Chapters+from+'The+Catcher+in+the+Rye'

Each group will post the result of their work on the individual chapters here!

// Group 1; Jannick, Malthe, Simon F, Adam and Emilie C // __ Summary __ It starts with Holden making a fuss about the food at Pencey. He is annoyed about everything being set up as a plan to make all the parents think that the school is amazing. It’s Saturday, and on Saturdays they are served steak, so when the parents come visit on Sundays and ask what they had for supper last night and answer “Steak” they’ll think the school is just perfect. As said, it’s Saturday and everyone has the night off. Holden doesn’t have a date this night so he decides to go to the movies with his friend from the wrestling team, Mal Brossard. Holden invites along Ackley, though Mal isn’t too crazy about him. They take off to the theatre, but it turns out that both Mal and Ackley has seen the movie already, so instead of watching it they go eat a burger and play pinball at the slot machines. Holden convices himself that he doesn’t really want to see the movie anyway. And especially not with those two, seeing as they always laugh out of place and such. When they get home Ackley stations himself in Holden’s room and lies on the bed. Only he doesn’t just lie down, he lies down face first on the pillow and starts to pick at his pimples. Though Holden tries very hard to hint that he wants Ackley to leave, he doesn’t get it. Finally Holden get’s his way by saying that he has to do his roomies’, Stradlater’s written assignment. Holden makes himself comfortable in his PJ’s and starts to write. He writes about his dead little brothers baseball mitt. It brings out a lot of memories, both good and bad. He tells about what a good kid his brother was and that he dies from a sickness. Leukemia. Apparently Allie (his brother) had written poems all over his baseball mitt. He’d written them so that he would have something to read while waiting in the field. Holden keeps the baseball mitt in his drawer. He says that he used this subject, the mitt, because it was easy. He only had to change Allie’s name to Stradlater. When Holden finished the written assignment, he looks out the window, observing. Then he hears Ackley snoring and finished off by feeling a slight sympathy for the pimply, awkward, sinus troubled, bad teeth guy. __What we learn about Holden is:__ A very important thing we learn about Holden in this chapter is a thing expressed in the part where he thinks back on his brother. The fact that his brother is dead and the way he handles that, shows a lot of his background and foundation of his personality. It's logical that a tragidy like that leaves a deep mark on any person. It's a very soft spot in Holdens' personality. And a physical sign of that tragedy is the fact that he can't make a real fist because he crushed some windows with his bare hands in frustration. __Symbols, metaphors, style, etc.__ The overall tone is bitter as always, and he uses a lot of slang and cursing, like //"sonuvabitch", "goddamn"// etc. A flashback is also used as an essential part of the chapter, the part where Holden thinks back and remember his brother because of the baseball mitt. The "special type" of red hair on his little brother is a symbol of how special he is to Holden and how he stands out (You can always see him from afar etc.) Inside, Holden thinks bad things of his friends, perhaps a part of his negative attitude.
 * Chapter 5 **

Group 2(?): Frederik, Joachim, Anna og Bjarke Holden finally asks Stradlater about the date, and want to know wether they were physical together or not, but Stradlater dances around the question, and it makes Holden so tense, that he hits Stradlater and they end up fighting, and Holden keeps calling Stradlater a moron.
 * Chapter 6**
 * Summary:** Stradlator finally returns to the dorm from dating Holdens old childhood friend, Jane. Holden is very curious about how the date went, and tells about it in a very angry tone of voice. Despite that Stradlator doesn't tell anything about the date, and it wears out Holden. Instead Stradlator reads the essay that he asked Holden to write for him, but realize that the topic is wrong. As reaction to Stradlators complaining, Holden rips up the essay. After that they don't speak for a while until Holden starts to smoke a cigarette in their room. He knows how it annoys Stradlator, and it is obviously the reason why he does it.


 * What does it hell about Holden?:** This chapter shows how protective Holden is about Jane. He can't stand the thought of Stradlater being with her in the basket coach's car together with Stradlater, when he even can't remember her name. Furthermore we see a an agressive side of Holden and his behaviour, when he begins to fight with S even though he's aware that S is bigger and stronger.

Group 4 - Chapter 8

Summary

It is a cold winter night and Holden walks to the nearby trainstation. After waiting for 10 minutes he enteres the trainand after a few minutes a lady sits down next to him even though there are plenty of free seets. She notices that he has a sticker from Pency and she asks him if he goes to Pency. The lady turns out to be the mother of a student in Holdens class called Ernest Morrow. Holden describes Morrow as a bully but when he talks to his mother he describes him as a nice boy. Holden thinks his mother is very attractive. Holden offers her a drink and a cigarette but she only eccepts the cigarette. The lady wonderes why he is going home and asks if he is going to a sick familymember and then he says he has a tumor on the brain. She is very worriedbut he says that it is no big deal. After that they do not talk very much. Mrs Morrow gets of the train after inviting Holden to come visit Ernest but he makes up an excuse.

What does the chapter tell us about Holden? Holden is a guy with pride. He lies to mrs. Morrow in the train, when she asks why he is going home. He does not like to admit that he has been kicked out of school. He likes to impress people and likes to get a lot of attention. He seems like he is a person who does not always tell the truth. for example when he sits in the train and he tells us about his classmate Morrow, he does not really like the guy but in spite of him talking nicely about him.

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The chapter begins in Ely’s room. Ackley is lying in the bed, and Holden is walking. Ackley wants to sleep, but Holden wakes him up, because he is restless. He has just been in a fight with Stradlater about a girl. Holden keeps thinking about Stradlater and Jane, the girl, dating. Holden is jealoux and he is fed up with the school and everybody there. He decides that he wants to leave school, so he packs everything incl. his hockeyskates from his mother – she bought the wrong ones. He wished for racing skates, but she bought hockeyskates. He still loves them, though. Not because of the skates, but because they mean something special to him. He isn't closely connected to his mother, so these skates mean a lot to him. When he is taking off from the school he stands in the hallway, and to say a final goodbye, he screams down the hallway: ”Sleep tight, ya morans”. When hurrying away from the school, he almost breakes his neck when he trips while walking down a staricase. ======

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He is really fed up with school, Pencey, and he thinks about going home all the time. He doesn't care much about the other students and doesn't care if he annoys the other guys. When he is lying in Ely's bed, Ackley asks him to turn off the light, in order for him to get some rest, but Holden doesn't care about it, and keeps on lying in the bed. This way of being careless about everything and everybody, really shows that he wants to get away from this school. He is thinking about going to New York to find a cheap hotel, just to get away for a few days, and to let his parents digest the message that tells that he has been expelled. He is not very connected to his family based on his discription of his grandmother. He just says that she is old as hell and keeps sending him money, he can use on his travel. He has no friends, no family, and has now left the school. He has nothing buty himself, but that is the way he likes it. He wants to get away, and therefore he decides to head for New York.======

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 * Symbols, metaphores, idiomatic expressions, etc.** There are some idiomatic expressions in the text, and a few of them are: 1. "That killed me" on page 42 2. "I'll drop dead" also on page 42 These two ones give us the expression of him, Holden, not feeling that well. There is a metaphore on page 43-44: "But old Stradlater kept snowing her in this Abraham Lincoln, sincere voice(...)." It says something about //how// Stradlater is talking to Jane, the girl that Holden and Stradlater are fighting over. Holden is jaloux.======

_Summary:- Simon A, Emil, Johan and Amalie._**
** Summary ** Holden is in New York at a hotel. He is changing his shirt while considering calling his sister, but he decides not to since his parents could answer the phone – and he wishes not to talk to his parents. He tells a lot about his ten-year old and very smart sister and how she “kills him”. He decides to go down to the hotel’s night club, The Lavender Room. It is not very crowded and the band playing is, according to Holden. very lousy. However, he spots three women at the table next to him. They are about thirty years old and two of them are ugly, but he feels attracted to the last blonde girl. He asks the waiter for a drink, but apparently, he does not look like a twenty-one year old, sp he is not allowed to buy anything but Coke. He asks the women for a dance, which causes them to have the giggles, but the blond girl agrees and they head for the dance floor. While dancing he tries to lead a conversation, but she is very ignorant and not paying him any attention. He describes how he is annoyed by her personality, but at the same time also how amazing a dancer she is. He is so impressed that he compares the dancing skulls with his sister’s which is, considering the almost two pages of description of her qualities, some compliment – although she sees it as an insult. Throughout the evening he experiences their sense of humour, which he thinks is very unintelligent and stupid he stays in their company the whole evening and buys them drinks. Suddenly they have to go – they must get up early in order to see the first show at the Radio Music Hall. The fact that they travelled so far (from Seattle) in order to see this show depresses him. He is very annoyed by the fact that they do not even offer to pay for the drinks they had before he joined them. He was going to pay anyway, but they could at least have made the offer. He pays and leaves. Holden: Through the chapter we are shown (or reaffirmed in) a picture of Holden being very negative and bored with his surroundings and the people around him. At the same time, however, he is a very perceptive person, quite able to read what he sees as dull superficiality in the three women (or at least that is the case if we choose to believe that they actually are stupid/unintelligent) “to kill somebody” – referring to the concept of somebody really liking you. “shooting the crap with” – talking to someone (probably a former reference to the act of defecating with someone) “beat it on someone” – to walk away from a person “toleja” – phonetic spelling of a way of pronouncing “told you” native to a specific dialect (another often seen way of spelling it: “told ya”) “chrissake” – phonetic spelling of a way of pronouncing “for Christ’s sake” native to a specific dialect “sterling” – referring to silver, a positive adjective (but in our chapter used by Holden in a sarcastic context)