Preview

Sally Hayes In 'Catcher In The Rye'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
303 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sally Hayes In 'Catcher In The Rye'
One of the most ignorant characters in the novel is Sally Hayes, a shallow, stunning girl whom Holden formerly dated. He tells the reader he used to believe she was fairly intelligent, because of her knowledge of the arts, but after a period of time he began to see past the haze. He says, "My big trouble is, I always sort of think whoever I'm necking is a pretty intelligent person. It hasn't got a goddamn thing to do with it, but I keep thinking it anyway"(Salinger 63). Even after realizing her lack of intelligence, he’s still infatuated by her appearance. Holden states, "I felt like marrying her the minute I saw her. I'm crazy. I didn't even like her much, and yet all of a sudden I felt like I was in love with her….I'm crazy. I admit it"(Salinger

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Before Holden goes on a date, he has the impression that all girls are phonies, and is assured by his opinion after his date with Sally. When Holden takes Sally on a date, he is disgusted with her when she goes to talk to George. For example on page 141, “....The jerk noticed her and came over and said hello. You should've seen the way they said hello. You'd have thought they hadn't seen each other in twenty years. You'd have thought they'd taken baths in the same bathtub or something when they were little kids. Old buddyroos. It was nauseating. The funny part was, they probably met each other just once, at some phony party. He went to Andover. Big, big deal.” (141) Holden was baffled by all of this because they had met just once and Sally…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although Holden calls Sally a phony, he still decides to spend a night with her. In his head, he continues to say how much he hates Sally and how much she annoys him, yet he expresses that he loves her. Holden extends his contradiction by necking with Sally in the back of the cab, and still continues to think about the fact that he hates her. “I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie, of course.”(125) Holden’s actual thoughts about Sally stick out from the other statements through the use of first person point of view. Holden even goes as far as trying to run away with Sally. He expresses a want of running away and living on their own, right after calling her a pain in the ass. “I was getting excited as hell the more I thought about it, and I sort of reached over and took old Sally’s goddam hand. What a goddam fool I was.” (132) This contradiction was shown through the use of first person point of…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    proves that he is very insulting towards women and the way he perceives them. Another example of Holden being insulting would be when he talked about sex and girls. In the quote: “I mean most girls are so dumb. After…

    • 163 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    When Holden describes Jane as having her checkers in the back row, he is projecting the Madonna-Whore complex onto her because,it represents her virginity, by employing this mindset he is preserving the “pure” image of Jane that Stradlater tainted. In addition, Holden utilizes this defense mechanism to employ a thinly-veiled perspective of childhood by avoiding any overtly sexual descriptions of Jane, something Straddler and his other peers obviously engage in.The barriers towards sexuality in Catcher In The Rye deviates from the antiquated quest narrative,because traditionally sex is glorified,but holden does everything in his mean to either purify or avoid it .In his article, “Kings In The Backrow”, Strauch and Salinger compares Holden to another iconic literary character, Huckleberry Finn, which shows the idea of the restriction of sexual thoughts: “The Catcher suffers in comparison with Huck Finn. If Holden displays a superiority over Huck in certain traits of character, his neurotic psychology, intensified by sexual conflicts from which Huck was free and aggravated by a vulgar, dehumanized society, leads the boy to the psychoanalytical couch in a thoroughly pessimistic novel, whereas Huck Finn ends on a resolute note of…

    • 1630 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    For a novel that was made in the late 1940’s, “Catcher in the Rye” is still similar to our current age. For example, have you ever had a huge crush on someone that you barely ever talk to? If you have, then you can definitely relate to Holden's feelings towards Jane. As shown, Holden fell hopelessly in love with Jane, even though they haven’t talked ever since they were kids. Holden was so head over heals for her he claimed: "I still could not get her off my brain. I knew her like a book.," (Page 76). This shows how Holden felt like he knew everything about Jane and could not help himself but to have strong feeling…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holden Caulfield is a teenager who is struggling to fit into adult society. This is evident from very early on in the book when Salinger immediately characterises Holden as a very judgmental and cynical person. Examples from the very first page include when Holden refers to his brother D.B as a prostitute because he writes scripts for movies. He then continues “I there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies. Don't even mention them to me”. He doesn’t even give his brother the benefit of the doubt over his occupation, and it is through phrases like this where Salinger creates the characterisation of Holden as a judgmental and stubborn personality. This is further continued throughout the novel where Holden continually uses the phrase “phony”, to refer to other people. He perceives the world as superficial, whereas it is his views on society that are lacking depth. This immediate characterisation of Holden by Salinger…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In chapter 17, when Holden goes on a date with Sally Hayes, he speaks just as posh as Sally does. This is shown when he says ‘swell to see you too’. Again, Holden is putting on a false persona in order for Sally to like him more. Throughout this whole chapter, Holden constantly criticises Sally on the way she speaks and acts, yet speaks and acts just like she does. By doing this, Holden is contradicting himself. He doesn’t seem to realise that he is acting just as ‘phony’ ads Sally is.…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holden’s date with Sally is a big example of Holden’s immaturity. When Holden sees Sally after a long time, he says that he wanted to marry her right away, but this changes very quickly: “The funny part is I felt like marrying her the minute I saw her. I’m crazy. I didn’t even like her much, and yet all of a sudden I felt like I was in love with her and wanted to marry her” Salinger 124). By the end of the date Holden and Sally get into an argument which ended badly: “‘You (Sally) give me a royal pain in the ass if you want to know the truth’ Boy did she hit the ceiling when I said that” (133). Holden went from wanting to marry Sally to insulting her. This shows that Holden is immature because he makes judgements and changes his feelings toward something very quickly. Thus contradictory nature is characterized in children, which is why Holden is struggling to become an adult.…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    I was bored by the novel, but dutifully finished reading it anyway, I suppose so that I could say that I had. It wasn't an electrifying reading experience at first but on the middle part of the novel I started liking the novel. In some way, it seems that Holden and I have something in common, when I was a teenager that is, being judgmental. Throughout the novel, Holden was extremely judgmental of almost everything and everybody. He criticizes people who are boring, people who are insecure and most of all people who are “phony”, though he feels like…

    • 3765 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Catcher in the Rye, Holden feels that no one understands him. He is disgusted by the things that he witnesses adults do. In a hotel room he has in New York, he sees a man take out “all these women’s clothes, and put them on (61)” and he sees “a man and a woman squirting water out of their mouths at each other (62).” Holden doesn’t understand why these people are just so entertained by these unusual and frivolous acts and he even thinks that “the hotel was lousy with perverts (62).” Instead of reaching out to people who have been there for him his whole life, he goes to bars and tries to find a connection with the men and women there. Still, he cannot find anything he has in common with them, and calls them “show-offy-looking (69).” In the end, Holden finds the answers he is searching for from his ten year old sister, Phoebe. This is unusual because she has not yet reached the point where she must mature into adulthood, but Phoebe is more accepting of the change that is…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Salinger is about an adolescent who runs away to New York to discover who he will become. While most people his age are able to mature and grow up Holden is still trying to figure out how he to deal with growing up when he values youth over maturity. Holden doesn’t feel the need to grow but whether he likes it or not he is not able to avoid growing up. When Holden checks into the hotel and gets the prostitute, he rushes himself into an uncomfortable situation that he doesn’t know how to handle. While the prostitute named Sunny is trying to do her job Holden thinks to himself, “The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than sexy, if you want to know the truth. She was depressing. Her dress hanging in the closet and all” (Salinger, 96). Holden rushes himself into situations where he tries to act older or more mature than he really is, but when put into a situation where maturity is required Holden is not able to apply maturity since he is not ready to grow up himself. He is also going through a constant struggle of whether he is ready to grow up and start identifying himself. Many times throughout the book nostalgia saddens Holden and he often contemplates whether he is ready to find his selfhood. When Holden explains about how nothing at the museum changes he explains it by claiming “ The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you’d be so much older or anything. It wouldn’t be that, exactly.…

    • 1486 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the reader finds themselves far into the book, they start to realize more about Holden and how innocent he can be. Holden calls a prostitute up to his hotel room because he finally wants to lose his virginity and become a man. When Holden is talking to Sunny who is the prostitute he blurts out that he is a virgin. “If you want to know the truth, I'm a virgin. I really am. I've had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I've never got around to it yet (Salinger 103).” After saying this the reader can truly see Holden’s innocence. Also another part of the book the reader can see how innocent Holden is, when he starts to talk about how much the Museum of Natural History means to him. “I get very happy when I think about the Museum of Natural History. Even now (Salinger 133).” Holden is overloaded with these nostalgia memories and innocent…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holden Caulfield Changes

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One of those girls would be Sally. Sally is one of the most attractive girl that holden known and dated. During the date, Holden dislike Sally for talking to a boy which he thinks that is an IVY League student. he says“all of a sudden, she saw some jerk she knew on the other side of the lobby Strictly Ivy League. Big deal.”( ) Holden thinks Sally talks to George because of his social status, and Sally wants more people to look while they having a conversation, showing her as more higher social status than everyone else. Later, Holden and Sally have a discussion about their future, Holden is trying to talk with Sally about their life importance. When Holden asked her about going to Massachusett, Sally responded Holden with an educated thought that Holden should be having a job instead of thinking about marriage. Holden suddenly feels angry and says “Sally is a royal pain in the ass”( ) Holden feels Sally wasn't the girl that matches him or his thoughts. In fact, Sally wasn't a good match with Holden because Sally holds more mature thoughts then Holden do. Holden seen Sally as a phony, mostly due to his immature behavior and childish…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Catcher In The Rye Love

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Luce was Holden’s student adviser when they went to Whooton together. Back then, Holden remembers, Luce was this sex driven, immature expert on all things sex related. Now, it seems, Luce has matured…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Insanity in a Sane World

    • 1444 Words
    • 6 Pages

    from his dead brother, and unreasinable lies to cope. Holden may think the world is insane because of the injustice of losing his brother, but Holden deals with this by immersing himself in unreasonable fantasies. Holden thinks his fantasy world will be perfect in every imaginable way. The real world goes on in quite an ordinary, predictable way, and Holden is too caught up in his own fantasies to realize his mind is just not right. With Sally Hayes, he imagines the two of them going up to a cabin in New England, getting married, and becoming self-sufficient. Sally thinks it’s irresponsible, rightly so, and dismisses Holden. Holden imagines things so out of the ordinary that they are downright bizarre; but to him they are reasonable and he acts upon them. He pretends he was shot by Maurice, and then…

    • 1444 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays