In chapter 15, Holden wakes up in the New York hotel on Sunday morning. He has had a run-in the night before with a teen sex worker and her pimp. It is fair to say that Holden is a bit shaken by the episode, and he briefly considers calling Jane, but he calls Sally Hayes instead. He is clearly lonely and hoping to reconnect with someone who knows him. Even though he considers Sally Hayes "quite a little phony," his distaste for her bad qualities is outstripped by his need for human companionship and a sympathetic ear. He also needs a diversion from his desperate situation and state of mind, and it is likely that he hopes that spending the day with Sally at a show will distract him.
Holden and Sally's date ends badly. Later, in chapter 20, Holden is drunk and calls her late at night from a bar. It seems that he is remorseful for the way things ended on their date. He offers to come over and help her trim her Christmas tree, and she agrees but hangs up on him.
Holden makes his first phone call to Sally on Sunday morning, after waking up in his New York City hotel room "around ten o'clock" and smoking in bed for awhile. He invites her to a matinee at the Biltmore that afternoon, then checks out of the hotel and deposits his bags at Grand Central Station. After seeing a play and ice-skating together, Holden and Sally sit and talk over drinks, an activity that ends awkwardly after he invites her to run away with him, then insults and laughs at her.
Holden's erratic behavior continues through the day as he passes time strolling around various parts of the city, then meets an old acquaintance for drinks in a hotel bar. Upon leaving the bar after being overserved, he enters a phone booth and drunkenly calls Sally again on Sunday night out of loneliness and boredom; this time he has a brief conversation with both Sally and her grandmother, who first answers the phone.
No comments:
Post a Comment