CatcherNotes/StdyQs

The Catcher in the Rye Some opening questions:

· Why does this book continue its hold on some people?

· Is Holden still a relevant character in today’s culture? (Is the novel still relevant, or is it outdated?)

· What’s with all of Holden’s digressions? Can we challenge ourselves to make sense out of as many as possible?

(Remember, for the novelist, everything is purposeful.)

Frame: The Narrator’s Present (1950)

The Narrator’s Past: Flashback(1949, before Christmas)

Ch. 1

2-14

15-24

PRESENT

SAT

afternoon and night

SUN

morning, afternoon, and night

MON

morning and afternoon

PRESENT

California

Rest home

Pencey>NYC

NYC

California

Rest home

Chapter 1: Key Points

Holden’s Character

· Holden’s Sensitivity saying good-bye

o “chucking the football around” (4)

· Holden’s Disillusionment

o D.B. Sold himself to Hollywood

· Holden hates the movies.

o Why might someone hate the movies?

· Pencey

o The headmaster is a “phony slob” (3)

o On Selma Thurmer: “she didn’t give you a lot of horse manure about what great guy her father was” (3)

o “Pencey was full of crooks” (4)

o He smokes: “I’m quite a heavy smoker” (5)

• Was out in California after almost having tuberculosis

o Comes from a wealthy home

· Goes to Prep school

· Comments on the Spencers answering their own door (6)

o Tall

· grew six and a half inches last year

Ch. 2

Holden sees himself among the losers playing the game, and chooses not to play by the rules.

· Holden is a “man-child”

o He looks old (tall, gray hair on the right side)

o He occasionally acts younger than he is (acts 13, or 12)

· His note to Mr. Spencer suggests a nice-guy drop-out.

· He cares about innocent ducks; he’s very distractable (and will likely be throughout the narration)

Ch. 3

Holden is a liar

“I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life” (16)

Holden is smart; has not flunked out because of lack of brains

He loves to read; he’s considered a good writer by one of his teachers.

Holden is a hunter

He buys a red hunter’s hat; tells Ackley that he hunts people
Turns it backward, like a baseball catcher, pulls it over his eyes

Ch. 4

Stradlater is a “secret slob;” perhaps so is Holden somehow
Holden declares his fondness of Jane Gallagher

She doesn’t move her kings
He’s anxious
Not in the mood to go down to see her
Her date with Stradlater makes him “sort of nervous” (he pulls his hunter’s cap down) (34)

Ch. 5

The Snowball and the Ca

Reread the short passage on the bottom of page 36. Why is this scene important?

Allie and Holden’s response to his death

Holden writes about Allie’s mitt, which had poems written all over it, in green ink
A great kid
“the most intelligent member in the family” and “also the nicest, in lots of ways” (38)
Died of leukemia at eleven years old, when Holden was thirteen
Holden “broke all the windows in the garage” the night he died (39)
His parents “were going to have” him psychoanalyzed.

Ch. 6

Holden fights with Stradlater, loses.

He hits Stradlater just after he asks him if he gave her “the time” (had sex with her).

What is the connection among Jane, Allie, the car in the snow, and the ducks?

Ch. 7

Holden is lonely

Thoughts of suicide

“I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead” (48)
“…I felt like jumping out the window” (48)

Holden decides to leave Pencey early…

“Sleep tight, ya’ morons!” (52)

…and slips on some peanut shells (52)

Ch. 8

Holden lies to a schoolmate’s mother on the train to New York.

Gives a favorable report of her “biggest bastard” son, Ernest Morrow
Lies about his name, health, family

Ch 9 KEY POINTS

Holden is still lonely

Wants to call someone, thinks for twenty minutes (59)

D.B.—Hollywood
Phoebe—parents
Jane--not in the mood
Sally Hayes--her mother
Carl Luce--didn’t like him

Holden is still interested in the ducks
Holden has sex on the brain

What he sees through the window

Gray-haired cross-dresser (61)
A drunk couple squirting water/liquor at each other

Comments on crumby stuff (Reread page 62-3)
Not in the mood for Jane
Faith Cavendish-- “wasn’t exactly a whore or anything but that didn’t mind doing it once in a while”

Chs 10-11 KEY POINTS

Holden thinks about three females

Phoebe--creative, smart, young, innocent

“sort of” red hair, short, like Allie’s; ten years old
Hazle Weatherfield

An orphan detective with a twenty-year-old father who “keeps showing up” (60)

The Seattle tourists--superficial (looking for movie stars), too old for Holden

The Blonde is some dancer--Bernice Krebs

Jane--creative, smart, a combination of innocence and maturity

Good athlete--tennis, golf
Her stepfather, Mr. Cudahy;
and Holden (Reread 78-80)

The hand in the movie theater

Ch 12 KEY POINTS

The ducks again

Old Horwitz the cabdriver

Holden’s judgments at the club-- “surrounded by jerks” (85)

Ernie the piano player\
The funny-looking couple; Joe Yale-looking guy
Lillian Simmons and the Navy guy
Final line: “People are always ruining things for you” (87)

Ch 13 KEY POINTS

· Holden is lonely and depressed

o the walk back to the hotel--41 blocks

o The hunting cap goes on (“I didn’t give a damn how it looked” [88].)

o Holden thinks he’s a coward, or “partly yellow”

· “I think maybe I’m just partly yellow an partly the type that doesn’t give much of a damn if they lose their gloves…I never seem to have anything that if I lost it I’d care too much” (89)

o “I almost wished I was dead” (90).

· Holden is sensitive and innocent

o He respects the girl’s “Stop.” (See page 92)

o the violin (93)

· Encounter with Sunny

o “young as hell,” Holden’s age

o “Sexy was about the last thing I was feeling. I felt much more depressed than sexy” (95)

o The green dress (96)

Ch 14 KEY POINTS

• Holden is depressed and “talks” to Allie

o apologizes for B.B. gun trip (99)

• Christianity/Religion

• Holden is “sort of an atheist”; has trouble praying

• criticizes the Disciples

• Favorite character: the lunatic who cuts himself (99)

• Holden hits the bottom--Maurice and Sunny

• gets punched over five dollars--Why doesn’t Holden just give in? (103)

• Cries

• has violent thoughts

• Imagines being shot, then shooting Maurice, then being saved by…Jane.

• considers suicide (104)

Ch 15 KEY POINTS

• A New Day: Holden makes contact

– (“not in the mood” for Jane) makes a date with Sally Hayes

Why does Holden choose to call Sally over Jane?

– meets nuns, talks literature

• ***Romeo and Juliet*--Mercutio is Holden’s favorite**

• An interesting contact with Catholicism

• Info on Holden’s parents

– dad is wealthy

– mom hasn’t “felt too healthy” since Allie’s death

• Holden speaks on status and suitcases

– “It’s really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are better than theirs” (109)

· “Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell” (113)

Ch 16 Key Points: Holden feels less depressed

· Holden continues thinking about the nuns

· “That’s what I liked about those nuns. You could tell…they never went anywhere swanky for lunch” (114).

· Holden wants to buy a record for Phoebe, “Little Shirley Beans” (Estelle Fletcher, 1929?)

· “about a little kid that wouldn’t go out of the house because two of her front teeth were out and she was ashamed to” (114).

· The title of the book is introduced--Holden sees the little boy singing the song (115)

· the song, “Comin' through the Rye” introduces the title but the boy sings the words differently

· Walking in the street, beside the curb; “cars zoomed by, brakes screeched…parents paid no attention”

· “It made me feel not so depressed any more.”

· Holden feels less depressed

· Finally, Holden calls Jane! (But her mother answers and he hangs up.) (116)

· Holden hates actors. (He hates plays less than movies.) (117)“They never act like people. They just think they do.”

· Holden looks for Phoebe and meets some nice kids.

· “God, I love it when a kid’s nice and polite when you tighten their skate for them or something” (119).

· Holden remembers the safety of the Museum of Natural History and takes out his hunting hat

· “the only nice, dry, cozy place in the world” (120)

· “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move…Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you” (121).

· Holden walks there but at the end of the chapter, he doesn’t feel like going in.

Ch 17 Key Points: Holden’s Date with Sally

• (First, Harris Macklin, the whistler

o “So I don’t know about bores…(M)abye they’re secretly all terrific whistlers or something. Who the hell knows? Not me” (124).)

• Holden says he loves Sally in the cab.

o “It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it. I’m crazy. I swear to God I am” (125)

o The date:

• A play with the Lunts at the Biltmore

o about “five hundred thousand years in the life of this one old couple”(125)

o Sally’s phony conversation with George during intermission and after the play

• Ice Skating at Radio City Music Hall

• Holden’s Confession to Sally at the Restaurant by the Skating Rink

o Holden shares his problem, his frustrations, with Sally (130-131; 133)

o “Hey, Sally…Did you ever get fed up?”

o Sally: “ ‘Don’t shout, please.’ Which was very funny, because I wasn’t even shouting” (130)

§ “I’m in bad shape. I’m in lousy shape” (130)

• Holden has an idea to “get the hell out of here.”

o Go to New England and “live somewhere with a brook and all…and later on, we could get married” (132)

§ “Stop screaming at me please.”

§ Sally says wait; to Holden, waiting would be entirely different.

· “We’d have to go downstairs in elevators with suitcases and stuff…It wouldn’t be the same at all” (133)

· The date ends with “You give me a royal pain in the ass” and a noisy laugh.

· “The terrible part, though, is that I meant it when I asked her…I swear to God I’m a madman” (134)

Ch 18 Key Points

• Holden again calls Jane (to ask her dancing)--no answer.

• Al Pike and Bob Robinson

§ “The trouble with girls is…if they like a boy…they’ll say he has an inferiority complex (if he’s a bastard), and if they don’t like him, they’ll say he’s conceited (even if he’s a nice guy) (136).

• Calls Carl Luce (they’ll meet at the Wicker Bar at 10:00 p.m.

• On three others in his phone book: Jane, his father’s office, and Mr. Antolini

• The kettle-drum player (Jesus would’ve liked him)

§ “he never looks bored when he’s doing it” (138).

• What to make of the plot of the movie Holden sees (138-139)

§ Alec has two personalities

§ “All I can say is, don’t see it if you don’t want to puke all over yourself” (139).

§ The phony woman sitting beside Holden--crying at the movie, being mean to her kid

• D.B. was in the Army, “landed on D-Day and all”

§ He hated the Army and the war

19 Key Points: Holden Meets Carl Luce at the Wicker Bar

(“Flits”--Holden’s comments on homosexuals)

Holden’s can’t get someone to listen: “I need your advice. I’m in a terrific--” (144).

People aren’t listening to him (Mr. Spencer, the cabdrivers, Sally, Luce

Carl Luce sees Holden as immature

“When the hell are you going to grow up?” (146) (Luce’s pretentiousness, however, shows his immaturity)

“Your mind is immature” (147).

Luce’s advice: See a psychoanalyst.

“(H)e’d help you to recognize the patterns of your mind” (148).

Holden begs Luce to stay: “Please, I’m lonesome as hell. No kidding” (149)
Carl Luce is compared to Holden

both are hypocritical
both are confused about adulthood

Ch 20 Key Points

Holden is drunk at the bar (“could hardly see straight (150)

He again fantasizes about being wounded--”the bullet in my guts again”
He feels like calling Jane, but then again chooses Sally (150)

Another emotional low: he is soaking wet, drunk in the bathroom, then crying in the hatcheck room (152-3)

“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” (153)

Something terrible: Holden drops Phoebe’s record on the way to the park (154). A metaphor?

He keeps the pieces, “didn’t feel like throwing them away”

The ducks once again: lake is “partly frozen and partly not frozen; no ducks” (154)
Holden thinks about death--his own and Allie’s (155)

Holden mentions he missed Allie’s funeral while at the hospital for his hurting his hand.

Ch 21 Key Points: Holden Sneaks Home, Sees Phoebe in first of Three Chapters

Phoebe is beautifully asleep in D.B.’s room
The importance of the movie that Phoebe sees
Innocence is protected (162)
Phoebe keeps the broken record pieces (164)
Phoebe doesn’t listen to Holden (165)

She puts a pillow over her head., so as not to listen to Holden’s reasons for getting kicked out of school.

Coming Through the Rye, by Robert Burns

O, Jenny's a' weet, poor body;

Jenny's seldom dry;

She draiglet a' her petticoatie

Coming thro' the rye.

Chorus:

Coming thro' the rye, poor body,

Coming thro' the rye,