apartment to care for the girl. As they talk, Phoebe guesses that Holden has been expelled and concludes that their father will kill him. Upset, she hides her head under a pillow. Holden goes to the living room for cigarettes.Slide47

NotesHolden’s idealization of kids is shown: kids look “alright” when they’re sleeping but adults look “lousy”. He calls Phoebe intelligent, neat, and pretty. Her only flaw is she is too affectionate sometimes. Just being with Phoebe and looking at her things Holden starts feeling better and no longer feels like he’s getting pneumonia. He finally feels some safety from the brutality of the outside world. He enjoys reading her notebooks because they are not phony and are pure. Slide48

The fact that Phoebe puts the pieces of the broken record in her drawer is significant (if the broken record represents a broken Holden maybe Phoebe will be a part of his healing and recovery).

Phoebe gets very upset with Holden for failing school again and says “Daddy’ll kill you”. He says he is going to run away to a ranch in Colorado. Slide49

Chapter Twenty TwoPhoebe continues to be terribly upset over Holden's dismissal from

Pencey Prep. She is sure that their father will be very upset with her brother. Holden says he'll merely be sent to a military school, if he is still around; he plans to head for Colorado to work on a ranch. Holden tries to explain to Phoebe what a terrible place

Pencey

is. He doesn't like anything there. But she concludes that he doesn't like anything

anywhere

 and challenges him to name one thing that he likes. Holden tries to focus on the issue, but his mind drifts. Phoebe interrupts and repeats the challenge to think of one thing that Holden likes. He says he likes Allie, but Phoebe counters that Allie is dead and doesn't count. He says he likes talking with 

her

, but Phoebe answers, "That isn't anything 

real

ly." Phoebe changes the topic and asks Holden to name something he would like to 

be

. After some consideration, he says he would like to be the catcher in the rye and explains to her what that means to him.Slide50

NotesHolden rants about how much he hated

Pencey and all the phonies there. The old man giving Holden advice on Veterans day bothers him because he has no goals for his future. He told Holden to get the most that he could out of Pencey which depresses him because he got nothing out of it.

Phoebe’s comment is significant “You don’t like anything that’s happening”.

When she asks him to name one thing that he likes all he can think of are the nuns he met and a boy that committed suicide at Elkton Hills, James Castle. James had said something about another boy and wouldn’t take it back. The other boys attacked him (in a “repulsive” way) so he jumped out the window. Holden hardly even knew James but he died wearing Holden’s turtleneck sweater.

He says he likes Allie and talking to her. Holden says just because someone’s dead doesn’t mean you h, have to stop liking them. Clearly, he is not over Allie’s death and he puts Allie on a pedestal and compares everyone else to him. He also cannot relate to anyone alive (except Phoebe), which shows how hard it is for him to deal with real life.Slide51

When Phoebe challenges him and tries to make him face the fact t see that he is failing in life and not enjoying anything, his mind avoids the issue by thinking about James. His mind is increasingly preoccupied with childhood and childhood death.

Holden wants to be a “catcher in the rye”. The rye field is a symbol of childhood. The rye is so high that children are unable to see beyond the borders of childhood. Standing on the boundary of what separates childhood from adulthood, Holden wants to protect kids from falling off the cliff of adulthood and becoming corrupted. Trapped between two states, Holden wants to be a saviour of the innocence missing in the world, a world that let him fall over the cliff into adulthood alone.Slide52

“

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.”Slide53

“Comin’ Thro’ the Rye”

Holden misreads the Robert Burns poem/song and mistakes “meet a body” for “catch a body”. The song is essentially asking if causal sex in a rye field is ok. Thus, meet means encountering a sexual partner or even having sex with them. Casual sex is precisely the type of sex that Holden finds upsetting. By “catching” kids, he wants to protect them from corruption and sex. Thus, what the song means to Holden is the exact opposite of what the song is truly about.Slide54

With Holden and Phoebe, who is the adult and who is the child? She is the one to lecture him and confront him with his failure.

Why does Holden relate to James (a boy who killed himself rather than take back something he said)? His is an example of innocence destroyed and he stuck to his principles and beliefs (something Holden believes in and tries to practice-ex-with Maurice). Note that James fell to his death (nobody “caught” him).Slide55

Chapter Twenty ThreeOn the telephone, Mr.

Antolini tells Holden to come right over if he wants. Holden returns to D.B.'s room, now inhabited by Phoebe. She has the radio on, and they dance. Holden lights a cigarette, and Phoebe explains how she can fake a fever.Suddenly, they hear their parents entering the apartment. Holden turns out the lamp, jams out the cigarette, and hides in the closet. His mother checks on Phoebe and, smelling the cigarette, scolds her for smoking. After the mother leaves, Phoebe loans Holden her Christmas money, which makes Holden cry. He gives her his treasured red hunting cap and exits down the building's back stairs.Slide56

NotesHolden calls Mr.

Antolini whom he considers the best teacher he ever had. He was the only one who would touch James Castle after he committed suicide and he picked up his body, covered him with his coat and brought him to the infirmary. Holden is a lot like his mother; very nervous and we’re told she never enjoys herself when she goes out. Phoebe tells her mother she took a puff of a cigarette and threw the rest out the window and all her mother does is say she doesn’t like that. Phoebe is only ten! Possibly this type of ineffectual parenting (probably the result of her mental breakdown) is why Holden is so out of control. Phoebe is like Holden in some ways-people are always ruining things for her (the movie and her supper).

Holden starts to cry when Phoebe gives him her Christmas money because it is the first time in the novel that someone has given him something without wanting anything in return.Slide57

Chapter Twenty FourIt is very late when Holden arrives at the

Antolini’s "swanky" apartment on Sutton Place. The couple hosted a party earlier in the evening, and Mr. Antolini is still drinking heavily. Mrs.

Antolini

(Lillian) makes coffee and goes to bed. Holden feels dizzy and has a headache. The coffee does not help Holden. Mr.

Antolini

ignores his coffee and fixes himself another highball. Holden discusses an Oral Expression course, taught by Mr. Vinson at

Pencey

, which Holden failed.

Antolini

defends the instructor.

Mr.

Antolini

is about the same age as Holden's brother, D.B., and usually seems like a great guy. Tonight he wants to discuss pedagogy more than Holden cares to. He also offers long-winded theories concerning Holden that the boy could do without. Holden is very tired. He has slept only two or three hours since Saturday morning, two days ago. It has been an exhausting weekend. He and

Antolini

make up the couch, and Holden falls asleep.

Suddenly, Holden is awakened. He is shocked to find

Antolini

sitting on the floor by the couch, patting Holden's head. Holden becomes very upset and insists on leaving. He decides that Mr.

Antolini

is a pervert.Slide58

Chapter Twenty Five and Twenty Six

It is dawn on Monday as Holden leaves the Antolini’s apartment. He sleeps on a bench at the waiting room in Grand Central Station until about 9 a.m. Having second thoughts about Mr. Antolini's

intentions, he wonders if he should have returned and stayed there. Walking up on Fifth Avenue, searching for an inexpensive restaurant in which to eat breakfast, he suddenly feels very anxious. Every time he steps down off the curb to cross a street, he thinks he may just keep falling and disappear. He asks his dead brother, Allie, to help him. Holden is physically and emotionally exhausted, sweating profusely despite the cold. He is near collapse.

In a final, awkward attempt to save himself, Holden decides to go "way out West" and live as a deaf-mute so he won't have to talk with people. Before leaving, he arranges to say good-bye to Phoebe. While he is with her, he decides to stop running and return home. In a brief final chapter, Holden concludes the story, telling us that he doesn't know what he thinks about everything that has happened, except that he misses the people he has told us about.