The Catcher in the Rye

When I was coming up with a reading list for this study it seemed like every book on my shelves about adolescence was a perfect fit. But instead of doing This Side of Paradise, Ham on Rye, The Outsiders, This Boy's Life, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, or even Maggie Cassidy, I decided to keep that influence minimal and go with the proto-adolescent story, The Catcher in the Rye.

The reason all those books seemed so perfect is pretty easy to see. They are all books about the time in the human life-span that leaves everyone feeling like the sort of outcast that Holden Caulfield was. I know. I'm really blowing minds here. What new thought do you have to contribute to the conversation on fuckin Catcher in the Rye, hm?

Actually, that's not at all what I'm trying to do. I want, instead to take from it and put it towards what I'm doing here. That's what I'm trying to do with all of these books, which is why anytime I write on the books there will be extensive quotes. The ones for Salinger start here:

The more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has.

Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right - I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it?

Stradlater was more of a secret slob.

You don't do one damn thing the way you're supposed to.

In every school I've ever gone to, all the athletic bastards stick together.

Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome.

I put on my red hunting cap when I was in the cab, just for the hell of it, but I took it off before I checked in. I didn't want to look like a screwball or something. Which is really ironic. I didn't know then that the goddam hotel was fullof perverts and morons. Screwballs all over the place.

What's different about it? Nothin's different about it," Horwitz said. Everything he said, he sounded sore about something. "It's tougher for the fish, the winter and all, than it is for the ducks, for Chrissake. Use your head, for Chrissake."

"They can't just ignore the ice. They can't just ignore it."

I don't even think he knows any more when he's playing right or not.

All those Ivy League bastards look alike.

All of a sudden, you have to walk, no matter how far or how high up.

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.

I'd bet a thousand bucks that Jesus never sent old Judas to Hell.

It's terrible to be just in your pajamas when something like that happens.

All he had on underneath was a phony shirt collar, but no shirt or anything.

The kid was swell. He was walking in the street, instead of on the sidewalk, but right next to the curb.

It didn't seem at all like Christmas was coming soon. It didn't seem like anything was coming.

"Did you ever get fed up?" I said. "I mean did you ever get scared that everything was going to go lousy unless you did something?"

Old Luce. He was strictly a pain in the ass, but he certainly had a good vocabulary. He had the largest vocabulary of any boy at Whooton when I was there. They gave us a test.

It wasn't too far, and I wasn't tired or even drunk any more. It was just very cold and nobody around anywhere.

If somebody at lesat listens, it's not too bad.

"It's 'If a body meet a body coming through the rye'!" old Pheobe said. "It's a poem. By Robert Burns."

He didn't even give a damn if his coat got all bloody.

"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."

Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior.

If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the "Fuck you" signs in the world.

All of a sudden I wanted her to cry till her eyes practically dropped out. I almost hated her. I think I hater her most because she wouldn't be in that play any more if she went away with me.

My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way.

She looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could've been there.

Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.