Chapters 12-18

Well, I haven't blogged about anything since chapter 11, and now I am through chapter 18. A lot of things happened during these chapters. Holden goes to some bars, and tries to get alcohol. I don't think he really ever says why he wants to drink. Maybe he wants to be "older", or he likes the way they taste, or they make him feel better. I really think that it could be just drinking to drink, just like how he smokes and doesn't really care, he just does it; almost as a rebellion. He ends up going to Ernie's where he can get a drink. "If you were only around six years old, you could get liquor at Ernie's...nobody cared how old you were."-Holden p.85

At Ernie's he meets one of DB's old friends,Lillian, and she talks to him. Holden is annoyed and feels constricted and claustrophobic while in Ernie's. He ends up leaving and walking back to his Hotel because he doesn't want to be in another cab., and he was already surrounded by phonies all night. In the elevator up to his room, Holden is offered the chance to "having a good time" that night with a girl, and he has one sent up.

Holden is very nervous before she comes, and before he had stated,""Okay," I said. It was against my principles and all, but I was feeling so depressed I didn't even think."p.91 This is one of the first times that we see Holden say something that is considered bad to us, that he says is against his principles. It makes me think about what his other principles are if he smokes and drinks, and lies so much, etc. He doesn't end up doing anything with her, so he only gave her $5. Sunny takes the money but goes and brings Maurice up and tries to get $5 more out of Holden. Holden refuses because Maurice had only said $5. Holden gets hit by Maurice, and Sunny takes $5 out of his wallet,and they leave Holden on the floor.

Holden goes through a huge depression state. He starts to talk to Allie, he says,"...I started talking,sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed."-p.98 He goes through things that he did to Allie that might not have been the nicest. From what Holden says, it sounds like he gets depressed a lot. We can see now more of the reasons he does the things he does. Holden is trying to figure life out, and when he is depressed he thinks about Allie who can't live his life anymore, and I think that Holden feels bad, or at least feels for him.

In the morning he calls Sally Hayes. He sets up a date with her later that day. He goes and buys tickets for a show, and goes to eat breakfast. He meets two nuns and then starts talking to them. He enjoys talking to them, and they are different then he thinks they would be., which I think surprises Holden. He always wants to find the bad in people, and then he was proved wrong. After they left, he was then afraid that they might have been trying to see if he was Catholic or not, which ruins his experience with them.

When he finally meets Sally, he automatically thinks that the wants to marry her. They go to the show, and all through their date, Sally kept showing that she was more phony than he thought or wanted her to be. They end up really breaking up and get upset. It is really sad, because this was Holden's first connection with someone he knew, and at the beginning he was really excited, but by the end, he was very upset with her. This situation ruins Holden's willingness (for now) to do things.