How Does Holden Changed From The Beginning Of The Novel To The End

The novel'southward narrator and protagonist, Holden is a high school junior who has flunked out of prep school several times. He is from New York City, where his younger sister, Phoebe, still lives with his parents. Holden too has a deceased younger brother, Allie, and an older brother, D.B. On the brink of adulthood, Holden struggles to span the gap between the innocent perfection he perceives in childhood (namely in Phoebe and Allie) and the "phoniness" that he thinks makes upwardly nigh of adulthood and the rest of society. The novel opens with Holden recuperating from an undisclosed ailment in a rest home, and he tells the reader that he volition relay the "madman stuff" that happened to him merely earlier concluding Christmas. His story begins shortly after he learns that he has failed out of his most contempo school, Pencey Prep. Wanting to bid this chapter of his life a proper farewell, he visits his elderly history teacher, Mr. Spencer, who tells him to heed the headmaster's advice to play the game of life by the rules. This thought frustrates Holden, who thinks information technology'southward absurd to approach life with such a narrowminded worldview. That night, he discovers that his roommate, Ward Stradlater, is going on a date with Jane Gallagher, a girl whose family lived in the neighboring house 2 years ago when Holden's family unit summered in Maine. Since then, Holden has built upward an image of Jane as a perfect woman, which is why he finds himself distraught past the thought that Stradlater might attempt to have sex with her. When Stradlater returns, Holden picks a fight with him before deciding to exit Pencey that instant, packing his bags and leaving Pennsylvania for New York City without some other thought. For the next several days, Holden makes his way through the urban center, posing as an adult, drinking scotch and sodas, encountering prostitutes, and calling upward sometime acquaintances like his on-once more-off-again girlfriend, Sally Hayes. He also meets upward with his erstwhile mentor, Carl Luce, sneaks into his family'south flat to see Phoebe, and spends the night at the house of his quondam English language teacher, Mr. Antolini. But every fourth dimension Holden reaches out to someone from his past, he ends up alienating them and going off on his own again, wishing all the while that he could work up the courage to phone call Jane. The lofty plans he makes for the future also fall through as he physically and mentally deteriorates over the course of a few days in the metropolis. In the end, Holden has a mental breakdown, which occurs some time before he begins writing his story. By the novel's conclusion, he is facing depression and struggling with the harsh inevitability of growing upwards.

Holden Caulfield Quotes in The Catcher in the Rye

The The Catcher in the Rye quotes below are all either spoken by Holden Caulfield or refer to Holden Caulfield. For each quote, you can as well run into the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

"Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules."

"Yeah, sir. I know it is. I know it."

Game, my ass. Some game. If y'all get on the side where all the hot-shots are, and then it's a game, all correct—I'll admit that. Only if you become on the other side, where at that place aren't any hot-shots, then what'south a game virtually it? Nothing. No game.

Folio Number and Citation: 12

Explanation and Assay:

[Ackley] took some other look at my hat […]. "Up home nosotros wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake," he said. "That's a deer shooting hat."

"Similar hell information technology is." I took it off and looked at it. I sort of airtight one middle, like I was taking aim at it. "This is a people shooting hat," I said. "I shoot people in this hat."

Page Number and Commendation: thirty

Explanation and Analysis:

I was only xiii, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I bankrupt all the windows in the garage. I don't blame them. I really don't. I slept in the garage the nighttime he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, only for the hell of it…It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll acknowledge, but I inappreciably didn't even know I was doing it, and you didn't know Allie.

Page Number and Citation: fifty

Explanation and Analysis:

When I was all prepare to go, when I had my bags and all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a terminal look downward the goddam corridor. I was sort of crying. I don't know why. I put my ruddy hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and and then I yelled at the pinnacle of my goddam vocalism, "Sleep tight, ya morons!" I'll bet I woke upwardly every bastard on the whole floor. Then I got the hell out.

Page Number and Citation: 68

Explanation and Assay:

You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Primal Park South? That lilliputian lake? By any chance, do y'all happen to know where they become, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?

Page Number and Citation: 78

Caption and Analysis:

If you want to know the truth, I'm a virgin. I really am. I've had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I've never got around to it nonetheless. Something ever happens…I came quite close to doing it a couple of times, though. Ane fourth dimension in particular, I recollect. Something went incorrect, though—I don't fifty-fifty remember what any more.

Page Number and Citation: 120

Explanation and Assay:

The problem was, I just didn't want to exercise it. I felt more depressed than sexy, if you want to know the truth. She was depressing. Her green dress hanging in the cupboard and all. And as well, I don't recollect I could ever exercise information technology with somebody that sits in a stupid moving picture all twenty-four hours long. I really don't think I could.

Page Number and Citation: 123

Explanation and Analysis:

Information technology took me quite a while to get to sleep—I wasn't even tired—but finally I did. What I actually felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would've done it, likewise, if I'd been sure somebody'd cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn't want a agglomeration of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory.

Page Number and Citation: 136

Explanation and Analysis:

I got up close and then I could hear what he was singing. He was singing that vocal, "If a body catch a torso coming through the rye." He had a pretty lilliputian phonation, besides. He was just singing for the hell of information technology, y'all could tell. The cars zoomed by, brakes screeched all over the place, his parents paid no attention to him, and he kept on walking adjacent to the curb and singing "If a body catch a body coming through the rye." It made me feel ameliorate. It made me feel non so depressed any more than.

Page Number and Commendation: 150

Caption and Analysis:

She was a very nice, polite trivial kid. God, I honey it when a kid's overnice and polite when you tighten their skate for them or something. Well-nigh kids are. They really are. I asked her if she'd care to have a hot chocolate or something with me, but she said no, thank you. She said she had to encounter her friend. Kids always accept to meet their friend. That kills me.

Page Number and Citation: 155

Explanation and Analysis:

The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed correct where it was. Nobody'd move. You lot could get there a hundred times, and that Eskimo would still exist simply finished catching those two fish, the birds would nonetheless be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bust would however be weaving that same blanket. Nobody'd be different. The but thing that would exist different would be you.

Page Number and Commendation: 157

Explanation and Assay:

So, just to show you lot how crazy I am, when nosotros were coming out of this large clinch, I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie, of class, but the matter is, I meant information technology when I said information technology. I'thou crazy. I swear to God I am.

Folio Number and Commendation: 163

Caption and Analysis:

"You ought to become to a boys' schoolhouse sometime. Effort information technology sometime," I said. "Information technology's total of phonies, and all you practice is study so that yous can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to go along making believe yous give a damn if the football team loses, and all y'all do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all twenty-four hours, and everybody sticks together in these dingy little goddam cliques."

Folio Number and Citation: 170

Caption and Analysis:

I said no, there wouldn't be marvelous places to get to later on I went to higher and all. Open up your ears. It'd be entirely different. We'd accept to go downstairs in elevators with suitcases and stuff. We'd have to phone upwards everybody and tell 'em expert-by and send 'em postcards from hotels and all…It wouldn't be the same at all. Yous don't see what I mean at all.

Page Number and Citation: 172

Caption and Analysis:

"You don't like anything that's happening."

Information technology made me even more depressed when she said that.

"Yes I do. Yes I practise. Certain I do. Don't say that. Why the hell exercise you say that?"

"Because you lot don't. You lot don't similar any schools. Y'all don't like a million things. You lot don't."

"I exercise! That'south where yous're incorrect—that's exactly where you're incorrect! Why the hell do you lot have to say that?" I said. Boy, was she depressing me.

"Considering you don't," she said. "Name 1 thing."

"One thing? One thing I like?" I said. "Okay."

The problem was, I couldn't concentrate too hot. Sometimes information technology'south hard to concentrate.

Page Number and Citation: 220

Explanation and Assay:

Anyway, I keep picturing all these niggling kids playing some game in this large field of rye and all. Thousands of niggling kids, and nobody's around—nobody big, I mean—except me. And I'thousand continuing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to practise, I accept to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I accept to come out from somewhere and catch them. That'south all I'd do all day. I'd only be the catcher in the rye and all.

Folio Number and Citation: 224

Caption and Analysis:

This fall I recall you're riding for—it's a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The homo falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself striking bottom. He merely keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement's designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn't supply them with. Or they thought their own surround couldn't supply them with. So they gave upwardly looking.

Page Number and Citation: 243

Explanation and Analysis:

Amongst other things, you'll find that you're non the first person who was ever confused and frightened and fifty-fifty sickened by human behavior. You lot're by no ways alone on that score…Many, many men have been just equally troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. Yous'll learn from them—if y'all desire to.

Page Number and Citation: 246

Explanation and Analysis:

[W]hile I was sitting downwardly, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written "Fuck you lot" on the wall. It drove me damn virtually crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other niggling kids would see information technology, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and and then finally some muddy kid would tell them…I hardly even had the guts to rub it off the wall with my hand, if you desire to know the truth. I was afraid some teacher would catch me rubbing information technology off and would think I'd written information technology. Just I rubbed it out anyway, finally.

Page Number and Citation: 260

Explanation and Analysis:

That's the whole problem. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because at that place isn't any. You may think in that location is, but once you get there, when y'all're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" correct under your nose... I think, even, if I ever die, and they stick me in a cemetery, and I have tombstone and all, it'll say "Holden Caulfield" on information technology, and then what year I was born and what year I died, then right nether that it'll say "Fuck you lot." I'one thousand positive, in fact.

Folio Number and Citation: 264

Explanation and Analysis:

All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold band, and and then was quondam Phoebe, and I was sort of agape she'd fall off the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The matter with kids is, if they want to grab for the aureate ring, you lot accept to allow them do it, and non say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but information technology'southward bad if you say anything to them.

Page Number and Citation: 273

Explanation and Assay:

Holden Caulfield Character Timeline in The Catcher in the Rye

The timeline below shows where the character Holden Caulfield appears in The Catcher in the Rye. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

It is several months into 1950, and 16-twelvemonth-onetime Holden Caulfield is recuperating at an unspecified location after becoming "run-downwards." His story begins, he says,... (total context)

Holden's story begins at Pencey Prep, an exclusive private school for boys in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. It... (full context)

Holden never planned on attention the annual football game in the first place, since he's supposed... (full context)

While it's true that Holden doesn't intendance nearly the football against Saxon Hall, he has too decided not to... (full context)

Equally Holden stands on the loma, he tries to feel a sense of closure. He claims to... (full context)

One time inside Mr. Spencer'south house, Holden feels depressed. He doesn't similar the fashion the business firm smells or looks, and he can't... (full context)

Mr. Spencer greets Holden warmly and claims to be feeling great despite his appearance. Shortly, he brings up... (full context)

Mr. Spencer asks Holden if his parents know nearly his expulsion withal, and Holden explains that Dr. Thurmer is... (total context)

Mr. Spencer comments that he once met Holden'due south parents, whom he thinks are "chiliad" people. This statement irritates Holden, who can't stand the... (total context)

Later on reading Holden'due south essay aloud, Mr. Spencer asks if Holden blames him for flunking him. Holden assures him... (total context)

As Holden goes on at length, Mr. Spencer cuts him off and asks how he feels about... (full context)

When Mr. Spencer encourages Holden to program for the future, Holden decides he has had enough. Although he recognizes that... (total context)

Holden returns to his dorm, thinking as he goes about how good he is at lying.... (total context)

Alone in his room, Holden reads while wearing his new red hunting cap, which he bought while in New York... (full context)

Ackley asks Holden about the fencing friction match in New York, and Holden is forced to tell him that... (full context)

...that he and his date decided to leave the football game early. He then asks Holden if he can borrow his houndstooth jacket, but Holden hesitates to reply, instead wondering where... (full context)

Having cypher better to practice, Holden keeps Stradlater visitor every bit he shaves. Holden notes that Stradlater is a "hush-hush" slob, who... (full context)

Once over again, Holden asks the name of Stradlater'south appointment, and Stradlater all of a sudden remembers that the daughter he's most... (full context)

Every bit Stradlater shaves, Holden speaks at length almost Jane, remembering that she'south a dancer and that she used to... (full context)

Once more, Holden says he should become downstairs to say hi to Jane, and Stradlater asks him why... (total context)

Holden asks what Stradlater and Jane are going to do, and Stradlater says they might get... (full context)

Afterwards dinner, Holden convinces his friend Mal Brossard to allow Ackley come run into a pic with them. Although... (full context)

Finally, Holden tells Ackley to leave so he tin piece of work on Stradlater's English language homework. The assignment is... (total context)

As Holden recalls the dark of Allie's death, he remembers that he responded to the news by... (full context)

Holden spends the adjacent several hours fretting about what'due south happening between Stradlater and Jane on their... (full context)

Puffing away on his cigarette, Holden asks Stradlater what happened on his appointment with Jane, but Stradlater refuses to say. Nonetheless,... (total context)

Unable to resist, Holden asks Stradlater if he and Jane had sex. This offends Stradlater, who refuses to answer.... (full context)

Afterwards Stradlater leaves, Holden puts on his ruddy hunting hat and looks at his face in the mirror, thinking... (full context)

When Holden enters Ackley'southward room, he blinds him by turning on the light. Bellyaching simply besides intrigued... (full context)

Lonely and tormented by the suspicion that Stradlater may have had sexual activity with Jane, Holden decides to leave Pencey and become to New York Urban center until his parents learn he's... (full context)

On the railroad train to New York, a woman sits next to Holden. She notices his Pencey bag and says that her son is a boy named Ernest... (full context)

Flirting with Ernest's mother, Holden invites her to have a drink with him in the train's bar, explaining that he's... (total context)

In Penn Station in New York, Holden wants to talk to someone, and considers calling D.B., Phoebe (his younger sister), Jane, or... (full context)

Before Holden checks in to a room in the Edmont, he takes off his hunting chapeau because... (full context)

Once again, Holden thinks almost calling Jane, simply he finds the thought exhausting because he would take to... (full context)

Holden decides to go downstairs to the Lavender Room, where the hotel serves drinks and hosts... (full context)

Once in the Lavender Room, Holden tries to order a scotch and soda, only the waiter asks to come across some proof... (full context)

Bernice rejects Holden'southward accelerate, eventually asking him how old he is. This offends him, just he yet sits... (total context)

In the hotel lobby, Holden thinks again virtually Jane Gallagher and Stradlater, hoping that nothing happened between them on their... (total context)

Holden remembers how happy he used to be when he held Jane's hand and says that... (full context)

On his way to Ernie's, Holden strikes up a chat with his cab commuter, Horwitz. When he asks almost the ducks... (full context)

At Ernie's, Holden is disgusted to find the place total of "phonies" from fancy colleges and prep schools.... (full context)

As Holden takes in the scene, a immature adult female named Lillian Simmons approaches him. Lillian used to... (total context)

Feeling terrible for running from Ernie's, Holden walks 41 blocks dorsum to his hotel, thinking virtually how he wished he still had... (total context)

As Holden thinks about his lost gloves and his own cowardliness, he becomes more and more than depressed.... (full context)

While taking the lift back to his hotel room, Holden meets Maurice, the lift operator. Maurice offers to send a prostitute to his room for... (full context)

Back in his hotel room, Holden waits for Maurice to send a prostitute. Presently, a young woman named Sunny arrives.... (total context)

Sunny is frustrated by Holden's lack of sexual desire, telling him that Maurice woke her up specifically to run into him.... (full context)

Lone in his hotel room once again, Holden starts talking aloud to Allie. He does this sometimes when he feels very depressed. When... (full context)

Unable to slumber, Holden lights a cigarette and sits on the bed smoking until a knock sounds on the... (full context)

When Sunny and Maurice get out, Holden imagines that he's in an action motion-picture show, pretending that he's been shot in the gut... (full context)

When Holden wakes up the side by side morning time (afterwards just a few hours of sleep), he thinks once... (full context)

Holden checks out of the hotel and goes to Grand Central Station to shop his bags... (full context)

Holden starts talking to the nuns in the sandwich shop and learns that they've come to... (full context)

Holden decides to buy a record for Phoebe. The album is for children, and Holden knows... (total context)

Holden goes to Broadway to purchase theater tickets for his date with Sally. He despises the... (full context)

Holden gets tickets for him and Sally to go to a play starring several famous actors.... (full context)

Having secured theater tickets, Holden goes to the park to find Phoebe. When he arrives, though, she's nowhere to be... (full context)

Holden thinks about how comforting information technology is that the displays in the Museum of Natural History... (total context)

Holden has time to spare before Sally arrives, specially since she's always late. As he waits,... (full context)

On the cab ride to the theater, Holden convinces Sally to "horse around" with him, though she doesn't want to at first because—according... (full context)

Holden doesn't find the play as bad every bit he expected it to be, but he still... (full context)

Holden suspects that Sally but wants to go skating because the rink gives girls a small-scale... (total context)

On edge because of the play and because of Sally'south question about Christmas Eve, Holden suddenly leans forward and asks if she ever gets fed upwards with stuff like school.... (total context)

Holden tells Sally that she should try going to a boys' school onetime, since boys' schools... (full context)

Sally reminds Holden that they're too young to go off on their own, insisting that they'll have plenty... (full context)

Holden stops into a drugstore for a sandwich later leaving Sally. Once again, he goes into... (full context)

Holden takes out his address volume and sifts through it, hoping to discover somebody who might... (full context)

Holden thinks about the books D.B. gave him after coming dwelling from World War 2. Although... (full context)

Holden waits for Carl Luce at the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel, which he describes... (full context)

When Luce arrives, Holden points out the group of men at the other terminate of the bar and asks... (full context)

Later a while, Holden says the main problem with his sexual activity life is that he can't become intimate with... (total context)

Holden stays at the Wicker Bar and gets boozer. At 1 betoken, he gets the waiter's... (full context)

Returning to the bar later on his phone conversation with Sally, Holden goes to the bathroom, fills the sink with cold water, and dunks his head into... (full context)

Holden walks to Fundamental Park to check on the ducks in the lagoon. On his manner,... (full context)

Envisioning his ain death, Holden thinks of how atrocious Phoebe would experience if he died of pneumonia, so he decides... (full context)

Holden sneaks into his family'southward flat past lying to the elevator operator, who is new to... (total context)

Holden wakes Phoebe, who's overjoyed to see him and immediately floods him with news, telling him... (full context)

...into the living room to fetch a cigarette from a small box on the table, Holden reenters Phoebe's room. She is all the same "ostracizing" him, merely she has at least started talking... (full context)

Phoebe doesn't say anything to Holden, merely he tin tell she's listening, so he keeps talking well-nigh how much he hates... (full context)

Phoebe accuses Holden of never liking anything. When he argues this bespeak, she challenges him to proper name one... (full context)

Finally, Holden says that he likes Allie and talking to Phoebe. Phoebe, for her part, says this... (full context)

Still trying to answer Phoebe'south question, Holden mentions the song he heard a footling male child singing on the street earlier that twenty-four hour period.... (full context)

After listening to Holden talk well-nigh condign the catcher in the rye, Phoebe in one case again reminds him that their... (total context)

Holden calls Mr. Antolini, who tells him he tin can come over right away if he wants,... (full context)

Back in Phoebe's room, Holden convinces his little sis to dance with him. Since he thinks Phoebe is one of... (full context)

When his mother leaves the room, Holden creeps out of the cupboard and prepares to get out. Because he's running low on money,... (full context)

When Holden arrives at Mr. Antolini'southward apartment, he sees that Mr. Antolini and his wife have merely... (full context)

Mr. Antolini questions Holden well-nigh his expulsion, saying that he hopes he didn't neglect English language. Holden assures him that... (total context)

Mr. Antolini tells Holden that he had lunch with his father recently. This evidently took place shortly before Holden's... (total context)

Mr. Antolini elaborates on his ideas, telling Holden that he tin envision him dying "nobly" for some pointless cause. He then quotes a... (full context)

Dissimilar Holden, Mr. Antolini shows no signs of being tired. Continuing his lecture, he says he suspects... (full context)

As Mr. Antolini holds forth with his advice, Holden accidentally yawns. He immediately feels rude for doing this, just Mr. Antolini only laughs and... (full context)

In Grand Central Station, Holden sleeps on a bench in a waiting area. Having never felt more depressed in his... (total context)

As Holden exits K Central Station, he begins to feel ill, realizing that he has a cold... (full context)

Holden decides that the just thing for him to exercise is get out New York Metropolis once... (full context)

After delivering the notation for Phoebe, Holden exits the schoolhouse by using a different staircase. On his way out, he notices yet... (full context)

Holden sets out for the Museum of Art. On his fashion, he considers calling Jane Gallagher,... (total context)

Upset, Holden goes to the bath in the museum, feeling suddenly sick. After he uses the toilet,... (total context)

Holden grabs Phoebe's suitcase and leaves it at the glaze-check in the museum. He and then tries... (full context)

After meandering silently through the zoo, Holden and Phoebe beginning to walk toward a big carousel where Holden, Allie, and D.B. used... (full context)

When Phoebe finishes riding the carousel, Holden encourages her to take some other ride. Before she does, though, she takes the hunting hat... (total context)

Holden concludes by refusing to say what happened after he and Phoebe went to the carousel... (total context)

D.B. visits Holden quite frequently. He recently asked how Holden feels about everything that has happened to him... (full context)