1. Catcher in the Rye
CH Whole Class Notes

2. Sunday Afternoon (around noon)
Chapter
Setting
Event 16
The streets of NYC
Holden thinks about the nuns and how they “never go anywhere swanky for lunch” (114). It makes him sad to think about their sacrifices and their vow of poverty.
Holden buys Phoebe a record “Little Shirley Beans” because he knows she’ll like it.
He sees a little boy walking (his parents aren’t paying attention to him – sounds like Holden) and singing “If a body catch a body coming through the rye” (115) BOOK TITLE SIGHTING and it makes him feel not so depressed.
The Park
Holden tries to find Phoebe (she likes to roller skate in the park). He ends up helping a little girl with her rollers skates (another attempt at human connection)
Museum of Natural History
Holden used to go to the museum as a kid. He reminisces about the different exhibits he remembers and how Phoebe will see those same exhibit when she goes. “Nobody’d move…Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you” (Salinger 121). Holden doesn’t want things to change – fear of growing up/progressing. He never goes in the museum. (inaction)

3. Sunday Afternoon (2:00-5ish)
Chapter
Setting
Event 17
Biltmore
As soon as Holden sees Sally he “felt like marrying her the minute [he] saw her” (Salinger 124) even though he claims he “didn’t even like her much” (124).
They take a cab to the theatre and Holden tells her that he loves her while they are making out.
The Theatre
Sally basically abandons Holden to talk to a guy that she knows (“George”).
Holden says that he “sort of hated old Sally” (Salinger 128) by the time the show was over, but he agrees to go to Radio City to go ice skating.
Radio City Music Hall
Holden reveals to Sally that he basically hates everything and that he’s in “bad shape…lousy shape” (Salinger 131) and that he wants to escape to Massachusetts or Vermont and live in a cabin (escaping reality)
Sally says that they should wait until after college and Holden says that “[i]t’ll be entirely different” (133) – after college, he’ll be a phony adult.
At the end of the date, he calls Sally a pain-in-the-ass and then laughs when she gets upset.

4. Sunday Early Evening Chapter Setting Event 18 Phone booth/ Radio City
Holden calls his old classmate Carl Luce and arranges to meet him for a 10:00.
To kill time, Holden goes to the movies at Radio City.
Streets of NYC
As Holden walks to the Wicker Bar to meet Carl Luce, he thinks about war. He says:
he couldn’t “stand it if [he] had to go to war” (Salinger 140)
he would rather they “just take you out and shoot you” (140) versus staying in the Army (conforming to society)
D.B was in the war; it changed him
“if there’s ever another war…stick me in front of a firing squad” (141)
“[He’s] sort of glad they’ve got the atomic bomb invented…[He’s] going to sit right the hell on top of it”(141).
Sacrifice for innocent people

5. Sunday Night (~10:00) Chapter Setting Event 19 Wicker Bar
Holden orders (and gets served) scotch and sodas before Carl arrives.
He people watches and notices the phonies and flits (homosexuals) in the bar.
Holden says that Carl is an expert on flits and lesbians. Holden seems tolerant of homosexuality, but hypocritical because he feeds into the stereotypes society sets.
Luce asks Holden when he’s going to grow up and Holden proceeds to ask a bunch of inappropriate questions.
Carl Luce suggests that Holden go to a psychoanalyst.

6. Sunday Night (~1:00am) Chapter Setting Event 20 Wicker Bar
Holden stays at the bar and continues to drink.
He resumes his gangster-movie fantasy and pretends that he is shot in the gut and bleeding.
Phone Booth
He goes to the phone booth to call Jane, but he “isn’t much in the mood anymore” (Salinger 150) – Holden’s inaction – so he calls Sally Hayes instead. He is rude to Sally’s grandmother and Sally
Madison Avenue
“I was crying and all…I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (Salinger 153).
He drops and breaks Phoebe’s record.
Holden goes to search for the ducks in Central Park, but can’t seem to find them.
Holden reveals that he did not go to Allie’s funeral
Holden feels that visiting a cemetery and putting flowers on a grave is phony. He’d rather be dumped in the river when he dies.
He starts to think about how Phoebe would feel if he died of pneumonia and decides to sneak home to see her.

7. Dig Deeper Symbols Motifs Themes
The Central Park Ducks (the uncertainty of Holden’s future)
Broken “Little Shirley Beans”
(Holden’s breaking point)
Museum of Natural History
(stability)
Loneliness/Depression
The Central Park Ducks
Holden’s Red Hunting Hat
The phoniness of society/adulthood
Holden’s view of what life will be like after college
Everyone comes to your funeral, even if they didn’t really care about you
Families putting flowers on loved one’s graves
Fear of growing up
Holden’s need to escape now
Holden’s fascination with the Museum of Natural History
Conformity/Non-conformity
D.B serving in the Army (conformity)
Holden refusing to participate if there was another war (non-conformity)