Journal #9 Chapters 15-16

Journal 9

Chapters 15-16

By: Kellen Long

            When Holden woke up the next morning he was feeling quite hungry, considering he had not eaten anything since he had gone to the movies with Brossard and Ackley. However before he left to get food he gave Sally Hayes a buzz. If you don’t remember her, she was the girl who went to Mary A. Woodruff and the one who had sent a letter a few weeks back, curious to see what Holden had been up too. Once Sally picked up the phone he asked her to go to the matinee with him at the Biltmore. Sally replied back with “I’d love to. Grand.”(Ch. 15, pg.138) I think that Holden was not very interested in Sally, but he was just bored and wanted something to do on a Sunday afternoon.

            Since Holden had so much time to kill he decided to go near where he was supposed to meet Sally and have breakfast. This is where he met these two little nuns carrying suitcases. They each had a straw hat and were asking for donations for the Salvation Army. Holden suddenly struck up a conversation with the ladies and found out quickly that they were English teachers. They started carrying on about books and what the school requirements were these days. I believe these were the first people Holden encountered that he actually took a liking too and actually enjoyed their company. Once the ladies left the café it made me wonder if they were really nuns and if they were really collecting donations for the Salvation Army. They could have very easily lied about the whole thing.

            After breakfast Holden took a long walk and ended up at a park that was near his sister’s school. He stopped to ask one of the kids if they knew his sister, they said she is probably in the museum across the street.  Then Holden got to thinking, it was only Sunday so there was no way that Phoebe could be in the museum at this time. He decided to take a walk in there anyway. He was stunned that everything in the museum was still in the same place but each time he went back something was different. Whether he went with a different teacher, or if he had just a knowledge of something new in life, it was always a little bit different in one way or another. Holden mentioned “certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.” (Ch.16, pg. 158) I think this statement showed how much he missed his childhood and Allie.  He is just begging to hold on to one stable thing in his life.