In chapter 18, Holden starts by leaving the ice rink after a terrible date with Sally. For a boy who just threw himself at a girl then reverted back to insults after rejection, Holden seems very unaffected. This is shown by his first thought after leaving, "When I left the skating rink I felt sort of hungry..." He does not seem to care at all about his fight with Sally, but instead seems to focus on getting food. After that he realizes that Jane may be home and tries to call her. This further proves his favoring of Jane. No one answers and he hangs up. He goes into thought about Jane's past. At a Fourth of July party Holden was very jealous of her date, but instead of saying so, he digs deep to find many reasons to hate her date, Al Pike. First he brings up how conceded he is, but finds himself eventually insulting Al's swimsuits and diving ability before he tries to get back on topic. He then goes into a very similar situation where he set up a female friend's roommate up on a date with his friend, Bob Robinson. Bob and Al are both described similarly but Jane defended Al at the time and Holden is now defending Bob. This shows that both teens defended their friends, no matter how they acted, proving that they do stretch the truth sometimes. Holden starts trying to make plans for the evening. He eventually decides to get a drink with Carl Luce at ten o'clock. Holden has a decent amount of time to spare and decides to head on down to Radio City. This is where the deepest connections appear in this chapter. Holden procedes to make fun of every act or film that appears. The one that he did not insult was the kettle drummer in the orchestra. He likes him because he was the best drummer he had seen. This thought might even be stretched truth due to the fact that Holden and Allie used to come watch the orchestra just for the drummer. His love for Allie could make him really love this drummer, even if he truly hated the drummer. After that, the longest connection was the English movie.
It was about a man who loses his memory in war and becomes engaged to a woman while being engaged in his previously lived life. He eventually regains his memory but stays with his newly engaged girlfriend.Throughout Holden's explanation of the film, he was saying how terrible and cheesy it was, but it obviously had some meaning to him deep down. This relates to Holden's changes throughout his lives, but he never seems to come out on top, unlike the main character in the movie. Do you all think that this film is foreshadowing to a future partner for Holden? Or even something else? If so, what is it? And do you think he actually thought the movie was disgusting and phony?
Jack, I think you hit the nail on the head when you talked about Holden's deceptive thoughts. His denial of evident facts makes life harder and more miserable for him. If Holden would just talk with some one about his problems they would help him face them head on. I feel like when he went out with Sally it was more based on his boredom and what he felt like an adult would do with their free time than something he wanted to do. I think Holden related with the character in the movie because they are both lost in an unfamiliar world. However, I think he calls it phony because he believes he will find his purpose in life like the adult in the movie.
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