Getting Things Straight: the Catcher in the Rye- Chapters 1-5

Getting Things Straight: The Catcher in the Rye- Chapters 1-5

Literary Definitions

• stream of consciousness—flow of thoughts and images which may not always appear to

have a clear point or be organized

• colloquialism—ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or writing
• frame story—a story within a story

Entry #1: Essential Questions – Journal Topics – Choose 1: Full Page Response

• Is it inevitable (unavoidable) that we conform to the world and society around us?
• What does it mean to stay true to yourself?
• How does experience affect one’s observations?

Chapter 1

1. Holden says that his brother, D.B., is “out in Hollywood, being a prostitute” (2). Based on this comment, what can you infer about Holden’s value system?

1. By learning where Holden is as the story begins, a frame story is established. Identify the inner and out frames.

1. What is Pencey Prep, and why does Holden dislike it? (2)

1. Holden explains why he is kicked out of Pencey Prep. (4) Based on this information, what character trait(s) is/are revealed about Holden? Be specific.

1. Since the story is clearly told from Holden’s point of view, 1st person, what do you predict to be the underlying mood of the entire novel?

Chapter 2

1. What depresses Holden? Why does he find these things depressing?

1. What can you infer about Holden’s character through his note to Mr. Spencer?

1. How does Holden feel about phony people? Do you share his views?

1. What is he wondering about in terms of the ducks? (13)

Chapter 3

1. What type of hat does Holden wear?

1. Who is Robert Ackley? (19) Why do you think Ackley is an outcast?

1. What are the things that depress Holden?

1. What are the things that bother Holden?

Chapter 4

1. Why is Stradlater popular while Ackley is unpopular? What does this suggest about society’s values?

1. Who is Stradlater’s date for the evening? How does Holden know her?

1. How does Holden interact with those around him?

1. Describe Jane Gallagher’s home life.

Chapter 5

1. Who is Allie, and why is his baseball mitt so special to Holden? (38)

1. Why did Holden's parents want to have him psychoanalyzed? (39)

Entry #2

In your journal, interpret the following quote, and connect it to a movie, television show, song, work of literature, or personal experience.

“Depression is nourished by a lifetime of un-grieved
and un-forgiven hurts." Penelope Sweet

Getting Things Straight: The Catcher in the Rye- Chapters 6-11

Literary Definitions

hyperbole—conscious exaggeration

symbol—something that is itself but also stands for something else

motif—an image, metaphor, or symbol that appears over and over again in a work

Entry #3: Essential Questions – Journal Topics – Choose 1

• What does it mean to be a kind, decent person?
• What does it mean to be a pushover and what does it mean to be kind?
• Is life a game?

Chapter 6

1. What does Holden’s altercation with Stradlater say about him?

1. Why does Holden attack him?

1. Who or what was Holden actually defending?

1. (MOTIF) What does Holden put on after the fight? Have we seen him put this on before (45)?

Chapter 7

1. What opinion about religion is Salinger expressing through Ackley’s treatment of Holden?

1. Why does Holden interact with these people whose values he despises?

1. Why doesn’t Holden want to stay at Pencey anymore? (50-51)

1. Where does Holden then decide to go? (51)

1. What is his final good-bye to Pencey Prep?

1. Why do you think Holden was crying as he left?

Entry #4: Delving-In Questions –Analysis Paragraph –Choose One Topic

1. What is Holden’s mental and emotional state? How do you know?

1. Is Holden himself guilty of being a phony?

1. Is Holden mature or immature? Or both? How do you know?

1. We find out a lot about Holden through his reactions to and thoughts about Jane Gallagher. What do we discover about Holden’s character?

Chapter 8

1. Whatdoes Holden think of Mrs. Morrow?

1. What are some of the lies Holden tells Mrs. Morrow?

1. Why do you think he tells her these things?

1. Is Holden being phony???

Chapter 9

1. Sally Hayes’ mother says that Holden “was wild and that [he] had no direction in life” (59). Would you agree? Why?

1. (MOTIF) The cab driver thinks Holden is kind of crazy for asking him a certain question. What is this question? Is it a question that he has been concerned with before?

1. Where does Holden fit in?

1. Why does he go to the Edmont Hotel? How does this new environment affect him?

Chapter 10

1. Who is Phoebe, and what is Holden's opinion of her?

1. What evidence is there that shows us that Holden probably doesn't look as old as he says he looks?

Chapter 11

1. What is Holden worried about in terms of Jane and Stradlater? Why? What does this reveal about Holden’s character?

1. Why is Jane so special to Holden? Describe their past relationship.

Poetry Connection: Sara Teasdale’s “The Look”

“The Look”

Sara Teasdale

Strephon kissed me in the spring,

Robin in the fall,

But Colin only looked at me

And never kissed at all.

Strephon’s kiss was lost in jest,

Robin’s lost in play,

But the kiss in Colin’s eyes

Haunts me night and day

1. What is this poem about?

1. How does this poem relate to Holden’s relationship with Jane?

Entry #5: WRITING: Write a well-developed paragraph in which you use ideas from both passages to establish a controlling idea about love.

Getting Things Straight: The Catcher in the Rye- Chapters 12-16

Chapter 12

1. What do Holden and the cab driver talk about?

1. Explain why Holden leaves Ernie’s?

Chapters 13 14

1. Why is Holden depressed?

1. How does Holden view himself?

1. Why does Holden cry in this chapter?

1. Why does Holden engage with people he does not like, people he considers to be below him?

1. 5. Why is Holden fixated on violence and suicide?

Chapter 15:

Essential Questions: How do our surroundings affect the way we think, grow, act? / How does experience affect one’s observations?

1. What is the point that Holden tries to make about people when he elaborates about the suitcases of the nuns and of his former roommate?

1. How does Holden treat the nuns?

1. How does Holden gauge intelligence?

1. Why can’t Holden stay in one place?

Entry #6: Choose one of the following prompts and respond in your journal:
OPTION 1: Recall a person you saw today on your way to school. Describe this person and invent a story about them: Who is he/she? Where is that person going? Invent a distinct characteristic or hobby you think this person would have based on what you observed about him/her this morning.
OPTION 2: Compose a detailed observation about someone in your family, providing details that would give your reader insight into that person. Describe this person – physical and personal attributes. Describe what he/she does, a habit, or if he/she has a particular way of doing things.

Chapter 16

1. Who does Holden make a date with? Why does he call her up if he thinks she's a phony?

1. How does Holden treat little kids? Give an example.

Getting Things Straight: The Catcher in the Rye- Chapters 17-20

Chapter 17 (MUSIC CONNECTION: Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine”)

1. Are Holden’s dreams realistic?

1. Why does Holden engage with people he does not like, people he considers to be below him?

1. Was Holden’s date with Sally doomed to fail?

1. Why does Holden get so incensed when Sally does not support his dreams? (133)

Entry #7: Full Page Response

How does the song's theme relate to Holden's attitude about actors, Ernie (the piano player), and his brother DB?

Relate to specific and relevant details from The Catcher in the Rye.

-Chapter 1: DB

-Chapter 11 (last page): Ernie

-Chapter 12: Ernie (pg. 84)

-Chapter 12: DB (pg. 86)

-Chapter 16 (pg. 117): Actors

-Chapter 17 (pgs. 125-126): Actors

Brainstorming:

What is song’s theme? ______

Chapter 18

1. Why is Holden lonely? Is he ever able to feel less lonely? How?

1. What is Holden’s view of human nature?

Chapter 19

1. What are Holden’s values?

1. What does Luce illuminate about Holden?

Chapter 20

1. How can the events in Chapter 20 be considered Holden’s lowest point?

1. What is revealed about Holden in this Chapter?

1. What information does Holden finally tell us about Allie’s funeral?

1. What does Holden say about Allie that contradicts all his other statements about being an atheist?

Poetry and Music Connection: “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
& “Another Brick in the Wall” by Pink Floyd

Compare and contrast Frost’s wall with Pink Floyd’s wall:

“Mending Wall”
by Robert Frost / “Another Brick in the Wall” by Pink Floyd
What is the reason for the wall?
How and what does it divide?
How does each piece make you feel?
What images stand out from each?
What is the poem’s/song’s *theme?

*theme: underlying meaning of a literary work. It makes some statement about or expresses some opinion on a topic. (For example, the topic of a story might be war, while the theme might be the idea that war is useless.)

Another Brick in the Wall Part 1 (Waters) 3:41
Daddy's flown across the ocean
Leaving just a memory
Snapshot in the family album
Daddy what else did you leave for me?
Daddy, what'd'ja leave behind for me?!?
All in all it was just a brick in the wall.
All in all it was all just bricks in the wall.

"You! Yes, you! Stand still laddy!"

Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 (Waters) 3:56
We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
We don't need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

"Wrong, Do it again!"
"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you
have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
"You! Yes, you behind the bike-sheds, stand still laddy!"

“MENDING WALL”

Robert Frost

1 Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun,

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

5 The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

10 No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

15 We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'

20 We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

25 My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

30 'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

35 Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

40 In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

45 He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

1. What is the speaker’s attitude about the wall? Find a line for support

1. The “gaps” the speaker refers to in lines 9–11 might refer to gaps in a stone wall. What else might they refer to in this context?

1. What does the wall symbolize? Explain

Getting Things Straight: The Catcher in the Rye - Chapters 21-26

Literary Definitions

Theme– underlying meaning of a literary work. It makes some statement about or expresses some opinion on a topic. (For example, the topic of a story might be war, while the theme might be the idea that war is useless.)

Entry #8: Essential Questions – Journal Topics – Choose 1

• What does it mean to be mature and immature? What does it mean to be grown up?
• Why are people cruel to one another?
• How do people deal with seeing cruelty around them?

Chapter 21

1. Is Holden comfortable in his own home?

1. How does being with Phoebe affect Holden?

1. How does Holden’s relationship with Phoebe embody his values?

Chapter 22

1. Why did it depress Holden when an "old guy" told him that his days at Pencey were the happiest days of his life?

1. What does it tell us about Holden when Phoebe states, "You don't like anything that's happening"?

1. Why does Holden think about James Castle when Phoebe asks him to name one thing that he likes a lot?

1. What does it tell us about Holden when he says, "Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake---especially if they were a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're alive and all"?

1. What does Holden tell Phoebe he'd like to be?

Chapter 23

1. Who is Mr. Antolini?

1. How does Phoebe cover for Holden when their parents come home?

1. In talking with her parents (top 178) how does Phoebe "sound" like Holden?

1. What does Phoebe do that makes Holden cry?

1. MOTIF: What does Holden give to Phoebe?

Chapter 24

1. How does Mr. Antolini represent Holden’s feelings and experiences with adults?

1. Why does Holden feel comfortable in Mr. Antolini’s home?

1. How are the events at the end of the Chapter symbolic and indicative of Holden’s inability to find a peaceful and comfortable place?

1. How can Mr. Antolini be seen as a “catcher in the rye”?

Chapters 25 & 26

1. How is Holden’s interest in the ducks a metaphor for himself?

1. Why is it so important to Holden that Phoebe not be mad at him? Relate this to his past, and Allie.

1. THEME: What does Holden mean when he states, "The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them"?

1. Why does he wish to disappear? Why does he feel the need to isolate himself from the world?

1. Why does Holden believe: “You can’t find a place that’s nice and peaceful because there isn’t any”? (204)

1. Why does talking about what happened make Holden miss everyone in the story?