CHAPTER QUOTE ANALYSIS & THEMES

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Chapter 1-4: 

-"Sometimes I act a lot older than I am-I really do-but people never notice it. People never notice anything" (Salinger 12). This quote shows Holden's wish to be noticed, namely by his parents. Just before this on the page he says, "Everybody says that [I act like I was twelve], especially my father". He also shows this desire in chapter three when pretending to become blind and calling out, not for help, but for his mother. The mom seems to not pay as much attention to Holden as she does grieving Allie or on Phoebe, as shown in little tidbits Holden says, like, "My mother gets very hysterical" (Salinger 58) and later, "All mothers are slightly insane" (Salinger 62).

-"I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away" (Salinger 16). Holden asks this question multiple times throughout the novel, to himself in this instance and to random people he meets in NYC. This shows how Holden wonders what happens when someone becomes an adult- does it happen to them, or is there something you do? However, he is afraid to ask this directly, or doesn't even consciously realize this is what he's truly wondering.

Chapter 5-8: 

-"I went over to my window and opened it and packed a snowball with my bare hands...I started to throw it. At a car that was parked across the street. But I changed my mind. The car looked so nice and white. Then I started to throw it at a hydrant, but that looked too nice and white, too. Finally I didn't throw it at anything. All I did was close the window and walk around the room with the snowball, packing it harder" (Salinger 41 & 42). Here, the snow is a symbol for purity and innocence. Holden doesn't want to disturb the blanket of snow covering the street by throwing the snowball. He decides to pack the snow tighter, trying to preserve it as he does with innocence in the novel. 

-"It just drove me stark staring mad when I thought about [Jane] and Stradlater parked somewhere in that fat-assed Ed Banky’s car. Every time I thought about it, I felt like jumping out the window" (Salinger 55). This shows two things that are present throughout the novel- Holden's love for Jane and thoughts of suicide. Jane's name comes up 50 times in the novel. Holden thinks about (and once tries to) call Jane many times, showing how she is one person Holden feels connected to. He is seeking connections during his time in NYC, and she comes to mind for him so often because she's one person he can talk honestly to. Holden also mentions suicide frequently, and casually. This shows he has thought about it and has gotten used to that idea, which is concerning for the reader. 

Chapter 9-12: 

- "When I'm with somebody that's corny, I always act corny too" (Salinger 68). This sentence examplifies Holden's hypocritical tendencies. He will often criticize someone for doing or saying something, they do/say it himself later one. One other example of this is in chapter 2 when talking to his english teacher, Mr. Spencer. Holden says, "I shake my head quite a lot...I also say 'Boy!' quite a lot" (Salinger 11). Holden also explains to the reader how he hates how Mr. Spencer kept calling him boy and nodding his head. Holden hates how "phony" other people are, not realizing he does the same things.

-"As a matter of fact, I’m the only dumb one in the family. My brother D.B.’s a writer and all, and my brother Allie, the one that died, that I told you about, was a wizard" (Salinger 75). Demonstrated here is Holden's inferiority complex. He is constantly talking about how cowardly, dumb, or weak he is. These feeling come from his mother's attention being focused on Allie and Phoebe, and therefore feeling inadequate.

Chapter 13-16: 

-"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" (Salinger 98). Surprise, surprise! Holden isn't just talking about elevators and taxicabs. This is a metaphor for society. Holden feels like it can just be too much trying to do what society wants you to do all the time, and sometimes you just need to do your own thing. In this case, that was walking 41 blocks back to the hotel.

-"The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and...nobody'd be different" (Salinger 135). This quote is the epitome of Holden's desire to keep things the way they are, namely childhood. He loves the place where he went on school trips as a kid, and "the only thing that would be different would be you." Likely realizing how different he is now than when he was a child, he ends up not wanting to go in and have his perception of the place changed. This is the kind of place Holden wants children to be, so they never grow up, and is happy to hear Phoebe goes there.

Chapter 17-20: 

-"It’s full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques" (Salinger 145-146). Here Holden is venting his frustration that what everyone says should be the goal in life isn't what he identifies with. In fact, it's everything he sees as superficial and phony. Holden doesn't want to conform to society, mainly because of his longing to remain a child. This attitude against being an adult makes him not want what society tells him to want. 

-"I was the only guy at the bar with a bullet in their guts. I kept putting my hand under my jacket, on my stomach and all, to keep the blood from dripping all over the place. I didn’t want anybody to know I was even wounded. I was concealing the fact that I was a wounded sonuvabitch" (Salinger 166). This is another metaphor for how Holden feels like he's different than everybody. He's "wounded," by Allie's death, and believes he's the only one who is questioning life and purpose. 

Chapter 21-24: 

-"...I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch [the kids] if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all" (Salinger 191). This is a direct explanation of Holden's desire to protect innocence. More literally, he doesn't want any child being killed through no fault of their own. Metaphorically, Holden sees Allie and childhood as perfect, and wants to help preserve that in other children.  

-"I mean you can’t hardly ever simplify and unify something just because somebody wants you to" (Salinger 204). Holden is again referring to his desire to be non-conforming to society. When the world is telling him to like, buy, or be certain things, Holden wants to know why, and come up with his own thoughts and feelings.

Chapter 25 & 26:

-"The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the golden ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them" (Salinger 232). My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way, but I got soaked anyway" (Salinger 233). These quotes show the transition moment when Holden understands you can't keep someone in childhood forever. They have to be able to try things out for themselves and learn; you can't shield them from everything. The hunting hat quote shows the same thing, but more specific to Holden. He's coming to understand he protected himself for a while, symbolized by the hat, but growing up is inevitable, and it happened to him anyway, despite his best efforts.