Reading Journal 3: 1/28

While Holden converses with Mr. Antolini, who steers the conversation towards Holden and aspects of his psyche, a prediction of Holden's future (what it may be, hold for him) appears; this future referred to as "...a terrible, terrible fall... (Salinger 186)" The sentences begin: "It may be the kind [of fall] where... Then again you may just pick up enough education to... Or you may end up in... (186)"; informal, inebriated palaver, heard by a youngster's ears, are read through the clouded goggles of matured adolescence that Salinger forces and keeps upon us, through his quite effective methods of story-telling.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951

While watching the show with Sally, Holden remembers watching "Hamlet" with D.B. and Phoebe. He comments that he got a big bang out of watching "...Ophelia...sort of horsing around with her brother... (Salinger 117)," which was "the best part in the whole picture... (117)" "But you don't see that kind of stuff much..." indicates Holden's love of actors' comfortability to live while performing (117).
Holden also confides that he has to read the play, rather than watch the actors play it out, as he is always distracted by whether or not the players are "...going to do something phony every minute," phony being considered grand acting by others (117).
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951

Reading Journal 2: 1/20

In Chapter 17, Holden, having decided loneliness is too much, and having made a date with an old "girlfriend," Sally, (after watching the show that constituted the date) joins Sally in ice-skating. The struggle to outweighing the fun, they take a break within the bar beside the rink, where she and Holden begin discussing things - not all trivial. On a whim - a method Holden often utilizes in thoughts, actions, feelings - Holden steers the conversation to several topics, beginning with "Did you ever get fed up?" leading to "How would you like to get the hell out of here?" and ending with "You give me a royal pain in the [mule], if you want to know the truth." (Salinger 130, 132, 133) During his ramblings, Sally keeps asking him not to shout - "I wasn't even shouting," - and comments a few times on the fact that Holden makes no sense, though she thinks that mainly because of the blatancy of his conversation, which she mostly drifts through (though usually he doesn't make complete sense because connections he sees and makes are impossible for readers to fully make out): "I don't know what you're even talking about...You jump from one [thing to another]...," "What?... I can't hear you. One minute you scream at me, and the next you [whisper at me]..." (130, 131, 133)
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951.

In Chapter 15, Holden sets up the date with Sally, and encounters two nuns at a deli while killing time. "It isn't important, I know, but I hate it when somebody has cheap suitcases." (Salinger 108) The chapter alternates between his story on suitcases and his conversation with the nuns. Though two completely unrelated things, it seems Salinger was subtley relating the luggage to the Women of Christ. Holden, being well off, carried Mark Cross bags, that "cost quit a pretty penny," while the nuns had "very inexpensive-looking suitcases." ( 108, 108) The comparison, though, is between what is inside the two different containers: in the Mark Cross, petty materialistic things bought with money at the price of the soul (which Holden hints at realizing); in the nuns, genuine spiritualism, peace, a promise of everlasting ecstasy, propelled along by the shell (the body) that seeks money to improve lives and spread the word of God. From then on, a change in Holden occured; nothing really tangible or able to be explained, but he becomes more introverted, searching himself for answers, though his search usually must be provoked (like by Mr. Antolini in Chapter 24).
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951.

Reading Journal 1: 1/13

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is," reading this book is, like, like reading the testament of a teenager who does not know exactly how to get his point across (the '40's male version of a Valley Girl)(Salinger 1). Simple run-on sentences litter the pages, as does "graphic" language and references to things that involve him (talked about as if the feelings, events, etc. are common knowledge); to references only people living in those times will fully comprehend ("...all that David Copperfield kind of crap," - an assumed reference to the long introduction in which Copperfield opens (the "Twilight" of the time))(1). Occuring as often, if not more than, punctuation marks, "and all that," "(it) really does," "I'm not kidding,"' these sayings sometimes make the book tiresome to read. Yet, the story of madness affecting a sixteen-year-old (though funny only half the time, despite several attempts to make light of the situation (though, when funny, you will L.O.L. (not J.K.'ing))), as told from the point of view of the afflicted, written from the pen of a near-thirty-year-old man (written so well and convincingly that those who do not know better may assume it to be a sort of biography), is well worth reading.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1946, 1951

Holden Caulfield despises the movies. His brother, D.B., "used to be just a regular writer" but "now he's out in Hollywood... being a prostitute." (Salinger 1, 2) Such a strong label/image for a Hollywood writer. Later in the book, for the details you must read, a confrontation leaves Holden on the ground because of a fist to the gut. The madness is really becoming evident halfway through the book (his imaginings rival the actual event I'm about to divulge, as he sometimes makes a sport of "horsing around") after admitting to being crazy, several times, Holden starts to pretend/act/believe: "[the man he got into a confrontation with put a] bullet in my guts...had plugged me...coming out of the...bathroom with my automatic in my pocket, and staggering around a little bit...I'd hold onto the banister and all, with this blood trickling out of the side of my mouth a little at a time. What I'd do, I'd walk down a few floors - holding onto my guts, blood leaking all over the place...he'd see me with the automatic in my hand and he'd start screaming at me, in this very high-pitched, yellow-belly voice to leave him alone. But I'd plug him anyway. Six shots right through his hairy belly," (21, 103-104). He qualifies this by commenting "The god*** movies. They can ruin you. I'm not kidding." (104)
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown Books. 1945, 1945, 1951.