Chapter 15

In Chapter 15 , Holden dwindles his time with incredibly nonsensical reminiscing about suitcases and conversation with two nuns while he waits for his date with Sally. But looking at it again, perhaps his conversation with the nuns isn't as pointless as it seems, and I believe that the dialogue between Holden and the nun,who is an English teacher, about Romeo and Juliet really draws out the true wishes of Holden and his lasting depression of Allie's death. Holden's obsession of Mercutio is definitely with purpose, and Holden's choice of character is something that a reader of Catcher in the Rye should not miss. Mercutio is tragic character in Romeo and Juliet, killed, as stated in Catcher, by Tybalt. Holden blames it on Romeo because in the story, Mercutio expects Romeo to engage in duel with Tybalt after being sent a death threat by him. However Romeo refuses, as Tybalt is the kinsman of Juliet, the object of this love and downfall. Mercutio then proceeds to challenge Tybalt by himself, protective of his friend, Romeo, but is killed in the resulting conflict. Thus, Holden blames his death on Romeo. What strikes me here, however, is the resemblance of Holden to Mercutio, as both are outspoken and given to sudden bursts of anger. Mercutio's sense of speaking can sometimes be quite offensive, and hurt his/her friends, just like how Holden insulted Sally on his date with her and made her cry. Therefore, it is not surprising for Holden to be attracted to Mercutio, whose character is much like his own. Looking deeper, it is possible to also cast Allie on Mercutio in terms of personality, but primarily in terms of development of the story and the effect of his death on the rest of the characters in the play. As previously stated, Mercutio can be seen as sort of free-willed character, and his jokes and lightheartedness  brighten the mood of the play. This is similar to Allie, who Holden describes as a very bright child, who everyone loved and praised. However once he is killed, Romeo takes a turn for the worse and becomes like many other characters in the play, depressed, and misfortune strikes him more than ever, just like Holden after the death of Allie. His thoughts on page 145, "...it drives me crazy if somebody gets killed - especially somebody very smart and entertaining and all - and it's somebody else's fault", really show this comparison between Mercutio's role in Romeo and Juliet and Allie's role in Catcher. I put "crazy" in bold because a reoccurring motif in Catcher is Holden's several thoughts of himself as a madman. Likewise, "and it's somebody else's fault" is important because it implies that Holden attributes blame to someone or himself for Allie's death. Who do you think that Holden blames for Allie's death? Also, at the end of Holden's releasing of his inner feelings, the nun changes the subject, and attempts to get away from the topic of Romeo and Juliet, which Holden notices, another example of a seeking of help from Holden and its failure. Do you think that the nun realizes that Holden gives the death of Mercutio unnecessary large thought, and that Holden is trying to say something about himself to her? If so, why does she change the subject instead of helping him?

Chapter 22

Holden has what I like to call “I’m emotional, but I can’t tell anyone, or it will seem more real syndrome”, and for him it is awful. In chapter 22, Holden is still trying to convince Phoebe that their father is not going to kill him, and he might go live on a ranch in Colorado. At a certain point, Phoebe says, “Why don’t you like anything that’s happening?” Holden tries to persuade her that he does like things, such as talking to her and Allie. He denies his own self-professed depression and loneliness to tell her he likes plenty of things.Phoebe quickly points out that Allie is dead, so it “doesn’t count” as something Holden can like. I think that is the root of the problem. It’s healthy for Holden to miss Allie, and to wish he were still alive, but to associate Allie as a thing that is either real or imaginary is something else. Holden still thinks of Allie as something that affects his everyday life. As if he were to see a hat Allie would have liked and bought it for him, without realizing Allie could never wear the hat. That is the same way I think Holden sees Allie. Do you agree with me, or do you think he’s just an over emotional teenager or has some other problem? Do you think it was a mistake for him to go see Phoebe, or did it actually make him feel better? Why?

Chapter 20: Holden's Maturity

In chapter 20, we see that Holden gets drunk after Luce leaves the bar. While in the bar, Holden tries to make a date with the singer, named Valencia. In seminar today, someone mentioned that since teenagers feel they are so close to freedom, they sometimes start doing things adults do, such as drinking and smoking. This was, and still is, very common. It is just a universal condition: teenagers are trying to get to full freedom, but they are not quite there yet. However, due to what we have learned about Holden, it seems like he does not want to grow up and become "unpure" Do you think that Holden is being somewhat contradictory? How does this side of Holden change your views of Holden? Is it possible that Holden does actually wants to grow up?
In this chapter, even though Holden gets drunk, he still acts like a child. What are some of the examples in this chapter where Holden still acts like a child?Do you find Holden's feelings in this chapter relatable? Why or why not?
Also, while Holden was at the duckpond in Central Park nearing the end of this chapter, he decided to go home. Do you think Holden has fully thought this through? How do you feel his decision reflects his maturity? Do you think this shows any change in maturity since the beginning of the book?

We see in chapter 19 that Holden meets up with his old Student Advisor, Luce, at the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel. Even though Luce can't stay at the bar for too long, Holden has a conversation with Luce asking him about what he's been doing since they both went to the Whooton School together. Luce is very limiting on the information he gives to Holden. He refuses to talk about his sex life and answer any questions that Holden has about sex. Holden reflects on the talks that Old Luce would give Holden and his peers in the dorm room and talks with them about sex. Knowing that Holden has a pet-peeve with purity, he felt that the talks were so awkward and weird. Holden also describes how Old Luce can name any "Joe Blow" that is a flit.

We also see Holden come close to another chance t finally open up with somebody. Holden asks Luce to "Please have one more drink, I'm lonely as hell.."(pg.149). We see Holden admit that he has nobody to talk to, and can infer that he is all by himself in New York. What do you think caused Holden to finally at least admit to Luce that he was lonely? Why? Would you predict that Holden will ever open up to anybody later in the book?

Movie at Radio City

          In chapter 18, after Holden leaves the skating rink, he gets hungry so he decides to call up an old friend of his to have dinner, Carl Luce.  He wasn't able to have dinner but he said he would meet up with him at 10:00 pm at the Wicker Bar to get a drink. Holden had a while to wait until then, so he decided to go watch a movie at Radio City.  He walked in on the Rockettes and while he was waiting for the movie to start, he kept on getting annoyed at little things during the show. He kept on going on about how the movies was phony.
          The movie started after a while, and it was about this boy, Alec, who lost his memory in war and started a new life. When he came out of the hospital, he met this girl on a train and they fell in love with each other,  and he started a new life with her. But one day his fiancee, from before he lost his momory, saw him at a store autographing his books, and told him that he is really a Duke and he need to visit his mother. He doesnt want to listen to her, but the love of his life tells him to listen to her and go with her. Finally one day he was watching some kids playing cricket, and he gets hit in the head with the ball. This made him regain his memory and forget all about the girl he fell in love with one the train.
        This movie was phony, in Holden's opinion of course, but there was a lady sitting next to  him which thought it was very touching. She was cring throught the whole show. She had a little boy sitting next to her that needed to go to the restroom  and was bored as hell, but she wouldn't take him. This makes Holden think she is not kindhearted. To me,  her crying would make me feel bad for her because either she just gets sentimental about things like war, or she lost a loved one in war. Do you think that Holden had the wrong impression that she was kindhearted? Why? Or do you agree with me that she could have lost someone in war, so she was very sentimental.

Chapter 19 Holden in the Bar.

In chapter 19 In The Catcher in the Rye Holden visits a bar he used to go to, so he can meet up with a old high school friend.  He does his usual deep background story, about the location and a short summary about Luce, the guy he is going to meet.  Before Luce arrives he drinks his scotch and soda alone at the bar staring at other people for quite a while.  When Luce finally arrives at the bar Holden tries to talk to him about things like his sex life and his past girlfriends and current girlfriend, which Luce does not want to talk about.  Then Holden tries to ask for advice and he gets cut off.  Luce then recommends that he talks to his father because he is a psychoanalyst.  Luce thinks that he is going to go off on a crazy rant about something and he tells him to calm down.  Holden is very obsessed with Luce’s girlfriend and wants to know her age, her religion, her nationality and her job.  I can tell that Luce is very annoyed with this.  Why do you think that Luce shuts down Holden, when he is asking for help?  Do you think that they had gone through this before at one of Holden’s older schools?

Ch.21 Phoebe Caulfield

In this chapter, Holden decides to sneak into his apartment to see Phoebe, his little sister. He sneaks in, and once he gets to D.B's room, he wakes her up so they could talk. As we all know, Holden has been thinking about talking to Phoebe for a very long time now. This proves that he actually missed her, even more than he misses his own parents. Before he wakes her up, we learn a lot more about Phoebe. We learn that she sleeps in D.B's room because she likes the space, we learn that she's a very organized person, she's really smart, she's in a school play called The Christmas Pageant, and we also learn that she constantly changes her middle names when she writes them down. When Holden wakes her up, she's very happy to see him, and she immediately tells him about many things that happened while he was gone. But later, she figures out that Holden was kicked out of school, even though he never really said it. How do you think she knew this? And why do you think she got so upset when she learned this, saying "Daddy's gonna kill you."(pg. 165) over and over again? Try to think from Phoebe's point of view. Do you think she feels sorry for Holden? How would you describe her relationship with her siblings, especially Holden?