Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

Summary and Analysis Chapter 3 Summary Holden returns to Pencey where he lives in the Ossenburger Memorial Wing of the new dorms, reserved for juniors and seniors. Ossenburger is an alumnus who has made a fortune in the undertaking business. Pencey named a wing of the new dormitories after him in thanks for a large donation. Ossenburger attended the first home football game earlier in the fall and bored the students, especially Holden, with a long-winded, corny, cliché-filled oration at chapel the next morning. A flatulent student named Edgar Marsalla finally countered with his own loud breaking of wind, much to Holden's delight. The dorm room is empty and cozy. Holden tries on a red hunting cap, with a long bill, which he bought for a dollar in New York that morning. He relaxes with a good book, Isak Denisen's Out of Africa, until he is interrupted by Robert Ackley who rooms next door and enters through a shower that the two rooms share. Ackley is a nuisance and ruins the mood. Ward Stradlater, Holden's roommate, comes in from the football game and asks to borrow Holden's hound's-tooth jacket as he prepares to go out for the evening. Analysis Ossenburger's character introduces the theme of death in a comic vein. The mortician is just the sort of establishment "phony" that Holden loves to mock. He has a chain of funeral parlors, profiting from high volume at low rates and, Holden is certain, shabby service. Ossenburger's speech at chapel is filled with "corny jokes" and clichés. He says that he is never ashamed to get down on his knees and talk to his buddy, Jesus. This humors Holden, who imagines Ossenburger asking Jesus to "send him a few more stiffs." Marsalla's magnificent fart, which, Holden reports, nearly "blew the roof off" the chapel, is the perfect response. Holden opens the chapter by telling us that he loves to lie. It is unlikely that he is lying about that. Because he is the narrator, the reader might take some caution in "believing" what Holden says; he exaggerates mercilessly: Ossenburger's speech lasts ten hours, he tells us, flavored with fifty corny jokes; his cheap funerals probably consist of shoving the deceased into sacks and dumping them in a river; Ackley, the obnoxious pest next door, barges in on Holden about eighty-five times a day; Holden asks him not to clip his nails onto the floor fifty times. The world is not big enough for Holden; he needs to blow it up a little. However, Holden's hyperbole and wild imaginings usually are not malicious. When he assumes a false identity or claims he is headed for the opera as he actually goes to buy a magazine, he is playing. Life is a bit boring for Holden; he just needs to liven up the action. The red hunting cap is a strong symbol of Holden's unconventional joy. This is not a baseball cap. The bill is overly long. It is painfully unstylish, but Holden loves it. Unknowingly anticipating a style that would be popular several decades later, he wears it backward. Those who follow baseball can't help noticing that this is how a catcher wears his cap (a connection to the novel's title). Holden also dons his unconventional cap indoors. Among other things, it is a reading cap for Holden. Perhaps the critics who say that Holden wears it backward because he is hunting himself are correct. More likely, Holden just loves the cap and enjoys being different. Ackley is an excellent example of Salinger's skill at characterization. Numerous specifics reveal Ackley's personality. He is antisocial and cold to the point that even his wife, if he ever marries, will call him by his last name. He never brushes his teeth; they look "mossy and awful." He is nasty and hates everyone. He constantly disturbs Holden's personal belongings and puts them back in the wrong place. In a distinct way, Holden differs from his creator. Ironically, when he reads a terrific book, Holden thinks it would be great to telephone the author and get to know him. They could become pals and talk whenever Holden feels like it. But it is safe to assume that J.D. Salinger, as an author, would not welcome such an invasion of his own privacy. Summary and Analysis Chapter 4 Summary Although the dorms have showers separating rooms, the toilets and sinks are down the hall. Having nothing better to do, Holden accompanies his roommate, Stradlater, as he prepares for a Saturday night date. Holden is first shocked and then concerned when he learns that his roommate's date that night is Jane Gallagher, a friend of his from the summer before his sophomore year. Holden repeatedly says he should go downstairs to say hello to Jane, but he never does. Stradlater talks Holden into writing an English theme paper for him. Holden returns to his room and is joined by Ackley, whose company Holden doesn't mind, because listening to Ackley distracts him from thinking about Jane. Analysis Stradlater is a "Year Book kind of handsome guy." He has superficial good looks and is extremely photogenic, but he is arrogant and vain. He is also a secret slob. Stradlater may be well groomed, because he is in love with himself, but he lives like a pig. His razor, for example, is rusty and full of hair. He never cleans anything. He is a user — of women and of friends. Stradlater wants Holden to compose a descriptive English theme for him because he knows that Holden writes well. Too lazy and incompetent to be a decent writer himself, Stradlater aggravates Holden by pretending that the only reason he can't write is that he puts the commas in the wrong places. Holden has good reason to be concerned for Jean Stradlater is an experienced womanizer, and the Jean that Holden knows is an innocent dreamer, the kind of girl who, when she plays checkers, leaves her kings lined up in the opponent's back row, where they were crowned, preferring aesthetic design to victory. Holden's one consolation is that he knows Jean has already irked Stradlater by signing out of her dorm only until 9:30 p.m.