Throughout life, an individual may endure several emotionally or physically straining moments. In The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield suffers much verbal abuse, as well as physical. Both forms of the abuse, combined with other factors, eventually leads Holden to suffer a mental breakdown. Holden’s actions prove that “A blow from a whip raises a welt, but a blow from the tongue smashes bones.” Holden experiences several fights throughout the story. Near the beginning, he begins a struggle with Stradlater, his roommate, over his friend’s date, Jane Gallagher.
Holden was upset to learn that the couple were alone in a car, knowing Stradlater’s sexual history. Holden’s mind chooses to push out the incident, so it is foggy in his head. But all he knew was, he tried to hit Stradlater but missed. After the miss, Stradlater proceeded to climb on top of Holden and take hold of his wrists, not letting him up.
Stradlater dug his knees deep into Holden’s chest to keep him from moving. This seemed to go on for “around ten hours.” When Stradlater finally gave in and let Holden get up, the struggle started again, ending with a bloody nose for Holden. Afterwards, although Holden was somewhat offended by the actions, he did not seem to care about his dripping nose. He went directly over to Ackley’s room, not even stopping to wipe up his nose.
He also did not seem to care about the overall fight, because he talked of it like it meant nothing to him. “I had a little goddam tiff with Stradlater,” he explains to Ackley. “Do you feel like playing a little Canasta?” This quick forgetting shows that the fight had little affect on Holden, and that his injury meant little to him. While Holden is in the Edmond Hotel, the elevator man mentions the prospect of a prostitute. Holden reluctantly agrees to a throw, which would cost him five dollars. Holden was very nervous during his wait, but when the girl showed up he told her he only wanted to talk.
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The setting of this story takes place in Agers town, Pennsylvania. The home of Pency boring school. Pency is one of those college prep schools that advertises only the best aspects and never mentions how much the students will hate going there. On the brochure there is an unrealistic, imaginary student that does not exist playing polo. In real life Pency, there are a couple hundred spoiled little ...
Even though they didn’t do anything, Holden paid his money, only to find that the girl was promised ten. Holden refused to pay the extra amount, assuring the girl that he was told a throw was only five and he was not going to pay more. She left, only to return minutes later with the elevator man, Maurice. Maurice threatened and punched Holden, demanding the extra five dollars that he “owed.” After a bit of “roughing up”, Sunny, the prostitute, searches Holden’s wallet and pulls out another five. Sunny starts out the door, but Maurice was still holding Holden, snapping on him and shoving him.
Right before stepping out, he gives Holden a punch in the stomach. Although Holden was hurt badly, he didn’t care much about how he felt. All he knew was that he could hardly breathe. Halfway to the bathroom, he started pretending that he was dying.
Although Holden was slightly affected emotionally by this incident, he didn’t care much at all about it, and let his injuries take care of themselves. When Holden was first expelled from Pence, he paid a final visit to his favorite teacher, Mr. Spencer. Mr. Spencer’s attitude was caring at first, but he began to scold Holden about his grades.
“You knew absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing,” he repeated several times. He even had the indecency to read Holden his own paper, the one in which Holden knew absolutely no idea about the subject. He makes a mockery of Holden and his work, and completely destroys any self-pride that Holden may have. Mr. Spencer was very insensitive with his words, implying that Holden needed to grow up and move on in his life.
These words may have been part of what eventually caused Holden’s emotional breakdown, the feeling that he was lacking in life. The reader is able to interpret through Holden’s thoughts and actions that the physical blows meant little to Holden, while the emotional blows meant much more. He was able to basically ignore his injuries, but could not possibly take the emotional pain out of his head. Even when he didn’t think about it, it was always there subconsciously, proving that a blow from the tongue smashes bones, while a blow from a whip only raises a welt. denotes the Biblical quote found in Sirach 28: 17.
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