The Catcher in the Rye

By J.D.Salinger
J.D.Salinger was an American author , best known for his novel The
Catcher in the Rye, which has been translated into almost all of the worlds
important languages . Even if at the beginning the protagonist , Holden Caulfield
started a lot of controversry , he finally became an icon for the teenagers whose
main objective is being rebellious.
Unfortunately , Holden never admits he can be wrong sometimes and this is
one of the many mistakes he makes. In his opinion , he is always right and there
is no human being who can make him understand the importance of taking
responsibilities . During a few days of wandering in New York , Holden gets to
feel a lot of contradictory emotions : loneliness , shame , love , frustration ,
indifference , carelessness , admiration and anger.
At the beginning of the novel Holden is expelled from Pencey Highschool
because he has flunked four subjects and he hasnt applied himself. When he
leaves the hill from where he watched the football game , Holden goes in the
bedroom and has some arguments and fights with his roommates , Stradlater and
Ackley , a pimply and annoying kid. He decides then to leave Pencey earlier and
spend a few days in New York before going home for Christmas , otherwise his
parents will know he has been expelled.
Even if he doesnt want to admit it , Holden feels really lonely in the big city
and thats why he gets in contact with a lot of stranger; he has a conversation
with the mother of one of this classmates , Ernie Morrow; at the Edmont Hotel
the boy brings a prostitute named Sunny in his room , but they dont have sex
because Holden discovers he just needed to talk to someone. The next day
Holden leaves the hotel , he has a date with an old friend , Sally Hayes and
meets two nuns while hes having breakfast. He goes home to visit his sister
Phoebe , the only person Holden has missed and the only one who understands
him , hed say. They talk for a while , not too loud because the boy doesnt want
his parents to know hes home and Phoebe finds out Holden has got the ax from
Pencey.
In order to avoid his parents , Holden leaves home and pays a visit to an old
teacher , Mr. Antolini , with whom he has a long conversation about life ,
education and later he thinks hes given a sexual proposal from the teacher , so
he rushes out of his house , without giving any explanation.
Holden decides not to go back home , he wants to run away , but when his
sister decides she wants to got with him , he thinks twice about this and he
finally gives up; he goes home and tell his parents everything.
The book closes with the return in Holdens present ; he explains he has to go
back to school in September , but he doesnt know if things get better this time.

Quotes:
The more expensive a school is , the more crooks it has Im not
kidding
He stared going into this nodding routine. You never knew if he was
nodding a lot because he was thinking and all , or just because he was a
nice old guy that didnt know his ass from his elbow
He told us we should always pray to God- talk to Him and all- wherever
we were. He told us we ought to think of Jesus as our buddy and all. He
said he talked to Jesus all the time. Even when he was driving his car.
That killed me.
I didnt have anything special to do , so I went down to the can and
chewed the rag with him while he was shaving
He was a secret slob anyway , if you knew him the way I did. The reason
he fixed himself up to look good was because he was madly in love with
himself
You take a very handsome guy , or a guy that thinks hes a real hot-shot ,
and theyre always asking you to do them a big favour. Just because
theyre crazy about themselves , they think youre crazy about them too ,
and that youre just dying to do them a favour.
I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on
my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me
where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible.
I hate the movies the movies like poison , but I get a bang imitating
them
{} <She had a lousy childhood. Im not kidding> . That didnt interest
Stradlater , though. Only very sexy stuff interested him.
<Listen. Give her my regards , willya?> <Okay > , Stradlater said , but I
knew he probably wouldnt. You take a gut like Stradlater , they never
give your regards to people
I told him I wasnt going to chuck it at anybody, but he wouldnt believe
me. People never believe you.
When I really worry about something I dont just fool around. I even
have to go to the bathroom when I worry about something.
If he was so goddam stupid not to realize it was Saturday night and
everybody was out or asleep or home for the week end , I wasnt going to
break my neck telling him
Its pretty hard to knock a guy out , except in the goddam movies.
All morons hate it when you call them a moron.
I didnt answer him. All I did was , I got up and went over and looked
out the window. I felt so lonesome , all of a sudden. I almost wished I was
dead.
It was even depressing out in the street. You couldnt even hear any cars
any more. I got feeling so lonesome and rotten

My nerves were shot. They really were.

Almost every time somebody gives me a present , it ends up making me
sad
Sensitive. That killed me. That guy was about as sensitive as a goddam
toilet seat.
Her mother knew my mother and I could picture her breaking a goddam
leg to get to the phone and tell my mother I was in New York
I keep making up these sex rules for myself , and then I break them right
away.
I shouldve waved a buck under the head-waiters nose. In New York ,
boy , money really talks Im not kidding
Im very fond of dancing , sometimes , and that was one of the times. So
all of a sudden , I sort of leaned over and said:<Would any of you girls
care to dance?>
I mean most girls are so dumb and all. After you neck them for a while,
you can really watch them losing their brains. You take a girl when she
really gets passionate, she just hasn't any brains.
Every time they do something pretty , even if theyre not much to look at
, or even if they re sort of stupid , you fall half in love with them , and
then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can
drive you crazy. They really can.
Then I tried to get them in a little intelligent conversation , but it was
practically impossible.
All of a sudden , on my way out to the lobby , I got old Jane Gallagher
on the brain again. I got her on and I couldnt get her off.
She gave me the big freeze when I said hello that day , though.
I mean when she was talking and she got excited about something , her
mouth sort of went in about fifty directions , her lips and all. That killed
me.
New Yorks terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at
night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and
depressed.
Besides , he was such a touchy guy , it wasnt any pleasure discussing
anthing with him.
He was about the touchiest gut I ever met. Everything you said made
him sore.
They were exactly the same morons that laugh like hyenas in the movies
at stuff that isnt funny.
People always clap for the wrong things.
He was one of those guys that think theyre being a pansy if they dont
break around forty of your fingers when they shake hands with you.

Sometimes you get tired of riding in taxicabs the same way you get tired
riding in elevators. All of a sudden , you have to walk , no matter how far
or how high up.
When youre feeling very depressed , you cant even think.
God , my heart was damn near beating me out of the room.
The goddam movies. They can ruin you. They really can.
<Grand>. If theres one word I hate , its grand. Its so phony.
Im a goddam spendthrift at heart. What I dont spend , I lose.
I never seem to have anything that if I lost it Id care too much about
I hate it when somebody has cheap suitcases. It sounds terrible to say it ,
but I can even get to hate somebody , just looking at them , if they have
cheap suitcases with them.
Catholics are always trying to find out if youre a Catholic.
Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.
He was singing that song , If a body catch a body coming through the
rye
I dont understand boring guys. I really dont
If a girl looks swell when she meets you , who gives a damn if shes late?
Nobody.
She was killing herself.It was brutal. I really felt sort of sorry for her.
I don't know about bores. Maybe you shouldn't feel too sorry if you see
some swell girl getting married to them. They don't hurt anybody, most of
them, and maybe they're secretly all terrific whistlers or something. Who
the hell knows? Not me.
<Did you ever get fed up?> I said. <I mean did you ever get scared that
everything was going to go lousy unless you did something? >
Its a funny thing about girls. Every time you mention some guy thats
strictly a bastard - very mean, or very conceited and all - and when you
mention it to the girl , shell tell you he has an inferiority complex.
Girls. You never know what theyre going to think.
Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's
ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer
for it, I swear to God I will.
Sally said I was a sacrilegious atheist. I probably am.
Thats the trouble with these intellectual guys. They never want to
discuss anything serious unless they feel like it.
The thing he was afraid of , he was afraid somebodyd say something
smarter than he had. He really amused me.
I sort of gave her the old eye , but she pretended she didnt even see me.
People never five your message to anybody.
I didnt feel too drunk anymore when I went outside , but it was getting
very cold out again , and my teeth started chattering like hell.

Boy , when youre dead they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do
die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or
something.
I kept worrying that I was getting pneumonia, with all those hunks of ice
in my hair, and that I was going to die.
Its funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and
theyll do practically anything you want them to.
I thought I was going to choke dead or something.
You dont care to have somebody stick to the point when he tells you
something?
<I dont want to scare you > , he said , < but I can very clearly see you
dying nobly , one way or another , sor some highly unworthy cause>. He
gave me a funny look.
The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause ,
while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for
one.
Youre in love with knowledge.
I really couldve slept standing up without batting an eyelash.
If you get very depressed about something its hard as hell to swallow.
Thats the whole trouble. You cant ever find a place thats nice and
peaceful , because there isnt any.
I thought I was going to pass out cold.
I was almost all set to hit her.
Thats depressing , when somebody says please to you.
Dont ever tell anybody anything. If you do , you start missing
everybody.

Oboroceanu Agnes-Ioana
IX D