Chapter 1 & 2 quiz and discussion points
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The Catcher In The Rye: Chapter 1 & 2 study guide.
1. What did Holden lose in the subway?
2. Holden’s brother wrote a favorite story of Holden’s. What is that story about?
3. What historical artifact is on top of Thomson hill, the hill where Holden watches the football game?
4. Holden’s brother used to write short fiction, what does he do now?
5. The Spencers, old as they are, got a big bang out of buying something in Yellowstone. What did they buy?
6. Why is Spencer saying goodbye to Holden—it’s only winter break?
7. What does Spencer keep calling Holden? (Holden does not like the term).
8. Holden thinks about Central park, and how the Lagoon in Central park South would be frozen over in the winter. What residents of the lagoon is Holden worried about?
9. How might we describe Salinger’s style as a writer? Be specific in your answer.
10. What do we make of Holden right away?
11. Make an inference about whether or not Salinger wants us to identify with Holden or whether he wants us to dislike him. Offer logical support for your inference.
12. How do we feel about his losing the fencing equipment? About his desire to visit the old teacher, Mr. Spencer? What about his being expelled for academic failures?
13. This is classic American fiction—a “Great American Novel.” So, what, so far, is Salinger suggesting about America?
14. Holden doesn’t like Mr. Haas from Elkton Hills (a previous school he claims to have quit) because he mistreats some parents. What are we to make of Holden here?
15. How do we feel about him in light of his sense of disgust and pity for old Spencer? (Open for debate).
The Catcher In The Rye: Chapter 3 & 4 Study guide.
1. What does Holden buy for one dollar in New York? It’s red and he likes it a lot.
2. How does Holden feel about his neighbor, Robert Ackley?
3. Ackley comments that Holden’s hat is a deer shooting hat, but Holden says that it is for shooting what? He says he shoots what in the hat?
4. What does Ackley cut in Holden’s room?
5. What favor does Stradlater want Holden to do (not lend or give) for him?
6. What does Holden lend Stradlater?
7. Holden becomes nervous about Stradlater’s date? Why?
8. Stradlater has photogenic looks, is popular with the ladies, but secretly he is a what? This is something that a roommate would know.
9. Holden remembers Jane Gallagher playing a game foolishly—she does something that looks nice, but is strategically foolish. What game is this?
10. Why include Ossenburger (the mortician) in the text? What might be Salinger’s purpose?
11. What are we to make of Edgar Marsalla’s reaction to Ossenburger? Is Ossenburger a phony? Is Holden fair to Ossenburger. Is this an attack on conformity or a lashing out at success? Fully explain your answer.
12. Holden tells us he loves to lie. What can we make of this? Fully explain your answer.
13. What is the significance of the hat? He wears it backwards—any significance to wearing a hat backwards? Brainstorm and offer an original response.
14. How might we characterize Salinger’s style so far? Be very specific.
15. How do we feel about Holden’s reactions to Ackley? Explain your answer.
16. Holden criticizes many of those around him. What is the theme or pattern to his criticism?
17. What about the significance of Jane’s leaving her kings lined up in checkers? Fully explain your answer.
Catcher In The Rye chapter 5 & 6 Study guide
1. What did Pencey always serve for dinner on Saturday nights?
2. What does the bus driver make Holden throw out of the bus?
3. What was written all over Allie’s fielder’s mitt?
4. What color hair did Allie have?
5. What did Holden break the night Allie died?
6. What is Holden worried about when Stradlater returns for the night?
7. What does Holden do to the essay he wrote?
8. What word does Stradlater not like to be called?
9. Who gets punched in the nose and ends up with a bloody face?
10. What kind of mitt is Allie’s?
11. Why doesn’t he throw the snowball at the car or hydrant? What does this tell us about Holden? Brainstorm this and then fully support your answer.
12. What is implied, or symbolized, in Holden’s holding on to the snowball? Brainstorm and offer a thoughtful response.
13. What does he feel strongly about? What does he not criticize, or even protect? Offer a complete answer here.
14. What is the significance of Allie’s death? How does it affect our interpretation of Holden? Does it, perhaps, explain or justify his indifference towards life? Is it a valid excuse? Fully support your answer.
15. What do we make of his attack on Stradlater? Does Stradlater deserve it? Explain your answer.
16. Is Holden attacking Stradlater because he himself has a crush on Jane? Support your answer with logic and evidence.
17. Why doesn’t Holden protect Jane Gallagher from Stradlater? Can he?
The Catcher In The Rye: Chapter 7 & 8 Study Guide
1. Where does Holden go immediately after the fight with his Stradlater?
2. Where does Holden decide to go later that night?
3. Holden packs something his mother recently gave him and seeing (or packing) this gift makes him sad. What gift makes him sad?
4. What does Holden sell for $20 to a guy down the hall?
5. Where does Holden run into Ernest Morrow’s mother?
6. What illegal thing does Holden offer Mrs. Morrow?
7. What big medical lie does Holden tell about himself?
8. How does Holden’s wealth affect our interpretation of the novel? Would the story mean something different if he were poor?
9. Note in chapter 7 that Ackley notes that he must attend Mass in the morning and becomes furious with Holden for keeping him awake. Ackley heavily uses the words “Chrissake” and “Hell” in the context of needing his sleep for Mass. He goes on to warn Holden not to criticize his Catholic faith. What is the point of all this? Fully explain your answer.
10. What is this novel about? What might be Salinger’s message?
11. What does he mean by “usually read one of those magazines” (with guys named David and girls named Marcia) on the train at night? What theme is being developed here? Be specific in your answer.
12. Is Holden contemptible when he lies to Mrs. Morrow? Does he go too far? What can we make of that episode?
13. What essential contradiction in his character is exposed by his habit of lying?
The Catcher In The Rye: Chapter 9 & 10 Study guide
1. When Holden gets off the train, he goes into a phone booth. Who does he end up calling?
2. Holden asks a cab driver about a kind of animal. The cab driver thinks the question is some sort of joke. What animal does Holden ask about?
3. What perverted things does he see from his hotel window? (name one of two).
4. He calls Faith Cavendish. What does he ask her?
5. Who does Holden want to call but doesn’t. He ends up talking quite a bit about this person.
6. He meets three girls in the Lavender room. Bernice, the blonde one, is good at something. Holden comments on it several times. What is she good at?
7. The three girls are from where?
8. What does Holden drink while he’s in the Lavender room?
9. Who pays for all the drinks?
10. Holden goes into the phone booth, but doesn’t call anyone. Is this becoming a theme?
11. Some might say he is psychologically paralyzed. In what ways is he psychologically paralyzed?
12. He gives the cab driver his home address. What message or idea can we infer from this mistake?
13. When he calls Faith Cavendish, he tells her it’s tonight or never; then he wishes he had made a date tomorrow. What are we to make of this? Fully develop your answer.
14. Holden sort of despises the girls for their touristy ways and their desire to see movie stars and for their interest in Radio City Music Hall. Is he a snob, or is he right to despise commercialism?
15. Why does he stay with them if he despises them?
16. What thematic idea or issue does Salinger highlight, or evoke, through Holden’s interactions with faith Cavendish, the Seattle girls, the cab driver? We might add to this Holden’s episode of watching the “perverts” in their hotel windows.
Catcher In The Rye: Chapter 11 & 12 Study Guide.
1. Holden reminisces about how he met Jane Gallagher. Holden’s mother complained about something of the Gallagher’s. What did she complain about?
2. What sport did Jane manage to lose eight balls playing?
3. Holden shows Jane something of his that he has not let anyone else, outside of his family see. What is it?
4. What does Jane Gallagher do when her step father asks her for cigarettes?
5. Holden asks a cab driver about the central park ducks. The cab driver doesn’t care about the ducks. What animal is he worried (or interested) about?
6. What instrument does Ernie, the bar owner, play?
7. A guy at the next table gives his date a feel under the table while he tells her about what? (hint: not football, that’s another table).
8. Holden runs into Lillian Simmons, a former girlfriend of DB’s. Who is she dating now?
9. What are we to make of Jane’s silent Crying after Mr. Cudahy (booze hound stepfather) asks her for cigarettes? What is implied here?
10. Is Holden’s response to her tears adequate? Why or why not?
11. Ernie plays the piano, and his playing is viewed as holy by the audience. He has a mirror in front of him and a spotlight. What message about aesthetics, about art, does Salinger convey here? Fully explain and support your answer.
12. Holden notes that it’s not all Ernie’s fault that he style has become corrupted; it’s the fault of the audience as well. Is this true? Can we apply this to popular culture? Brainstorm and offer complete, concrete examples to support your answer.
13. What significance is there in the guy giving the girl a feel under the table while he tells her about a suicide attempt? Theme?
14. Why does DB come up in this section? What is the purpose of his character being referenced here?
The Catcher In The Rye: Study guide Chapter 13 & 14
1. Holden considers his courage and wonders what he would have done if he caught the person in the dorm who stole something from him. What was stolen in the dorm?
2. In what part of the hotel does Holden meet a pimp and arrange for a visit from a prostitute?
3. What does Holden put in the closet for Sunny?
4. How much does Holden give to Sunny?
5. Who does Holden talk to in the hotel room after Sunny leaves? He states that he often talks to this absent person when he’s depressed.
6. According to Holden, did Judas end up in Hell?
7. Who shows up to his room after he goes to bed?
8. How much money do Maurice and Sonny take when they return?
9. He debates his cowardice with himself, wondering if he is, in fact, yellow. Is he? Is it cowardice to not sock the guy who steals his gloves? How does this play into the novel’s themes?
10. Again, Holden wishes he had said something different than what he says to the pimp on the Elevator (Maurice). He wishes he had not agreed to the “throw.” Does this contribute to one of the novel’s themes?
11. What do we make of his discussion about taking no for an answer with girls? What effect does this trait have on us, the readers?
12. What developing theme in this novel is supported by Holden’s unwillingness to sleep with Sunny? State the theme, and then explain how this refusal supports this theme.
13. How do we feel about Holden by the end of chapter 14? He cries; he’s wearing pajamas when he confronts Maurice; he calls Maurice a moron. Do we have empathy for him or something else? Brainstorm and offer a thoughtful response.
14. Note that Holden is thinking about religion and his deceased brother Allie when Maurice and Sonny return. What is achieved by this contrast, this juxtaposition?
The Catcher In The Rye: Study Guide Chapters 15 & 16
1. What does Holden’s father do for a living?
2. Holden remembers a roommate, Dick Slagel, who apparently was ashamed about his relative lack of wealth. What did Dick Slagel have cheap versions of that stood out in contrast to Holden’s expensive versions? Slagel kept his hidden.
3. Who does Holden give ten dollars to while he’s having breakfast?
4. What play does he discuss while eating breakfast? He likes a supporting character more than the title character.
5. What bothers Holden about a lot of Catholics?
6. What gift does Holden buy Pheobe for 5 dollars?
7. What Play did DB take Holden and Pheobe to see the year before? Holden didn’t like the interpretation of the title character by the main actor.
8. Holden helps a child in the park (tighten) what kind of sports gear.
9. Holden remembers, in great detail, a place he often visited with his primary school classes. What is that place?
10. Make a thoughtful inference as to why Holden doesn’t like movies and the theater.
11. What can we make of his experience with Dick Slagel, who had cheap suitcases, and called Holden Bourgeois, but who secretly wanted to be seen as rich, too? Holden notes that he misses Slagel, but that it’s hard to room with someone if they have cheap suitcases.
12. The kid singing the song “if a body catch a body coming through the rye” is the title reference. What might this phrase mean? Brainstorm and offer a thoughtful answer.
13. Is this idea of two people meeting in the tall rye a useful metaphor—for what? Fully explain your answer.
14. What does Salinger accomplish with Holden’s helping the kid tighten her skate and then comment on how nice most kids are?
15. Holden puts on his hat when he becomes depressed by the passage of time on page 122. When, in general, does he put it on, or mention it. What is its import?
The Catcher In The Rye: Chapters 17 & 18 Study Guide.
1. When he sees Sally in her black coat and black beret, Holden feels like doing what to her? He notes that he must be crazy because he doesn’t even like her, but he still feels like doing this to her.
2. What does Sally want to do at Radio City Music Hall (What does sally suggest they do after the show?)
3. What does Sally think of his idea about going to Massachusetts and Vermont?
4. Holden insults Sally and she becomes upset and cries. While he is apologizing, he does something that makes her even angrier. What does he do?
5. Who, from Holden’s family, was in WWII?
6. What does Holden think of The Great Gatsby?
7. If there is another war, what is Holden going to sit right on top of?
8. How do Holden’s artistic views either support or contradict his various views of the world. Be specific in your answer.
9. What symbol does Salinger use to denote tension just before Holden and Sally start to fight?
10. Is his plan to go up to Massachusetts and Vermont Coherent? Where does that plan seem to come from? What does it say about him?
11. What do we learn about Holden from his reaction to the war movie?
The Catcher In The Rye: Chapters 19 & 20 study guide.
1. Two girls used to sing at the wicker bar; they had a foreign accent and sang some parts of the songs in a foreign language. What language?
2. Luce claims to be dating a girl from where? This was rare in 1949.
3. Roughly speaking, how old does Luce say the girl is?
4. Luce is good at what—according to Holden and a test at Whooton? Algebra, chemistry, vocabulary, history.
5. Who does he call after leaving the wicker bar?
6. How does he get all wet?
7. What does he drop and break right when he gets to Central park?
8. What does he look for in the park?
9. What does Holden do with his last five quarters and a nickel?
10. Where does he decide to go at the chapter’s conclusion?
11. What can we say about Holden’s respect for Luce? What does Salinger establish with this scene? Note that Luce seems to be a questionable influence upon Holden.
12. Holden considers calling Jane again, but doesn’t. What can we take away from this?
13. Does it seem likely that he will ever call her? Why or why not?
14. Is his final destination (home) significant?
The Catcher In The Rye: Chapters 21 & 22 Study Guide.
1. Holden goes to Phoebe’s room, but she’s not there. Where is she?
2. What does Holden read while Phoebe sleeps?
3. What inference about Holden does Phoebe correctly make and then become upset about?
4. At the end of chapter 21, Holden goes into the living room to get what? He has run out of them.
5. Phoebe asks Holden to name one thing…. What one thing is he supposed to name?
6. He remembers a kid to committed suicide at school. What did that kid borrow from Holden?
7. Ultimately, what does Holden tell Phoebe that he wants to be?
8. Holden leaves his conversation with phoebe to make a phone call. Who does he call?
9. As Holden leaves Phoebe’s room, she shows him a trick. What does she try to do, or show him?
10. What does Holden’s interest in Phoebe’s notebook seem to say about his feelings about art? It would be a good idea to contrast this to his evident contempt for movies and popular art.
11. What are we to make of Holden’s close friendship with Phoebe? What insight about Holden does this friendship offer?
12. What kind of kid is Phoebe? What do we make of her response to Holden’s gift of the broken record?
13. Is there any significance to Castle wearing Holden’s shirt when he dies? How might this be symbolic—and what might be symbolized here? Fully explain your answer.
14. Is there anything notable or symbolic about James Castle’s name? Brainstorm and offer a thoughtful answer.
15. On page 173, Holden explains his “crazy” fantasy. He sees himself catching children who are playing in the rye near a cliff. He’ll be the Catcher in the Rye. What might this symbolize? Think carefully about your answer and offer a full explanation.
The Catcher In The Rye Chapter 23 study guide.
1. What do Phoebe and Holden do when he returns from his phone call to me Antolini? They do this four times, or in four variations.
2. Phoebe shows Holden a trick she learned from Alice Holmborg. The trick does not appear to work, but Holden plays along. What is the trick.
3. What does Phoebe graciously take the blame for when her parents return. The sin was Holden’s.
4. What does Phoebe not like about the way Charlene serves food?
5. What does Phoebe give Holden just as he leaves?
6. How does Holden respond to Her gift? His response scares the hell out of her.
7. What, does Holden give to Phoebe as he leaves?
8. He remembers that Mr. Antolini was noble in his response to James Castle’s suicide. Antolini covered Castle with his own jacket and carried his body to the infirmary. Why might he want to go to Mr. Antolini’s house rather than stay at his own family’s house—at this point in his odyssey? Fully explain your answer.
9. He says as he sneaks out of the apartment that he “almost wished they did, in a way [Catch him]” (180). What are we to make of that? Fully explain your answer.
10. What can we make of Holden’s giving Phoebe the hat? How might this action, or gesture, be symbolic? Brainstorm and fully explain and support your answer.
The Catcher In The Rye: Chapter 24 Study Guide.
1. Who doesn’t want Holden to look at them?
2. What happened earlier in the evening at the Antolinis’ house?
3. What does Mr. Antolini consume while he talks to Holden?
4. Mr. Antolini notes that he recently had lunch with whom (someone close to Holden)?
5. What do the boys in Vinson’s class yell when students get off topic in their speeches?
6. What does Mr. Antolini do to Holden while Holden sleeps?
7. What does Holden do when we wakes up in the Antolini apartment?
8. Mr. Antolini tells Holden, “…you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior” (189). Is Antolini correct about Holden’s problem? Is Holden reacting to the realities of the human condition—to the truths of adulthood? Or, does he have a different problem? Fully explain you answer.
9. Was Antolini being a pervert, as Holden believes? Fully support your answer.
10. Whose fault is all this disillusionment? Is this a novel about how terrible the world is, or about how unprepared for the world Holden is? Or is it a novel about something else?
The Catcher In The Rye: Chapter 25 & 26 Study guide.
1. What does he ask Allie when he thinks he’s falling from the curbs?
2. While walking across town, feeling lousy, Holden decides to move where?
3. To whom does Holden write a note?
4. What was Phoebe wearing when Holden sees here at the museum?
5. What does she bring, dragging, with her to the museum?
6. What does Phoebe want to do, beg Holden to do? He tells her no.
7. Where does Holden suggest they both go together? He says he’ll take her there if she returns to school the next day.
8. What kind of mechanical, or carnival, ride does Phoebe ride on at the zoo?
9. How does Holden get all wet at the zoo?
10. Where is Holden at the end of the novel?
11. Why does it seem to depress Holden when people wish him good luck? What is it that bothers him so much in that wish? He gets mad when Spencer says it early in the book, and again when the office lady says it at Phoebe’s school. Brainstorm and offer a thoughtful answer.
12. The words “F*%$ You” on the wall at the children’s school infuriates him. Why? What larger issue (larger than the mere fact of profanity) is Holden reacting to?
13. Note where Holden ends up (the mummy’s tomb) when the two little kids run away. How might this be symbolic?
14. He passes out after using the bathroom. Is this in some way symbolic? Fully explain you answer.
15. He notes that “if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off…” (211). Brainstorm and fully explain the significance of this statement.
16. We find, conclusively, that he is in a mental institution at the end, but is going back to school in the fall. He is being psychoanalyzed. Does this mean he is crazy? Does this undermine his entire narrative? Fully explain your answer.
17. He concluded the novel with this advice: “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (214). What does this advice mean?
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