Re-read Chapter 9 of The Catcher in the Rye. Tell the story of what happens in this chapter using third person narration. Use the narrative voice and possibly the thoughts of the other characters to reveal your feelings about Holden at this point. Position your reader to view Holden in the way you choose.
Once Holden arrived at the Penn Station, he went to the phone booth. Felling lonesome he decided he would give someone a call. He placed his bags outside, but as soon as he picked up the phone he could think of no-one to call. His brother, D.B, was in Hollywood. His sister would already be asleep and Holden knew that it would be his parents that answered the phone. Holden did not want to talk to his parents because he would have to explain why he was not at school, and why he was expelled. Holden wanted to know when Jane Gallagher's vacation began so that he could call her and arrange to see her again. However, he did not have the courage. He then thought of calling Sally Hayes, a girl he did not really like at all and whose mother did not really like him. Unlike Sally, her mother had enough sense to see that Holden did not have any direction or goal in life. Holden was beginning to run out of numbers he could call, so he thought of calling Carl Luce even thought he disliked him. However, he changed his mind once again and decided not to call anyone. Feeling even more depressed and lonesome, he absent-mindedly caught a cab to take him home. He didn't have the courage to face up to his parents that he had failed again. Remembering his plan to stay away until wednesday he asked the cab driver, 'Hey, do you mind turning around when you get a chance? I gave you the wrong address. I want to go back downtown.' The driver, wanting to get as much money from Holden as possible, replied, 'I can't turn around here, Mac. This here's a one-way. I'll have to go all the way to Ninedieth Street now.' Lacking the boldness to say otherwise, Holden agreed. Suddenly, Holden wondered if the cab driver would be able to answer his question about the ducks. He knew that if there was an answer to what the ducks would do when their beautiful environment and world changed so abruptly around them, there would be an answer to his own messed up life. 'Hey, listen,' he said. 'You know those little ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know by any chance?' Holden desperately hoped he would know the answer. Instead, he looked at holden as though he was crazy. 'What're ya tryna do bud?' he said. 'Kid me?'
'No - I was just interested, that's all.' He had nothing more to say, so Holden kept quiet.
'Alright buddy. Where to?'
'Well the thing is, I don't want to stay at any hotels on the east side where I might run into some acquaintances of mine. I'm travelling incognito,' he said even though he felt phony for saying it. He couldn't help acting phony around other phony people. 'Do you happen to know whose band's at the Taft of the New Yorker, by any chance?'
'No idea, Mac.'
'Well - take me to the edmont then,' he said. 'Would you care to stop on the way and join me for a cocktail? On me, I'm loaded.'
'Can't do it , Mac. Sorry.' Holden felt a bit disappointed. He kinda wanted someone to hang around with. Holden had put his red hunting hat on, but took it off to not look like a moron when he went into the hotel. His room was so empty and depressing. When he looked out the window in the other hotel, there was a couple squirting water all over each other. They found it hilarious and looked like they were having a great time. This didn't really make Holden feel any better, it was just as depressing to watch people doing stupid things yet enjoying each others company when Holden was all by himself. Looking at the girl in the other hotel made Holden think of a girl he had had similar fun with a few years ago. He liked to think he was quite a sexy guy. He remembered how he had played around with this one girl, who he thought was even sleazy than he apparently was. Yet, he knew that playing around with girls that he didn't really like went against his morals. Although, even when he had decided he would stop doing all that stuff, he had broken that decision almost immediately. He was always going against his morals just because it made him fell alright at the time; but would make him even worse later.
Sorry I haven't finished the chapter Mrs Grehan. It was starting to get to almost 800 words so I stopped it there, as I still had two pages to go.
