The Catcher in the Rye Blog 4

In the last section of the book Holden goes on his date with Sally. It's so obvious that he doesn't even like her and claims he loves her when he sees her, probably just because she looked good: "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 feel bad for Sally because Holden just goes out with her because she's good looking and makes her believe he genuinely likes her. He even says he thinks her voice is annoying. Holden claims how he hates things that are corny and over-the-top but Sally is exactly that. It's obvious that he's very immature and doesn't know what he wants. Although it seems that Holden is, or tries to be, down to earth, which I like about him. During the movie Sally sees a guy she knows and they talk for a long time and she completely forgets about Holden, so she must not be too crazy about him either. After the movie they went skating and Holden talks to Sally about running away together. It's obvious that she thinks he's crazy and wants to leave, and I don't blame her. Once Holden gets an idea in his head, no matter how ridiculous, he tries to go through with it and doesn't realize how silly it is.

After the horrible date with Sally, Holden tries to call Jane again. I really wish he would just get together with Jane because it's obvious that he actually cares about her unlike Sally. He calls this guy named Carl Luce and wants to meet up with him for a drink. I think Holden makes up any excuse just to get a drink. Holden starts talking about Carl Luce and how he could tell if people were gay or lesbian. Holden even has his doubts about Carl and thinks he might be a little 'flitty'. It's weird that Holden calls up these people he isn't even close to and really doesn't even like them and tries to go out with them like they have been friends forever. I realize he probably does this because he's lonely and doesn't have that many friends. In a way I feel bad for him because he's alone and can't go home to his family but then again it's his own fault he's on his own in the first place.

After Holden has a drink with Carl he gets drunk and starts walking all over the city feeling lonely and sorry for himself. He decides to go to his house and visit Phoebe, which probably isn't the best idea since he's drunk. He sneaks in the house and tries not to wake anyone up. He watches Phoebe sleep for a while and then wakes her up. She is excited to see him, but then finds out he got kicked out of school. Then Holden calls up Mr. Antolini and asks to stay with him for a little bit since he has no place to go. Mr. Antolini agrees and then Holden's parents come home. He hides and then Phoebe lends him all of her money. I think that Phoebe is a really good sister and loves her brother a lot because she gets upset when he flunks out of school and lets him borrow all of her Christmas money and I think Holden knows it. He wants to visit her all the time because he knows she loves him and will always love him no matter how many schools he gets kicked out of.

Holden goes to stay at the Antolini's and after he wakes up to find Mr. Antolini petting Holden's head Holden freaks out and leaves immediately. Holden gets another crazy idea to go live in the woods and decides to write a goodbye letter to Phoebe. He meets her in front of a museum and she wants to go with him. He says she can't and she cries and says she won't go to school anymore if he leaves. I think this is the point he realizes he has been foolish failing every school he does to and not caring and setting a bad example for his little sister. He realizes he wants Phoebe to have a good future and not end up like him so he decides to do the mature thing and go back home.

I thought the ending to the story was abrupt, but I thought it fit with the whole story. Holden turns out to be sort of sensitive and says that he misses everyone he's had the chance to meet, even Stradlater and Ackley. I think he learns that life is full of surprises and you never know what's going to happen until it happens.

The Catcher in the Rye Blog 3

In the next part of the story Holden goes back to the hotel. As he gets in the elevator a man named Maurice asks him if he wants a good time. The man asks Holden how old he is and Holden lies and says 22. Holden ends up buying a prostitute for a short amount of time. It's crazy to me that this hotel would have prostitutes available, especially for people that are not being honest about their age, like Holden. I realize that this is probably a low end hotel by the way Holden describes it: "The whole lobby was empty. It smelled like fifty million dead cigars. It really did." The prostitute comes and is ready to get down to business but Holden stalls for a little bit then decides he is scared and not ready for this. He makes up an excuse that he had a recent operation but he will pay her anyway. One thing I did find interesting is that Holden actually felt sorry and sad for the girl: "I took her dress over to the closet and hung it up for her. It was funny. It made me feel sort of sad when I hung it up. I thought of her going in a store and buying it, and nobody in the store knowing she was a prostitute and all. The salesman probably just thought she was a regular girl when she bought it. It made me feel sad as hell--I don't know why exactly." This shows that Holden actually has sympathy for people despite his tough exterior. The fact that he didn't do what he was expected to do with the prostitute showed that he knows right from wrong and he knew it isn't right for this girl to be treated the way she is.

Later on Holden calls up a girl named Sally and asks her out to a movie. It's obvious that he doesn't like her much: "She gave me a pain in the ass, but she was very good-looking." He probably just wants to spend some time with someone he knows, just to feel less lonely. He tries to call Jane, but when her mother answers, he hangs up right away. I think he's afraid that Jane might be home and if he tried to ask her out he might get rejected. That makes it obvious that he really has feelings for Jane and that Holden really has a soft side.

Holden decides to go to Grand Central Station and have some breakfast. There he meets two nuns who are also teachers. One is an English teacher and Holden tells her that English is his best subject. Holden offers to give them ten dollars as a contribution. I think this is ironic because earlier Holden claimed to be an atheist: "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."

I think it's funny that Holden continues to think he's tough and mature, even though he does nice things like donate money and buy a record for his little sister. However, he even admits that he isn't as tough as he would like to be: "I'd have the damn gloves right in my hand and all, but I'd feel I ought to sock the guy in the jaw or something--break his goddam jaw. Only, I wouldn't have the guts to do it. I'd just stand there trying to look tough." I don't know why Holden continues to carry on with this tough guy act when it's obvious it makes him look young and immature. Maybe as the book progresses Holden will realize he is acting very childish when he tries to be an adult and will decide to change his ways.

The Catcher in the Rye Blog 2

In the story Holden and Stradlater get into a big fight when Stradlater comes back from his date with Jane. Holden gets mad because he thinks Stradlater had sex with her and punches him in the face, which shows he has some feelings for Jane. Stradlater tackles Holden and makes him bleed all over the place. After the fight Holden goes into Ackley's room: "I had a feeling old Ackley'd probably heard all the racket and was awake. So I went through the shower curtains into his room, just to see what the hell he was doing." Holden claims that he went in to check on Ackley, but I really think that Holden wanted a friend there for him and wanted someone to comfort him, which his funny considering how much Holden says he can't stand Ackley. I think Ackely is a pretty funny character, especially when it comes to his religion: "I don't care what you say about me or anything, but if you start making cracks about my goddam religion for Chrissake--" Ackley claims that he is very religious but says things like "goddam" and "Chrissake". It's pretty ironic to me. I also think that Ackley is pretty similar to Holden, especially in the way he talks and curses all the time.

After fighting with Stradlater and getting no comfort from Ackley, Holden decides to leave Pencey for good. Holden takes a bus into New York, where he meets the mother of one of his classmates, Ernest Morrow. He finds the woman very attractive, but then again Holden finds a lot of women attractive, so he's a very hormonal young man. After talking to her for a while, Holden asks her out for a few drinks, which seems crazy because 1) he is too young to buy drinks 2) he just met this woman and 3) she is way too old for Holden. Even though she turned him down I think his attempt was still funny, especially because he kept making up stories to impress her.

After Holden gets off the bus he goes to a trashy hotel. There he goes to a phone booth and calls up this slutty girl one of his friends knows. Again he asks her out for a few drinks but she declines. I think Holden thinks if he buys a woman a few drinks he's going to get lucky, which is probably true considering the women he's asked out already. It's funny that Holden says he doesn't understand sex at all but it's all he thinks about and even though he makes rules for himself, he ends up ignoring them: "Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away."

As the story goes on Holden describes his little sister Phoebe. Again I notice he describes her in a positive and proud way, like he described his brother Allie: "You should see her. You never saw a little kid so pretty and smart in your whole life. She's really smart." I notice that he only talks about Allie, Phoebe and Jane in a good way and everyone else he doesn't really care for. He especially talks about Jane in a good way: "You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were." I think that Holden really cares about Jane and I think he will try to get in contact with her later in the book.