Questions:
Why is it that Holden is more tolerant and accepting of Spencer and his wife compared to other people?
Holden says “he acts quite young for his age” what could this statement signify for the reader's’ perspective on Holden?
Based on the reading so far, what do you think Holden’s perspective of himself is? How does he view himself in a physical and mental sense?
How is the role of the unreliable narrator a factor in this section of the book?
Holden characterizes Spencer’s behavior as “depressing” but Spencer’s actions seem to be motivated by concern for Holden’s well-being. Why does Holden think this way? How does this contribute to your understanding of how Holden forms relationships with and interacts with people?
What time period is the story set in? What evidence from
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Lying and deception are the most obvious and hurtful elements of the larger category of phoniness. Holden’s definition of phoniness relies mostly on a kind of self-deception: he seems to reserve the most scorn for people who think that they are something they are not or who refuse to acknowledge their own weaknesses. Isolation Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded from and victimized by the world around him. As he says to Mr. Spencer, he feels trapped on “the other side” of life, and he continually attempts to find his way in a world in which he feels he doesn’t belong.
Youth The Catcher in the Rye is a bildungsroman, a novel about a young character’s growth into maturity. While it is appropriate to discuss the novel in such terms, Holden Caulfield is an unusual protagonist for a bildungsroman because his central goal is to resist the process of maturity itself. But he refuses to acknowledge this fear, expressing it only in a few instances—for example, when he talks about sex and admits