Catcher In The Rye Chapter 1 Outline

The Catcher in the Rye/ Chapters 1-20 The book begins with Holden who is the narrator and main character talking about his life in the past. Holden’s brother is mentioned, he lives in Hollywood as a writer and has written many different books. He goes on talking about his parents and his life till now. Holden attends Pency Prep, a school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, but is being expelled for not keeping up with his academics. He failed four out of five classes. As the story goes on it is apparent that Holden is very clumsy and lacks effort, an example being when he lost the fencing teams equipment. The night of the football game Holden decided to say one last goodbye to one of his teacher named, Mr. Spencer his former history teacher. Although
Mr. Spencer is an old man sick with the flu it didn’t stop him from giving Holden advice on how he needs to follow the rules in order to succeed in school and in life. Mr. Spencer really cares about Holden, but reminds him about how he flunked his class. Spencer then pulls out one of Holden’s essays and reads it outload to him hoping to make him change for the better, but Holden no longer wants to hear and leaves for dinner. It is interesting for me to see Spencer having so much hope for someone like Holden, even though he has failed him and continues to fail. After dinner Holden goes to his room and begins to read a book until Ackley his next-door neighbor interrupts him. Holden really dislikes Ackley and describes him as a pimply boy who is irritating and has poor hygiene. Although Holden wants to continue reading, Ackley stays in his room and begins to ask him questions. Slowly but surely Ackley begins to annoy Holden, first by barging into his room, asking him annoying questions, and then cutting his fingernails on the floor. Holden begins to hint that Ackley should leave the room but he chooses not to listen. Luckily Holden’s roommate Stradlater arrives and Ackley leaves because he does not like him. Stradlater tells Holden about a date that he has and asks him to write his English paper. Holden agrees to write Stradlaters paper and just asks him what to write. This made me question, is Holden spending his time doing other people’s work rather than focusing on his own, which is why he failed his classes? Stradlater then tells Holden about the girl he is going on a date with her name is Jane Gallager. A girl that Holden has strong feelings for but doesn’t dare tell his roommate Stradlater. Holden goes out with some friends and when getting back to his room he begins Stradlater’s essay. Holden has a hard time finding a topic to write about so he decides to write about a baseball glove that was his brother before he died from leukemia. Holden still grieves his brother’s death and begins to talk about him for a bit. Finished with the paper Stradlater comes back from his date and reads what Holden has wrote. Stradlater quickly complains to Holden and says that what he wrote had nothing to do with the assignment. Holden becomes annoyed and they both begin to fight. After the fight Holden goes to Ackleys room and tries to fall asleep but he then decides to leave Pency sooner than anticipated. He makes a plan deciding who he will contact and where he will stay once back in New York because he cant go home early or else his parents would know that something is wrong. He wants no longer and leaves the school and boards a train headed to New York. On the train he meets one of his classmates mother and tells her many lies while sitting next to her. Once in New York Holden has a hard time deciding on who to contact but he then decided to go to a hotel for the night. At the hotel Holden decided to go to the night club and while there he meets three women who he dances with, but they ditch him because he was to young.
Holden leaves the hotels night club and walks to the lobby. While walking he begins to think about Jane and all the memories they have had together. He waits for a taxi then goes to another night club named Greenwich Village nightclub. While there he only drinks a cup of scotch and decided to leave because a girl that he used to date was there. Holden walks back to the hotel and in the elevator going back to his room, Holden is offered a prostitute for five dollars and he accepts. The prostitute Sunny arrives to the room but leaves shortly because Holden is nervous. It’s shocking to me that a young boy has the capability of doing so many things without getting caught by his parents. The next day he schedules a date with a friend named Sally. Holden checks out of the hotel and leaves his stuff in a locker. Holden soon becomes worried that his mother will become even more depressed once finding out that he has been expelled from school. Trying not to let this bother him he heads to his date with Sally. After taking her out on the date Holden seems to become a bit uncontrolled and begins talking about a plan to run away with her but Sally just looks at him crazy. Soon Sally becomes angry and Holden leaves. He goes to see a
movie and then goes to meet with Luce. Once with Luce Holden begins talking about sex and Luce is uninterested but Holden continues leading to his friend getting up and leaving him. I have begun to notice that Holden either gets annoyed with people really quick or annoys others. Holden gets very drunk and walks to Central Park where he begins to think about his brother Allie. The reading has been really great so far and interesting to read, but I am starting to think that Holden might have some kind of mental issue because he either gets mad really easily and decides on poor choices.