He comes to the conclusion that most of them will marry "dopey guys." Holden then proceeds to describe all the kinds of dopey guys- guys who get mad over for the dumbest reasons, guys who never read to their kids, guys who are boring. He sees a lot of school girls on a field trip and gets to thinking about who they will eventually marry. I know that’s impossible, but it’s too bad anyway." Here Holden outlines his reluctance and possible inability to accept change.Ĭhapter 17: This chapter beings with Holden sitting in the lobby, waiting for Sally Hayes to join him for their date. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. This concept frightens Holden, who reasons, "Certain things should stay the way they are.
He talks about how everything in the museum would be exactly the same each time they went, except he and Phoebe would be different.
Quickly Holden again is captured by a long series of reminisces about how much fun Phoebe and he have had in the museum. But Holden realizes that it’s Sunday and Phoebe wouldn’t be there anyway. She says yes, and then directs Holden to the Museum of Natural History. Holden decides to take a cab up to the park, where he sees a girl roller-skating and asks her if she knows Phoebe. Then he says that he even hates the best actors because their egos get in the way of their performances. He says that he hates most of them because they don’t act like real people. Soon he gets into his feelings about actors. He admits, "It made me feel better."įinally, Holden decides to get the play tickets for his date with Sally Hayes, "the queen of phonies." Holden even admits that he doesn’t really care to see the show, but out of boredom, it seems, he reluctantly agrees to it. On the walk, Holden passes a small child walking near him and whistling the tune for which the novel is named: "if a body catch a body coming through the rye." At this point in the story Holden isn’t sure of its significance, but subconsciously he likes the song. Soon he decides to buy a record for Phoebe called "Little Shirley Beans." Holden admits that he can’t stop thinking about the nuns he met. It seems Holden always needs to be engaged in some kind of action in order to think deeply. Chapter 16: Salinger’s sixteenth chapter begins with Holden taking a walk.