Chapter 10

Holden feels lonely still so he goes downstairs to the Lavender Room, a sort of night club in the hotel. While getting ready to leave his room, Holden talks about his sister Phoebe, calling her intelligent and giving her a great definition of her character. But her one flaw is that she gets too worked up sometimes. Holden tries to get a cocktail but they won't let him order one so he just gets a coke. There are three girls sitting close to him visiting from Washington (state) and he asks them all to dance. The blonde one was the best dancer, but they all seem distracted. They want to see celebrities and get annoyed with him, almost as much as he gets annoyed with them. He tricks them by saying that he just saw Gary Cooper. They fell for it, and he bought their drinks and left.

Response- It got almost annoying when Holden kept talking about how good the blonde dancer was... but you gotta love him anyway. : )

Chapter 9

When Holden gets off the train, he really wants to call someone but everyone he thinks of is either asleep or he doesn't really feel like talking to them so he just goes to a hotel instead in a cab. In the cab, Holden asks the driver about the ducks, but he's uninterested. When he gets into his room, Holden notices all of the people across his window doing different things. There's a tranny in one window and a flirting couple in another. Holden starts to get horny and calls a prostitute he knows of named Faith. Faith refuses, because she has to get her beauty sleep. Holden gets pissed and hangs up.

Response- Holden mentioned the ducks again and I bet it comes up later! Holden is lonely in this chapter...

Chapter 8

Holden heads out to the train station on foot and gets on a train. On the train he meets a Ernest Morrow's mother, a classmate of his at Pencey. They hit up a conversation and Holden seems attracted to her. Holden hates Ernest, but to make his mother feel great about her son, he tells a whole bunch of lies about how great he is, how popular he is, etc. She feels good and then asks him about himself, and Holden tells her his name is Rudolph Schmidt, the Pencey's janitor's name. She is curious as to why he is leaving school early and he makes up this story about how he has a brain tumor. They chatted a little bit more and then the chapter ends.

Response- Ahaha! Holden has the hots for a mother?! He's right, he is a pretty good liar.

Chapter 7

Holden wakes up Ackley and they talk for a while, Holden sitting on Ackley's roommates bed, who was already gone. Ackley falls asleep and Holden keeps thinking about Jane and Stradlater. So Holden wakes him up and talks to him again, asking him if he could join a monastery without being Catholic. They both get annoyed with each other, Holden thought he was phony and said goodbye to him forever, since he decided he was going to New York for a couple of days and wait for his parents to blow off some steam from him being kicked out. So he packs up, puts on his hat and starts to cry. When he is at the door, and yells back, "Sleep tight, ya morons!" and leaves.

Response- Holden left all of the phonies of school just to go into the world of phonies? He's going to have a blast then....

Chapter 6

Stradlater gets back from his date with Jane and Holden is still up. He reads the paper Holden wrote and gets pissed because it describes some stupid mitt instead of a boring room. Of course Holden isn't happy about that and gets up and rips it up. There's tension in the room, and Holden starts to smoke to rile up Stradlater. He asks Stradlater how the date went and if he mentioned him to Jane, and Stradlater of course says no. Stradlater does however tell Holden that they were in the basketball coach's car the whole time while lightly punching Holden. Holden freaks and tries to hit him square in the face but misses and hits him in the side of the head. Stradlater tackles him to the floor and sits on his chest. Holden keeps calling him a moron and stuff and Stradlater wouldn't let him up unless he would shut up. Holden said he would be quiet and they get up. However, Holden starts right back up again and Stradlater punches him to the ground. Stradlater is sort of worried that Holden will tell on him and he leaves the room. Holden gets up, puts on his hat, and checks himself out in the mirror, almost fascinated by the blood. Holden then goes and sees of Ackley is up.

Response- Stradlater's still a jerk... haha. I would have freaked on him like Holden if he started insulting my dead brother's mitt, even if it wasn't direct... I still would be pissed! I'm on Holden's side!

Chapter 5

After dinner Holden and one of his friends Mal Brossard go into town to see a movie, Ackley comes along too. The movie that's playing is one Mal and Ackley have both seen, so they eat some burgers instead. They go back to Pencey and Ackley stays in Holden's room for a while, talking about this chick he apparently had sex with. After a lot of effort, Holden gets Ackley out of there and he starts Stradlater's composition paper. He writes about his brother Allie's old baseball mitt, which he wrote poems on with green ink. Allie was two years younger than Holden, but died of leukemia a while back. Holden then talks about Allie and says he was really smart. He also says that the night Allie died, he slept in the garage and broke all the windows (and his hand) by punching them.

Response-The way Holden talks about Allie, compared to others, he really misses him and adores him. To Holden, Allie is no phony.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 opens with Holden following Stradlater into the bathroom and watching him shave. There, Stradlater tells Holden about this date he is getting ready for and apparently she knows Holden. Her name is Jane Gallagher and she was Holden's neighbor. Once her name is mentioned, Holden gets all jittery and seems unsettled. He keeps saying that he is going to go down and talk to her but he doesn't. Stradlater then asks Holden to write a composition paper about a house, that has to be very detailed. Holden doesn't exactly agree to him though, and he gets a little pissed. Holden then gets in this mood that he feels like he has to wrestle, and puts Stradlater in a headlock, and then lets go a little later. Holden then talks about how Stradlater and Ackley are both annoying, but in their own ways. They both go back to the room and then Stradlater leaves with Holden's coat and Ackley comes back. Ackley and Holden then talk about guys Ackley hates until dinner.

Response- Yep, Stradlater's a jerk. I wonder how many things Stradlater has asked Holden to do if he thinks that asking him to write his paper is no big deal... Ackley seems nice, but his habits are discusting.

Chapter 3

Holden starts this chapter out by telling us that he's a terrific liar. He mentions where his room is in Pencey, a dorm called the Ossenburger and about the man it's named after. When Holden gets to his room he talks about this red hunting hat he bought that day in New York for a dollar. He starts to read, but a senior named Robert Ackley interrupts him. Ackley lives across from Holden and enters through the shared shower. Holden describes him as basically an ugly 18 year old, who's habits are far beyond gross. Ackley hates Holden's roommate Ward Stradlater. Holden drops a lot of hints that he would rather read, but Ackley doesn't get the message, or ignores them, and continues to mess with all of their stuff. Ackley then starts to ask Holden a ton of questions about Stradlater and talks about how conceited he is. Stradlater of course comes in, but doesn't care that Ackley is in his room. He says hi to the both of them, and then asks Holden if he could borrow his coat. Ackley goes to his room and Stradlater goes to shave.

Response- Eck, Holden describes Ackley as one naaasty kid! Stradlater is probably one of those kids that tends to get whatever he wants, because he asked Holden for his coat like he knew for sure that he was going to be able to borrow it.

Chapter 2

Holden goes to Spencer's room and greets him. He can't help but notice all of the pills, kleenex, blankets, etc. Holden keeps telling us that Spencer is in his pajamas and his old wrinkly chest is showing. [Spence is like 65] They talk about Holden getting kicked out and the reasons why, also about why he failed all of those classes. Spencer made Holden get his term paper across the room and read it out loud to him and notice how terrible it was. [[During this Holden thinks about where the ducks go in the winter time.]] He asks Holden how he felt about being flunked out and not just Pencey, but all of the schools. They talk about his future and Holden doesn't stop telling Spencer to not worry about him. He leaves lying to Spencer telling him he needs to go get something from the gym.

Response- Holden acts like he doesn't care about Spencer, but if he didn't, why would he have taken the time just to visit him before he leaves? I bet Holden is going to turn out to be an emotional wreck trying to be a rebel.

Chapter 1 The Catcher in the Rye

The book starts out with a guy named Holden Caulfield telling us about his life last year. Now he is in Hollywood visiting his brother D.B., who makes a living writing. His story starts out at a football game at Pencey prep in Agerstown, Penn, where he "left." He arrived at the game after a fencing meet (he's the manager) that he forgot the stuff for. He talks about how he is going to get kicked out of Pencey because he is failing 4 classes. It's close to Christmas break, so when everyone goes home, he is leaving for good. He mentions that he is about to leave the game and go to Mr. Spencer's house, his history teacher. Spencer asked him if he would visit him before he leaves, since Spencer is home sick with grippe. His wife answers the door and lets him in.

Response- The book seems good so far, once it gets more into the story I will have an opinion. Looking forward to the rest!

Characters- Catcher in the Rye

Holden Caulfield-
*heavy smoker and sometimes drinker
-favorite drink: scotch and soda
*17 when telling story, 16 in story
*gets kicked out of schools frequently
*manager of fencing team
*crazy
*loves his late brother Allie
*but also loves his other siblings
*is a virgin
*hates movies, morons, phonies...
Allie-
*was 2 years younger than Holden
*died of leukemia when he was 12
*is a ginger!
*had a baseball mitt that he wrote poems on in green ink
D.B.-
*is Holden's older brother
*lives in Hollywood
*writer of short stories and now movie scripts
Phoebe-
*Holden's younger sister
*10 years old
*is a ginger!
*admires Holden
*is a smart little girl
*likes to dance, ice-skate, carousels, and Holden's red hat
Jane Gallagher-
*was Holden's neighbor
*stole Holden's heart
*is the one person Holden opened up to about Allie
*has a total jerk for a step dad
*has great hand holding skills
Ward Stradlater-
*is a total jerk
*is a year older than Holden
*Holden's roommate
*ladies man
*is annoying in his own way
*can't understand the concept of clean razors
Robert Ackley-
*has acne.... a lot.
*doesn't know the meaning of personal: space, things, information... etc.
*has disgusting habits
*hates Stradlater's guts
Mr. Spencer-
*Holden's history teacher at Pencey
*OLD
*has grippe
*is probably the only teacher Holden respected at Pencey
Sally-
*is a trashy old 'friend' of Holden's
Carl Luce-
*another old friend of Holden's
*is an intellectual jerk
*a little older than Holden
Mr. & Mrs. Antolini-
-MR.
*old english teacher
*heavy drinker
*pets men's heads while they sleep...
-MRS.
*older than Mr.
*looks ugly without makeup!