On page 140 of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is disgusted at a woman who cries while watching a movie, but refuses to take her son to the bathroom. She could not have done one more thing that would of made Holden madder. Let’s analyze the situation! First of all, Holden hates movies. He hates how society and human form is glamorized and portrayed in an unrealistic way to entertain people. However, the fact that some people, like the woman sitting next to him, fail to recognize the phoniness of the movie and are emotionally moved by the romanticized, happy-ending for everyone story, is pathetic to Holden. But, the woman’s actions after her crying make Holden even madder. A little while after Holden first recognizes the woman crying, he sees that the kid next to her, who appears to be her son, wants to go to the bathroom. However, the woman replies, “sit still and behave yourself.” (Holden 139) Not only is this woman pathetic because she is so moved by a story that solves itself, but she is so entertained by the movie, that she is neglecting her own son! Additionally, Holden despises the woman because she’s phonier than the movie. If you look closely, she says, “Behave yourself” to a child who has to go to the bathroom. Having to go to the bathroom is completely a natural cause that has exactly nothing to do with bad behavior, yet this woman lies to her son that he is behaving badly just to continue watching the movie. This is an excellent example of phoniness because this woman is conveying a false message, for greedy motives.
There are many other people throughout the novel who are just like this. Towards the beginning of his “vacation,” Holden goes to a bar called, Ernie’s, and meets someone he roughly knows, named Lillian Simmons. During his conversation with her however, Lillian acts very nice and praises him for his good looks. However, Holden quickly realizes that Lillian is only being friendly to him so that she could strike up a good impression on Holden’s older brother, D.B. Like the woman who told her son to behave during the movie, Lillian is portraying a false image of herself for different motives.
On the other hand, characters such as the kettle drummer Holden sees at Radio City, is the exact opposite of the two previous characters. Although he is very briefly mentioned and we don’t even get to know his name, Holden praises the kettle drummer for having a passion for what he does. Despite the fact that the kettle drums might seem like insignificant work, Holden loves the way the man on the kettle drums is enthusiastic about his job, and is eager to produce the best sound that he possibly can. Unlike the previous characters who were mentioned before, the kettle drummer does his work simply because he loves to do it, not because of other underlying motivations.
Jeffrey, I agree with you that Holden's disgust for the women at the movies is evoked from all the things that Holden despises in humanity and society. He is angered by the fact that an innocent child's plea to go to the bathroom is neglected by his mother's greed, a greed that is fueled by something that is so "phony" in Holden's perspective. He feels that it is so unfair how children are corrupted through these "in-genuine" people, as Holden see's himself as a sort of guardian of children "if they're running and they dont know where there going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them" (Holden 173). Superb answer to question A Jeffrey!
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