Adventures in Literature: The Catcher In The Rye, Chapters 17 & 18

Chapter 17

Biltmore is a fancy hotel, and its lobby is full of people waiting for dates. Holden sits around for a while and thinks about the people. This book is more about his internal monologue than it is about the plot. All seventeen chapters have barely covered a weekend in the life of Mr. Caulfield, but we know what he's thinking. Sally Hayes appears for their date and she looks stunning. Holden takes notice and he's upset with himself for thinking she looks lovely, but he thinks it nonetheless. On the cab ride to the theater, he tells her he loves her. OUCH. Holden is turning into one of those phonies he hates so much. Sally reciprocates the sentiment, which is even more awkward. The play isn't that great, although Sally loves it. Guess what? The audience is full of phonies! And one of those phonies is an old friend of Sally's. They talk to said phony for "about ten hours" which is proof that Holden is an incredibly accurate individual who is not prone to hyperbole. (I say that like I'm against hyperbole. Hyperbole is the greatest, obviously.)

On the way home, Sally suggests they go ice skating and Holden agrees. They are both terrible at skating, so they go inside and have Cokes. Is this product placement? It's working. I'm craving a Coke Zero at this point. They have a conversation that lasts for several pages, and it mostly consists of Holden asking Sally is she ever gets fed up, Sally not understanding his increasingly emo discussion prompts, and Holden ultimately snapping and screaming at her. As you might expect, Sally leaves.

Chapter 18

Holden is hungry after that rage outburst, so he pops into a drugstore and grabs some food. It's the Wawa of the 50's. He gets a cheese sandwich. This must be what they ate in the dark times before Wawa had cheese-stuffed pretzels. Maybe I should start a food blog series instead of a book blog series. Holden has Jane Gallagher on the brain again and this time, he calls her house. Jane's mom answers so he hangs up without saying a word, and calls an old pal from Whooton instead - Carl Luce, an intellectual type. Carl agrees to meet Holden for a drink at 10. To fill up his time before then, Holden watches the Rockettes Christmas spectacular. Unsurprisingly, he is unimpressed by it. A movie plays after the Rockettes performance and Holden isn't fond of it either. He starts to get really quotable. "Don't see it if you don't want to puke all over yourself," he says. A woman in the theater gets overly emotional but ignores the child she has in tow. "You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phony stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart. I'm not kidding" Whoa there, Holden. Tell us how you really feel.


-S