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.