1. Pennsylvania station After running away from boarding school, Holden arrived at Penn Station where his adventures begin. “The first thing I did when I got off at Penn Station, I went into this phone booth...” (59).The significance of Penn Station is that this is where Holden’s independent journey begins. 2. Edmont Hotel Holden checked into the Edmont Hotel in Manhattan, where he hired a young prostitute named Sunny. This scene depicts Holden’s struggle with confused adolescence. Holden thought that sleeping with a prostitute would make him a man. However, when he was confronted with the burgeoning sexual situation, he yielded. After all, he is still just a child. “The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than …show more content…
As he walked around and looked at displays, he noticed nothing ever changed from the times he visited. The unchanged displays provides constant stability and security for Holden because he fears the unknown. Holden wish that his life could be frozen in time. He doesn’t want to grow up to face the corruptions, the vulgarities, and the unknown in life. “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move… Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.” …show more content…
Radio City Music Hall Ice Skating Holden went on a date with Sally at Radio City Music Hall. Then he took her to ice skating. He started talking about running away with her. “How would you like to get the hell out of here…We’d stay in these cabin camps…I could get a job somewhere…we could get married or something.” (132) Desiring to live in isolation and away from mainstream society, Holden is willing to marry a girl he doesn’t like very much. 6. Central Park - Duck Pond Holden twice inquired about the “disappearing” ducks in Central Park. When the pond is frozen in the winter, where would the ducks go? This symbolizes that Holden is curious about his own mortality which was affected him by his brother’s death. So he came here to look for answers, but he didn’t find any duck. “I nearly fell in, but I couldn’t find any…Boy, I was still shivering like a bastard… I thought I probably get pneumonia and die.” (154) 7. Sutton Place - Mr. Antolini’s
Holden struggles to make connections with other people, and usually resorts to calling them phonies whenever they upset him. He finds natural human flaws in people and runs away from connection immediately. His date with Sally shows this. Near the end of the date, Holden tells Sally about his plans to run away from life. When Sally gives him practical advice, Holden is quick to escape connection by calling her “a pain”. Sally’s advice would definitely guide Holden in a more realistic direction, but that is not what he wants to hear. Conflict always arises in his mind even if there is little in reality. His struggles with finding connection also make him too apprehensive to call his old friend Jane. Holden likes to think of Jane as a pure and perfect girl that he can
Holden’s sexual struggles are visible through his interactions with Sunny, Sally Hayes, and Carl Luce. Holden’s fascination with sex interferes with his elevated morals; as much as he wants to engage in intercourse, he voices his need to establish an emotional connection with his partner first, which prevents him from having casual sex. As much as physical intimacy is important to him, Holden needs to be taken care of and understood emotionally, as well, displaying that he holds sex in high regards and does not view it as something to be done carelessly. Holden just needs to be loved; but, unfortunately, his romantic life is sub-par at best, and until that changes, he’ll always feel confused – and very, very lonely.
These thoughts were eloquent descriptions of uncensored opinions and judgments that Holden had. However, what was interesting, not once in the book did he display or act on these feelings, opinions or judgments publicly. For example, on page 71 of the book, Holden comes across a woman that happens to be the mother of a “the biggest bastard in all of Pensey”. Holden then described to the reader a detailed depiction of this character and why he used these words to describe him. After the reader is given a short summary on Ernest Morrow (the lady’s son), Holden stated that because he could hear the desperation in the woman’s voice he decided not to offend her and proceeded to tell her that her son was a lovely, well adapted student at Pensey, instead of telling her his opinion which Holden believed in his own mind to be the truth. Another admirable quality of Holden is his idealistic personality. In chapter 16 Holden travels to the Museum of Natural History, a place he had extremely fond memories from his frequent visits during his time in grade school. While walking down the street he proceeds to explain why he loves it so much. Holden, like many people, is unable to deal with conflict and change. The Museum represents an idealistic world, frozen in time and silent. Certain artifacts found in the Museum, such as an Eskimo, demonstrate a simple, controllable, image of life that Holden wishes he
He is desperate to connect with people, but believes that all people are phonies. That is the reason why he watches the football game at Pencey Prep from the top of a nearby hill, and it is the reason why he cannot think of anyone to call in the Penn Station phone booth. The reason he keeps running away is not because he yearns for freedom. Holden himself doesn’t even know why he runs, saying, “I guess I just felt like it” (Salinger 5). The real answer is revealed at the end of the book, when he warns the reader to “[n]ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (Salinger 214). Holden has held on to his feelings so long that there is no freedom for him from the troubles that have plagued him. They will trouble him forever and telling people about them only makes him feel the pain more. Opening up to someone would mean losing everything all over again. Holden doesn’t want to free himself from his pain. As long as he is safe from the phonies of the world, he will never have to open up and he can keep to himself; he believes it would be better that
...'s cowardice progressing in his adolescence and seem to exclaim against the intricate of life. Although Holden dislikes adulthood, he ordinarily tries to act and behave at an older age when talking to women. Conceivably, Holden feels he cannot be a successful adult because he abhors adulthood and wants people to empathize him and listen to his story.
Holden will do absurd things just to avoid an uncomfortable situation even if it is his own sister whom he trusts more than anyone else. He searches for most of his afternoon for his sister and finally tracks her down. He has not seen her in a long time and he will have to tell her that he had gotten kicked out of Pency. Fearing what she might think or say, putting Holden in an uncomfortable position, made Holden leave when he could have been a little late for his date with Sally Hayes. Sally would have been reasonable if he was not there on time for seeing his sister whom Holden has not seen since he left for school. You do not just spend all afternoon searching for someone or something and once you find them or it leave, it just does not make any sense.
In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield was kicked out of Pencey and did not know where to go afterward. His life was constantly changing, and Holden did not like it. He liked for things to stay the same and change scared him. In the novel, Salinger uses the duck, the museum, and the way holden likes to protect children to represent Holden’s fear of change.
Holden returns to school and goes to his bedroom in the dorm. In his room quietly reading, his neighbor Robert Ackley came in. Holden describes him as a pimply, insecure, annoying boy with a bad dental hygiene. When Holden’s roommate Stradlater who was “madly in love with himself” (27) arrived home after the football game, Ackley abruptly left. Stradlater tells him that he has a date with a friend of his, Jane Gallagher. Jane is someone that Holden really cares for and because he knows the way Stradlater is, Holden became worried for her. “It just drove me stark raving mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere in that fat-assed Ed Banky’s car”. (48) Holden became depressed and lonely, so out of the blue Holden decides to pack his things and leave for New York a few days earlier. On the train to New York, Holden meets the mother of one of his schoolmates. Not wanting to tell his whole life story, he told her his name was “Rudolf Schmidt”, the name of th...
Some of his actions appear to be adult like as well. Before leaving Pencey Prep, he visits his elderly teacher Mr. Spencer. As Mr. Spencer gives advice to Holden, he listens and politely sits still holding back his temptation to assail Mr. Spencer for reading his essay out loud. Holden tries to act like an adult by constantly talking about sex and hiring a prostitute a prostitute. An elevator man named Maurice said, "Innarested in having a little tail t'night" (Salinger 90)? Holden decides to take up that offer and at night the prostitute Sunny came knocking at his door. Holden travels alone to places like bars, hotels, and clubs. These places are where adults typically go. Holden tries to buy drinks at a bar to appear grown up. For example: “the waiter came up for my order. I ordered a Scotch and soda, and told him not mix it” (Salinger 69). However, the waiter says he is underage, but Holden asks if he could still throw a little rum in his soda and of course the waiter says
Holden just got on the train and he sat in the front by himself. But another lady came on the train and sat right next to him even though there were plenty of other seats. Holden and her started talking about her son who also went to Pencey. Holden said " It really took everybody quite a long time to get to know him. He's a funny guy. A strange guy in lots of ways---- know what I mean? " (63). Holden was not afraid to talk to this women who he did not know. He really opened up to her and told her the truth about what he thought of her son. This shows how comfortable he was around her. Later on in the story Holden just woke up and was laying in his bed in the hotel with nothing to do. So Holden decides to call his old friend Sally Hayes. Without saying much to her before, Holden says " I was wondering if your busy today. It's Sunday, but there's always one or two matinees going on Sunday. Benefits and that stuff. Would you care to go? " (118). Holden was was not afraid to ask her out. This reveals how comfortable he was talking with her and he opened himself up to her. Later on in the book, readers find another reason why Holden shows his true self to
Holden was in a cab driving past Central park then he noticed some ducks near a pound. “The ducks. Do you know, by any chance? I mean does somebody come around in a truck or something and take them away, or do they fly away by themselves – go south or something?”(81) Horwitz, the cab driver, disregards Holdens question completely and explains instead that the fish in the pound have it tougher in the wintertime then the ducks. Holden later asks Horwitz what he thinks the fish do in the winter, Horwitz responds that they “just stay there,” and that for food, mother nature takes care of them. The fish are representing staying the same and the ducks represent changing. Holden is represented by the ducks, because he is being forced to “move”, however, he would rather be like the fish: stay where he is and be provided
Holden tries to preserve his own innocence, and the innocence of others by not letting go of childhood memories and through his desire to suspend time. Holden views the adult world as corrupt and full of phonies. He admires childhood because of how it is free of corruption, and untouched by the adult world. IN order to preserve his own innocence Holden often attaches himself to childhood memories. The Museum of NAtural History is one of Holden’s favourite places . He mentions that his grade one teacher Miss. Aigletinger used to take his class there every saturday. While writing about the museum he says, “The best thing, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was” (121). This shows how Holden wants to preserve his innocence because he expresses how he likes how everything stayed the
Because of this event Holden leaves for New York early, deciding that he will go to New York and stay in a Hotel for a few days before arriving at home. Now this is when the story actually begins to take form.
Holden's nervous impulse to protect women seems to have sprung up in his psyche from a very young age. After his brother, Allie, started to experience more severe symptoms of leukemia, Holden notes that his mother seemed "nervous as hell." His own mother's emotional problems (Lombardi) transfer to Holden on a very deep, psychological level because he feels partially responsible for his brother's fate in the first place. Seeing his mother in such a distraught state makes him feel even guiltier. The unintended consequence of this is that Holden grows up with a constant fear that he is going to hurt any woman that he grows close to. This manifests itself many times during his time in New York, with one of the earliest examples being his meeting with Sunny in the hotel room. Holden protects her innocence, but not for any particularly noble reason. He hangs her dress back up and insists that he just wants to talk, but Holden did not do this in an attempt to be some paragon of righteousness. Holden, on a deep, psychological lev...
Holden’s story starts in Agerstown, Pennsylvania at Pencey Prep High School in the 1950s. Holden had just been expelled for failing nearly all of his classes. Once he leaves Pencey, Holden boards a train to Manhattan, where he stays at the Edmont Hotel. The rest of the story takes place over a long weekend.