The+Odyssey



//Where is Holden Caulfield? (Kristine) // From the first chapter, it is obvious that Holden experienced a prolonged series of misfortune "before [he] got pretty run down" and landed himself in a mental institution (1). Holden refers to his residence as a "crumby place" and "that [his brother] comes and visits [him] practically every weekend" (1). If you need more evidence, Holden refers to "madman stuff" as the cause for him being where he is and feels as though he may "go home next month" (1).

 He's Atop Thomsen Hill (//Kristine)// Instead if being down at the Game of the Year for Pencey Prep, Holden is up on Thomsen Hill looking down at his peers. The game against Saxon Hall was a "very big deal" and yet, Holden was all alone. Clearly, he doesn't feel any desire nor obligation to be around his classmates -seeing as though he has no place among them- and is therefore, isolated from the teenage world he is supposed to be apart of.

= The Visit to "old Spencers" and Elkton Hills (//Vani//) = ==== Holden's visit to "old Spencer" was to say his final good-bye to him, before he left Pencey Prep. Holden described how when he entered "old Spencers" room it "smelled like Vicks Nose Drops" and "there were pills and medicine all over the place"( 7). This scene displays how "old Spencer" is very ill and old. This example ties into the theme mortality because it shows how "old Spencer" is slowly dying and becoming more weak as he gets older. ==== ==== The reason why Holden let Elkton Hills was because he felt that "[he] was surrounded by phonies" (13). Holden explained that people with phony behavior "[drove] him crazy" (14). He gave an example were his principal would judge people's importance by the way they looked, and when the principal met someone not specifically important he just put a fake smile on and shook their hand. ====

= A Red Hat and a Guy Named Ossenburger ( //Vani// ) = ==== The way Holden's dorms at Pencey Prep were paid for was by an old student from Pencey, called Ossenburger. Ossenburger "started these undertaking parlors all over the country [where] [people] could get members of [their] family buried for [ ] five bucks a piece" (16). From his business Ossenburger gave a lot of money to Pencey, which resulted in the school building a new wing and naming it after him. This fits in with the theme __mortality__ because Ossenburger's business is about burryiing someone's dead body for a cheap price. Because of Ossenburger's cheap and depressing business, Pencey Prep was allowed to have new dorms. ==== ==== On his way back from his fencing game, Holden purchased a red hunting hat that" [he] saw [ ] in the windows of [a] sports store' (17). Holden explained how the hat only cost one dollar and described how " [he] swung the old peak" backwards,and how he thought he looked good in it. ====

Allie's Mitt (Cristian)

In chapter 5, Holden finally begins Stradlater’s composition after he returns from his day with Ackley and Brossard. Instead of writing about a room of a house, Holden starts writing about his brother’ baseball mitt. His little brother Allie, who died of leukemia, used to be a very intelligent boy and the nicest of his family. Since Holden was assigned to write about a room you can tell, even now, that he isn’t taking his brother’s death so lightly. On the night of Allie’s death, Holden reveals that he slept in the garage that night and “broke all the windows with [his] fist.” He even attempted to break all the windows in the station wagon, but his fist was broken by then. “[His] hand still hurts [him] once and awhile, when it rains and all” (50).

=__Chapters 6-14__= Adam Vatai, Hector Cardenas, Sebastian Bedoya

__Ducks, Phony Girls, and Jane__
By: Hector Cardenas

Holden takes a cab to the hotel and when he is inside, he asks the cab driver a strange question. He asks him if he knows anything about the "ducks" and if he knows where they go after the lake "gets frozen all over" (60). This brings back the theme of mortality because Holden thinks they just die when they really just migrate during the winter season. Then, Holden decides to go down to the hotel's lavender room where he immediately notices three pretty ladies, all older than him, and dances with them. While they dance, he finds out they are just three pretty "phonies". While they dance he asks each of them a question but, they just say "what?" and he has to constantly repeat himself (72). It turns out that they do not want to dance with him; they just want to find some celebrities. At one point Holden teases one of them by saying he sees one and of course she immediately turns to say "where?" (74) Finally, he goes back and starts to think about Jane. Salinger reveals that they held hands during movies and how they had a very special relationship. The author dedicates to whole chapter to prove to the reader Holden still has strong feeling towards Jane.

__Stradlater, Ackley, and Ernest's Mom__
By. Adam

Holden and Stradlater have disliked each other for quite some time; and it seems like Holden is just about fed up with it. Stradlater had taken Jane Gallagher out on a date, and Holden wanted to know if he "gave her the time". As it turns out, Stradlater did actually give her the time, so Holden decided that first degree murder was not so bad and tried to kill Stradlater by making him choke on a toothbrush. Luckily Holden failed and he was pinned to the ground by Stradlater, this really made Holden mad so he decided that he would go talk to Ackley. Ackley is a kid that almost everyone hates, mostly because he is "the biggest jerk in school" but also because he is in the preliminary stages of gingivitis(or he just does not brush his teeth). This tells us that Holden is and outgoing person and that he really does not care who he befriends as long as they are not too big of a "phony". While Ackley and Holden are talking, the topic of Monasteries comes up, and Holden tells Ackley that he would not join a Monastery; because he does not want to be Catholic. He also says that monks are a bunch of "phony bastards" and that he'd go insane if he had to live with them. This helps to strengthen the theme of isolation because Holden does not want to join a religion with about 2 billion members. Christianity is like a community and he is trying to alienate himself from it.

__Hypocrisy__
In chapter 8 Holden is fleeing Penecy and is on a train. On the train, he meets the mom of a kid named Ernest who also goes to Penecy. They chat about the topic of Ernest and Holden starts giving her lies, like "everybody wanted him to be class president, but he was too modest and turned it down". This scene has caused many critics (who have nothing better to do than criticize books) to argue that Holden is a "hypocrite". This however is untrue, now put yourself in Holden's shoes, you are next to someone's mom who apparently had a "good sex appeal", what would you do? I mean im not trying to promote lying, however this would be a special case; because, any sane or even mattoid person would tell her lies because you know it's human nature to be kind to an attractive person. This is why Holden could not be considered a hypocrite because he was just lying, and if lying meant being a hypocrite, then wouldn't you and I as well as every human be considered a hypocrite?

__ **Fish, Crappy Piano Players, and Prostitutes** __

By Sebastian Bedoya

=
In a cab to watch Ernie play the piano, Holden has a conversation with the cab driver. Horwitz, the cab driver, gets asked the question about where the ducks go after the lake freezes over. Horwitz immediately disregards the question and begins to speak about the fish in the pond. Basically, he said that the fish don't die because mother nature takes care of them and that mother nature will take care of you. This philosophy doesn't seem to help Holden, mostly because mother nature doesn't really take care of Holden like she does to the fish. He soon arrives at his destination, Ernie's. Holden doesn't like Ernie at all. He says the Ernie is stuck up and will only speak to big-shots. Also the crowd is full of morons that will clap at anything Ernie plays, even though it isn't very good. He states that since everyone just applauds no matter what, Ernie doesn't even know if he's good or bad. Back at the hotel, the Elevator asks Holden if he's up for a good time. Meaning hes going to send him a prostitute for 5 bucks. At his hotel room, Holden gets dressed and ready for the momentous occasion. When the time comes however, he just wants to talk with Sunny, the prostitute. This shoes that Holden is a nervous person and would really just rather talk with a lady than give her the time. Not feeling to sexy anymore, Holden makes up a story about having an operation on his clavichord. Sunny asks for her 10 dollars and Holden gives her 5, insisting that the price was 5 dollars. She leaves the room and the next morning, shows up with Maurice, the elevator man. They demand their money but Holden refuses because Maurice said it was 5 dollars. Maurice then goes on to punch Holden and leave him on the floor. After this incident, Holden has a fantasy about coming back to kill Maurice with an automatic, then Jane bandages up his wounds. Holden feels terrible and contemplates suicide. he says he would do it if there weren't going to be rubbernecks trying to find out what happened.=====

__ **Chapters 15-18** __

__Chapter 15__ By Miranda Machado

Holden seems to be stuck between two girls, of which he likes for different reasons; however, I think he takes more notice of Jane than Sally. In fact, he pays so much attention to her that he notices the little things she does such as keeping all of her kings in the back row. Holden even mentions that Sally is a "phony" just for saying the word grand. It shows that he doesn't care too much about her if her saying one word annoys him so much. "If there's one word I hate, it's grand. It's so phony" (106).
 * Sally Hayes or Jane Gallagher**

During Holden's encounter with the nuns, the play Romeo and Juliet comes up in their conversation. He explains to the two kind ladies that he isnt too fond of the play because the two main characters kill themselves and Mercutio is killed by someone other than himself. Holden even shares with the nuns that Mercutio is his favorite character because he was "smart and entertaining". He probably saw Mercutio as being someone who fit the personality of Allie perfectly. Unfortunately, Allie, just like Mercutio did not choose to die. Allie died unwillingly due to sickness while Mercutio died at the hands of Tybalt. This just added to the hatred Holden had for Romeo and Juliet because they chose their death. __Chapter 16__ By Heather Rubin ** Little Shirley Beans ** Holden found the record called "Little Shirley Beans" for Phoebe. The record was "about a little kid that wouldn't go out of the house because two of her front teeth were out and she was ashamed to" (114). The record represented that innocence that Holden cherishes. Holden prefers Estelle Fletcher's rendition of the song because she sang it in a way that makes “it doesn’t sound at all mushy” and phony (115). This to Holden “was one of the best records [he] ever heard” (115). **The Little Singing Boy** The song the little boy coming out of the church was singing was “If a body catch a body coming through the rye" (115). Holden said you could tell he was “just singing for the hell of it” (115). This made Holden feel “not so depressed anymore” (115) because this exhibited the innocence of the child. “It made [Holden] feel better” (115). Any form of innocence seemed to make Holden feel better.  **The Indian Room** Holden’s favorite room in the museum is the Indian room because he had many memories about when he revered it as a child. He admired the fact that every time the children would visit that room, the exhibits wouldn’t change, but the children would. In that way, he admired the exhibit. He “kept thinking about old Phoebe going to that museum on Saturdays the way [he] used to” (122). This relates to the theme of innocence in the novel because as the children change, their innocence disappears. Unlike the museum exhibits, which will always stay the same. **__Chapter 17:__** By Sarin Itty **Holden's Date with Sally Hayes: (Sarin Itty)** Holden asks Sally if “ [she] ever get scared that everything was going to go lousy unless [she] did something? I mean do [she] like school, and all that stuff?" Sally responds by telling Holden not to shout. Holden wants to escape his life in NY and run away with Sally. Naturally, Sally disagrees saying that they are “just children.” Holden is afraid that he will have nothing to do after college.
 * Romeo and Juliet**

Throughout their conversation, Salinger forces us to figure out something regarding shouting. Every time Holden criticizes, Sally says to not shout. Sally represents the community who does not want to think like Holden, so they push Holden away from society. This indirect characterization shows that Sally (the public) want to ignore other people’s troubles and continue on with their perfect lives.
 * Shouting!: (Sarin Itty) **

By Sarin Itty
 * __ Chapter 18: __**

A main event in Chapter 18 is when Holden goes to visit the Rockettes in Radio City. Most people consider these shows as beautiful and perfect. However, Holden sees many flaws. He considers the show “boring” and “phony.” He was fuming because an elderly person was becoming very effusive over the Rockettes. For Holden, the too perfect Rockettes are too good. So, they are considered as "phonies."
 * __ Rockettes:(Sarin Itty) __**
 * __ Atomic Bomb: (Sarin Itty) __**

Holden is glad that the atomic bomb is invented because Holden is depressed from the “phonies” surrounding him. He doesn't feel like life is worth living anymore.