The New York Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History

In chapter 16 of, "The Catcher in the Rye," Holden decides to go looking for his sister Phoebe. He sees a little girl sitting on a park bench, and decides to ask her if she knows Phoebe. The little girl does know her, and she tells Holden that Phoebe is probably on a school trip at the Museum of Natural History. The American Museum of Natural History in New York City contains twenty-five buildings, forty-six exhibition halls, several research laboratories, a well-known library, and more than thirty-two million varieties of minerals and gems. Holden knows that Phoebe shouldn't be on a school trip because it's a Sunday, but he decides to head to the museum anyways. On his way to the museum, Holden reminisces about the days when he was Phoebe's age, and used to go on field trips to the museum. He mentions his favorite exhibit about Indians, "Sometimes we looked at the animals and sometimes we looked at the stuff the Indians had made in ancient times. Pottery and straw baskets and all stuff like that." (pg. 119).   His class always had to walk through this exhibit to get to the auditorium which was always showing a presentation on Columbus. Holden goes on to talk about the exhibit until he reaches the museum, but he decides not to go in. Why do you think Holden admires the Indian exhibit so much? Why did Holden decide to not go in the museum? Did it have anything to do with his field trips as a child? Explain.

Chapter 15

In Chapter 15 of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden wonders how a nun could teach English when it involves book with "lovers and all". One book he mentions that he read was The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. Written in 1887, this book became a classic. He mentions a character named Eustacia Vye. Eustacia is a woman who wants to see the world, but is stuck in a small village. To reach her goal, she marries a man she believes to be worldly to sweep her away to Paris. Unfortunately, he lets her down when he settles down in the very village she means to escape. It is a web of love triangles, accidents, and betrayal that leads to a shocking conclusion. The Return of the Native became a movie in 1994. From the themes stated above, does any of it seem relevant to Holden's situation? Or not at all? Do you think there is any particular reason he brought up this book or why it came to his mind?

Purity

In chapter 14, Holden has a prostitute come to his room. After paying her 5 bucks, she left. Later, Holden gets a knock on the door. Sunny, the prostitute, and Maurice are there demanding 5 more bucks from Holden. He tries to stand up for himself, but instead of sympathy, Holden gets a nasty slap to the stomach along with 5 stolen dollars. After Sunny and Maurice leave, Holden takes a bath and finally gets into bed and tries to fall asleep, even though he wasn't tired. He says that instead of going to bed, he wishes he could have committed suicide. His reason for not going through with that plan was because he didn't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at him when he was all gory. What do you think Holden meant when he said this? Does he actually care about rubbernecks looking at him, or is he just making up excuses? If he isn't making it up, does his issue with people seeing him when he is all gory have to do with his problem with purity? Why or why not? 

Faceless

Perhaps it would easier for Holden if we all looked like this.

At the beginning of chapter 13, Holden walks down the cold streets of New York, talking about his gloves and about how much he wishes that he'd found the rat at Pencey who'd stolen them. He proceeds to admit that he would not have gotten physical with whomever had stolen them, but would have only intimidated them. After describing what the incident would have looked like, he tells us that he doesn't like fist fights. He doesn't, however, appear to have as big of a problem with pushing someone out a window or chopping off their heads with an axe. The problem with fist-fighting, according to him, is seeing someone's face. He even states that 'it wouldn't be so bad if you could both be blindfolded or something' (page 90). I think that Holden's problem isn't with seeing someone's face, but rather realizing he's hitting someone else, seeing fear or anger in their faces. Maybe the reason he's afraid of other's feelings is because he doesn't understand them all that well because he's afraid to share his own. Why do you think Holden is so uncomfortable with seeing people's faces during a fight? Would you feel more uncomfortable with fist-fighting or with pushing someone out a window? Why do you feel this way? Do you think Holden is uncomfortable with his own feeling? Why or why not?

The Hanging Green Dress, Ch. 13

When Holden returns from the Lavender Room, he decides to skip the drinking at the bar and go straight up to his room. He had mentioned he felt lonely and a little depressed. But then, the elevator operator asks him if he's interested in a prostitute. Twenty minutes later, a prostitute named Sonny knocks on his door. She seems naive and nervous, almost as nervous as Holden. This isn't the first time we have seen Holden so nervous when talking to or about a girl. For example, Holden got nervous thinking or talking about his neighbor, Jane. Sonny took off her green dress and asked Holden to hang it up. Holden said it made him feel sad. He didn't want anything from Sonny, he just wanted to talk to her during that time she was in his room. If Holden said he was a virgin, I think he only said yes to having the prostitute in his room so he could have someone to talk to so he wouldn't feel so lonely. Why did the hanging green dress make Holden feel sad? What is the dress a metaphor of or what does it symbolize in Holden's life? 

FOILED again.

Think back to last semester about the lesson we had about literary foils. Below is the definition of a foil:

In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character. A foil can be anything that serves by contrast to call attention to another thing's good qualities; "pretty girls like plain friends as foils." Remember too that one definition of foil is "a thin layer of polished metal placed under a displayed gem to lend it brilliance."

In Chapters 4 and 5 of Catcher, how do Robert Ackley and Ward Stradlater act as foils to Holden? How do their respective personalities illuminate something about Holden? What do you think about these characters? Please reference the text directly when possible.

Metaphorize!

Write an effective metaphor for one of the following:

1. Living in Houston
2. Shoes
3. Memory