FREE ESSAY ON THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

The Catcher in the Rye is about a man named Holden Caulfield, who is narrating the
story. Holden is in a psychiatric hospital in California, where at the given moment he
was
spending his time. He then had a flashback of when he was a young man at the age of
sixteen. The story starts off at Pencey Prep, Holden's present school at which he was
flunking out of. Holden had only a few more days before his expulsion from Pencey, so he
had been paying his final dues to his admired instructors, such as Mr. Spencer, Holden's
elderly History teacher. After spending some bothersome hours with Mr. Spencer, Holden
returned to his room in Ossenburger Memorial Hall. There he was visited by Robert
Ackley whom he disliked with a great passion, however he still had a conversation with
him about school matters. While having an unpleasant discussion with Ackley, the
conversation was then soon interrupted by Ward Stradlater, Holden's roommate.
Stradlater notified Holden that he was going on a date with Jane Gallagher that night,
an
old girlfriend of Holden's. 
Holden had agreed to write a paper for Stradlater while he was on the date. After
eating dinner, Holden began to write the paper and while doing so, became immersed in
old memories of his brother Allie whom he loved dearly, but sadly had passed away. When
Stradlater had arrived back at the dorm, Holden interrogated him about the date he had
with Jane hoping that Stradlater and Jane did not have a sexual interlude with each
other.
Stradlater was upset by Holden's line of questioning and the two boys ended up in a
confrontation and physical fight together. Holden lost the altercation trying to protect
his
old girlfriend. After the fight that Holden had with Stradlater, he attempted, without
success, to befriend Ackley, for he didn't want to leave Pency Prep without a friend.
However it seemed that Ackley was neither interested nor concerned about the fight that 
Page 2
the two roommates had together. Inevitably, Holden decided to leave Pencey early and
stay in New York until the day that he intended to arrive at home had approached. 
On the train ride to New York Holden met a mother of student that attended
Pencey. While he had been maintaining a 'nice' conversation with the woman, Holden
soon had found him self lying about his self and the woman's son just so he could seem
to
be gregarious and benevolent, meantime he was snickering at him self that he was being
the phony that he had always rejected and found to be repulsive. After he had reached
his
destination at the New York Penn Station, Holden had contemplated on calling someone,
but then had determined that it was too late. Holden then took a taxi to an older hotel
in
which he received a rather 'crummy' room. Once in his room, he called a girl by the name
of Faith Cavendish. He was given her phone number, and when in conversation with her,
he again seemed to be phony, acting suave and sophisticated, as he had done with the
woman on the train. 
While sitting wide awake late on a Saturday night, in his room, Holden had a long
divagation whether or not to call Phoebe, his little sister for whom he had high respect
for
and also wanted to go see. Because he is very much astir at the moment, and not at all
drowsy, Holden went down the Lavender Room, a club at the hotel. When entering the
club, Holden was put at a deficient table and is not even able to order a drink. He
ended
up sitting with three women who were secretaries from Seattle Washington . Holden
bought drinks and danced with the girls, although after the whole evening they ended up
leaving him with the check, without so much as a thank you. Holden then went to the
lobby of the hotel and for a while thought about Jane Gallagher and a summer that the
two
of them had spent together. After being confused and disturbed about Jane, him and
Stradlater, Holden decided to go to another night club in Greenwich Village. It was a
club
that his older brother, D.B., had taken him. D.B. was in California being a prostitute.
When he came to the club he met a girl named Lillian Simmons, who had in fact dated 
Page 3
D.B. Holden also considered that girl to be a phony and an imbecile, like most of the
world. He left the club and walked back to the hotel in the exquisite night atmosphere.
On the way up the elevator, back to his room in the hotel, Holden was set up with
a prostitute by Maurice the elevator man. When the prostitute arrived at Holden's room,
Holden become too apprehensive and embarrassed about the situation. Once she was there
though Holden changed his mind and wanted to just converse with the prostitute who
didn't know what to do. She ended up leaving after an argument over the money that was
to be paid for her service. Holden did not pay her the rest of the money, and because of
that, Maurice later came back with the prostitute, he took the rest of money that Holden
presumably owed him and beat him leaving Holden severely aggravated and depraved.
After Maurice and the prostitute left, Holden felt so despondent and melancholy that he
even thought about committing suicide. 
Sunday morning Holden met two nuns in a subway restaurant and gave them a
donation and ended up having a extremely enjoyable conversation with them. Later that 
afternoon, Holden arranged to have a date with Sally Hayes but then went to the park
hoping to see his sister Phoebe. He didn't see his sister, but he did help a child with
his
skates and in doing so he was brought back memories of when he was a child . He went
from the park to his date, for which he was early. The date ended up going horribly and
then he asked Sally if she would run away with him and that caused her to leave him
crying.
After his date, Holden went to get a sandwich and tried to contact Jane on the
phone, but there was no answer. So instead, Holden went to a bar with Luce a student
from Columbia that he knew. Luce acted as though Holden was still a child , and though 
Holden hated it he remained polite. After Luce left, Holden rode around in a cab for a
some time, and then decided to go see Phoebe in the middle of the night. Holden had
worked his way into the apartment of his parents went in and wake Phoebe up. She was 
Page 4
rather astonished to see him and questioned his reasons for being there. He lied to her,

being the 'phony' and a 'liar' that he is. He then had a good talk with her about school
and
people and everything else on the face of the earth. It was very apparent that Holden
liked
his sister very much.
Eventually, Holden's parents came home from their party and he was almost
caught at home. Finally he gets out though and ends up at Mr. Antolini's house, his
favorite teacher. With Mr. Antolini Holden got some advise that was very meaningful to
him even though Mr. Antolini was drunk at the time. The respect that Mr. Antolini
obtained was quite impressive coming from Holden, for Holden was usually demeanor
with people. Holden had spent the night on the couch at Mr. Antolini's house because he
was so courteous to Holden. Holden then spent the next day attempting to leave town but
because of Phoebe was incapable, for he wanted so much to spend time with her. Finally
he had put her on a carousel and sat down in the rain and started to cry out of
disappointment/frustration/anger/joy whichever, because he was just a confused little
boy.
The story ended with Holden back in the institution being disrespectful to people again
as
was before and still being in being in the same state of mind that it started with.