Chapter 19

In Chapter 19 of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield goes to have a drink with Carl Luce, his student advisor at Whooton. Luce had the highest I.Q. 0f any boy at Whooton however he never talks about anything but sex. According to Holden, Luce could tell you whether any guy was homosexual or not. Holden says that what annoys him about Luce is he will always ask you personal questions but if you ask him anything personal, he will get upset. Luce tells Holden, "Your mind is immature." (pg.191) Holden responds "It is. I know it." (pg.191) This allows us to give Holden some credit because at least he admits that he is immature.

Chapter 18

In Chapter 18 of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden goes to the movies at Radio City. "It was probably the worst thing I could've done" (pg.177). He is very critical of the stage show but does hold great respect for the kettle drummer. He detests the movie but cannot bring himself to leave. He feels that the woman sitting near him is a phony because she cried through the whole movie but won't take her child to the bathroom. Holden ends the chapter by saying that he likes books. Holden like books better than movies because he feels that book writers aren't doing anything phony because they are stateing their original thoughts and no one else is pretending that they know how that author feels. Wheras movie writers are having their work brought to life by other people who know nothing about what they are acting in.

Chapter 17

In Chapter 17 of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden goes on a date with Sally Hayes, a girl who "gives [him] a royal pain in the ass." (pg.173) however, he is so desperate for company from someone familiar that he goes to see a play with her. This is where we learn the reason Holden hates actors: "they don't act like real people" (pg. 164). Holden hates anything fictitous because it angers hin to see something that is not real but people still act like it is real. After the play, he and Sally go ice skating. There he asks Sally to run away with him and live with him in the mountains. She says that if they do that at all, they should wait until after college but Holden says that it will not be the same. The reason he says this is because he feels that this is their last chance to escape the inevitable. If they wait until after college, then, it will be too late and they will not have any innocence anymore. Sally walks out on him and Holden admits that he probably wouldn't have done it with her anyway but "I meant it when I asked her" (pg.174).

Chapter 16

In Chapter 16 of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden buys a record for Phoebe and goes to the park to find her. He finds a girl about Phoebe's age and talks to her. He finds he is more comfortable talking to her than an adult because of her innocence. He decides to go to the Museum of Natural History but changes his mind once he gets there. "All of a sudden I wouldn't have gone inside for a million bucks" (pg. 159). The reason Holden does not want to go inside the museum is because he is scared it won't be the same as it was when he was a child. He is afraid that if he does go in something will have changed and the reason he liked going so much as a child was because nothing ever changed. Even though he is changing, he does not want everything else to change.

Chapter 15

In Chapter 15 of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield meets two nuns at the train station. He has a nice conversation with them but is glad when they leave because he was worried that if the conversation went on much longer, then, they would try to find out if he was Catholic. Holden feels that Catholics always try to find out if other people are Catholics because they feel it will make the conversation more enjoyable. It is almost as if they think you are not worth their company if you do not have the same beliefs as them. Holden wishes that everybody were like young children who could not care less what religion other people are. Children also don't care what your personal belongings are like (hence Holden's speech about his roomate's suitcases (pg.141)).

Chapter 14

In this chapter of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden gets a visit from Maurice and Sunny who try to get the five dollars that Holden did not pay even when Maurice told Holden that he only had to pay five dollars and not ten. When Sunny takes five dollars out of Holden's wallet, he starts crying. "I'd give anything if hadn't but I had." (pg. 134) After Maurice beats him up, Holden has a childlike revenge fantasy of having a bullet in his guts and hunting down Maurice and shooting him with a machine gun. Holden demonstrates his immaturity in this chapter twice. First, by crying over five dollars and then, by taking out his anger at Maurice by just imagining that he was a war hero who was going to kill him.

Holden is a Phony

In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield constantly criticizes phoniness, however at several points in the story, he himself acts like a phony. He claims at one part of the story to be a sex fiend but later refuses to have sex with Sunny (126-127). He also cannot bring himself to go any further whenever a girl tells him to stop which he himself admits that he should (120). Another example is when he describes what would happen if he met the glove thief, then, he once again would be going against something he believes in
(116-117). Holden Caulfield is a phony because he often lies to people an usually goes against what he feels like he should do.