Catcher In The Rye

The novel covers a few important days in the life of the protagonist Holden Caulfield, a tall, skinny, highly critical and depressed teenager who academically flunked out of Pencey Prep, a boarding school. Holden is 17 when he tells the story; he was 16 when the events occurred. Because he is so critical of others, and points out their faults only to exhibit them himself later, Holden is widely considered to be an unreliable narrator [citation needed], and the details and events of his story are apt to be distorted by his point of view. His penchant for wild exaggeration only serves to exacerbate this.

His story starts on Holden's last day at Pencey Prep. He is standing on the crest of a hill that overlooks the football field. It is the final game of the season, but Holden has never cared much for established tradition. He instead runs across the street to the residence of Mr. Spencer, his history teacher. It is revealed here that Holden has been expelled, and that he doesn't particularly care. Mr. Spencer is disappointed in Holden, and lectures to him about the importance of hard work and education. Holden becomes annoyed and lies about having to remove some equipment from the gym to get out of the discussion.

Back at the dorm, Holden talks to his roommate, Ward Stradlater, a tall, good-looking ladies' man. Holden sees him very differently, describing him as a "secret slob" because he would shave and groom himself for women, but doesn't bother to clean the dirty, rusty razor he uses to do so. Stradlater returns home late from a date with Jane Gallagher, one of Holden's childhood friends toward whom he has had a long-standing attraction. During Stradlater's date, Holden had been told by Stradlater to write an essay for him on "a room or something", as the exact topic was never explicitly stated, but as long as it was descriptive Stradlater says. Holden finds inspiration in writing about his late brother Allie's baseball mitt. Allie was Holden's younger brother who died of leukemia and had written poetry in green ink on his mitt so that in the outfield he could have something to read. When Stradlater returns and finds what Holden has written about, he gets annoyed. Holden tears up the essay out of anger. A short while later, Holden inquires Stradlater what he did on his date. Stradlater refuses to answer his questions, specifically whether he had sex with Jane Gallagher. Holden becomes infuriated and tries to hit his unsuspecting roommate. Stradlater easily wins the fight, as Holden himself is not particularly strong, but also in part claims to be a pacifist. Holden repeatedly comes back to the question of whether Stradlater did anything sexual with Jane. The date between Stradlater and Jane took place in the back seat of the basketball coach, Ed Banky's, car.

His socially inept neighbor, Robert Ackley (called Ackley for short), is also introduced. Ackley's relationship with Holden is fairly complex: On one hand, Holden expresses disgust at his hygiene, acne, and personality, yet spends time with him of his own free will; he is drawn to Ackley because there is nobody else, going to movies and having snowball fights with him even though he comments on how abrasive Ackley is.

That night, considering everything, especially the fact that he will be leaving Pencey very soon anyway, Holden packs a suitcase and leaves Pencey before the actual last day of school, and decides to stay in New York for the remainder of the period. En route, Holden meets the mother of one of his schoolmates, Ernest Morrow. This schoolmate is an antisocial bully, but Holden decides to lie to the mother because she was seemingly very attractive despite her age. He tells her that her son is a terrific young man and very friendly, and that when other students wanted to nominate him for class president, he humbly refused the honor. Holden tells Mrs. Morrow that his name is Rudolf Schmidt, who in reality is the dorm janitor. She is also the first person Holden asks out for a drink since his exodus from Pencey. However, like most of his encounters, she declines the offer.

Arriving at New York, Holden checks into the Edmont Hotel where he becomes increasingly disappointed by his surroundings, "screwballs all over the place." Having nothing much to do, he calls up a girl, Faith Cavendish, whom he was totally unacquainted with (a friend of a friend), to meet her for a drink, despite it being very late. She also says no. Unable to get comfortable, Holden goes down to the lobby downstairs in the Lavender Room to relax, trying his best to fit in with most of the older people. He makes a move on the young women sitting in the table nearest him, but they only laugh at him. Eventually they give in and Holden dances with each one of them. He enjoys the night but notes many times to himself they have almost nothing in common, thus plugging any opportunity to further a relationship.

Holden continues to wander New York City encountering more people in the midst, each escapade leaving him somewhat more depressed than before. Many times in between chapters, he remembers nostalgically of him and Jane doing various things to keep himself calm. As he becomes increasingly lonely and depressed, he takes another cab to a different bar, Ernie's, to get drunk. Typically he derides this one too saying there were too many phonies in there. He is forced to leave when he accidentally runs into his brother's annoying ex-girlfriend.

Back at the hotel, Holden encounters the elevator boy, Maurice, who offers to send up a prostitute to his room for five bucks. In a rather rash decision, he accepts the offer hoping the experience will cheer him up. But when the young girl, Sunny, comes to his room, Holden cannot bring himself to have sex with her, feeling much too depressed. He tells Sunny he is recuperating from a surgical operation on his clavichord, an obvious play on clavicle and spinal cord, and pays her, instead, to sit down and keep him company for a while. Later, she leaves, only to return with Maurice shortly after, who intimidates Holden and uses brute force to hustle an extra five bucks from him.

The next day, he makes a date with one of his previous girlfriends, Sally Hayes. They attend a matinee performance of The Lunts and later go ice skating at Radio City Music Hall, but retire indoors to talk once their ankles tire. Their conversation soon turns into a fight and the experience leaves him more depressed, as he realizes that they

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