Catcher in the Rye, 7-9

C) I was quite surprised to how Holden refused to talk about the fight between he and his roommate but why would he consider himself lonely if there is another person talking to him. I understand you do not wish to talk about a fight, especially after getting beaten pretty badly, but why is Holden claiming he is lonely despite Ackley being beside him. If he really felt so lonely, why wouldn’t he at least talk to Ackley and make him change the subject to something rather than the fight? “I told him I was only kidding, and then I went over and laid down on Ely’s bed. Boy, did I feel rotten. I never felt so damn lonesome” (Salinger 48).

D) The first part of the ninth chapter was very amusing to me, especially the part where Holden is trying to figure out who to call when he got off the train. He doesn’t want to call his parents so he can stay in a hotel until his winter vacation begins. I don’t understand what this is accomplishing because he will have to tell his parents about him getting kicked out of school eventually, and personally, the sooner the better. Spending his nights at a hotel is simply a big waste of money. “I mean I completely forgot, I was going to shack up in a hotel until my vacation started” (Salinger 60).

E) When Holden is describing what he sees out of the window it was not only ridiculously strange but also very funny. The man who dressed up as a lady admiring himself in the mirror and the couple who were squirting water in each others mouths I found funny.

D. I liked the quote when Holden saw his neighbors doing weird things: “After he left, I looked out the window for a while, with my coats on and all. I didn’t have anything else to do. You’d be surprised what was going on on the other side of the hotel. They didn’t even bother to pull their shades down. I saw one guy, a gray-haired, very distinguished-looking guy with only his shorts on, do something you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. First he put his suitcase on the bed. Then he took out all these women’s clothes, and put them on” (page 80). I liked this quote because it shows that people who don’t go into New York City everyday can find everything to be weird. I would think this would be weird to see, but I wouldn’t react the way Holden did.
E. I think Holden really likes Jane. When he was lying in Ely’s bed, all he could think about was Jane: “I didn’t turn it off right away, though. I just kept laying there on Ely’s bed, thinking about Jane and all. It just drove me stark staring mad when I thought about her 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” (page 63). Since Holden was acting so jealous, I think he will ask Stradlater a lot of questions about their date and how it went.
G. If I was Ackley when Holden walked into his room when he was trying to fall asleep, I would be very mad. Although I wasn’t right for Holden to do this, I guess he thought it was ok because Ackley does the same thing to him all the time.

B) In this reading we get an incite into Holden’s mind and who he hangs around with. We get to see that Holden really comes from a wealthy background and we see where he’s going to go now. We even get to see a laugh as he’s leaving his friend’s apartment to go to a hotel in New York.

C) Where is Holden now, a friend or with some random person? Why does he mention his Grandmother? I mean he starts talking about money, but then just goes off on a tangent about her. Why did he leave the building in such a rush? More importantly, when he was leaving, why did he wake everyone up by yelling? That seems like a butt move. I mean you are leaving in the middle of the night and you just wake everyone from their slumber. He really just wants to be a massive jerk to everyone around him, doesn’t he?

D) I liked the quote, “Sleep tight, ya morons” (Salinger 52) It really is a butt thing he says, because he yells it at the top of his lungs, but it is still funny. Funnier then I actually expected it to be. It really is a defining character moment for Holden; he’s willing to actually do something as butt-like as that just for the sake of doing it. It really just shows what some people will do just to get a laugh. Even making this seem more post-modern this way. You wouldn’t expect something like that from modern stories.

D. I enjoyed when he was talking to his classmate, Ernest Morrow’s, mother. I liked how he said "Rudolf Schmidt," I told her. I didn't feel like giving her my whole life history. Rudolf Schmidt was the name of the janitor of our dorm” I thought it was pretty funny how he gave her the name of the janitor. He even laughed about it when she kept calling him Rudolf. But I thought it would be even funnier later on if they met again and Ernest was there. That probably would have been a funny situation.
E. I could see many things come out of Ackley that night that Holden was sort of bothering him. It shows that one thing that Ackley really cares about is his religion. When Holden says something that Ackley finds as an insult to his religion he sat up. I feel like we got to know Ackley a little better and what he really cares about.
I. I agree with Kyle when he says that the actions the people were doing in the windows were funny. But I also found it very strange, the reasons being because they didn’t close the shades, also who would be spitting water into each other’s mouths.

C) I was shocked how Holden did not talk or brag about the fight. I understand that he lost the fight, but I expected Holden to change the story and say that he won to keep in line with his personality. Also, I did not understand why Holden said that he was lonely even though he was talking to and sitting right next to Ackley. If he wanted to change the conversation from the fight to something else, then why didn't he? “I told him I was only kidding, and then I went over and laid down on Ely’s bed. Boy, did I feel rotten. I never felt so damn lonesome” (Salinger 48).

D) I enjoyed when Holden got off the train and couldn't think of anyone to call but his parents. Holden had said earlier that he does not want to call his parents because he didn't want them to know that he had gotten kicked out of school. “I mean I completely forgot, I was going to shack up in a hotel until my vacation started” (Salinger 60). I liked this because I can relate to this from my experience of getting a bad grade and hiding it so that my parents would not get upset with me. 

E) I think that Holden has a crush on Jane. While Holden was relaxing in Ely's bed he could not get his mind off of Jane. Holden shows this when he says, “I didn’t turn it off right away, though. I just kept laying there on Ely’s bed, thinking about Jane and all. It just drove me stark staring mad when I thought about her 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 63).