Catcher in the Rye Essay
Holden’s personality towards girls can tell us a lot about his character. Holden acts differently towards the many girls in his life. With Sally Hayes, he spoke his mind, which was a mistake on his part. With Sunny, he was a little bit shy. When Holden was with Sunny, after he decided to get a prostitute, he wouldn’t do anything with her. But, towards his sister Phoebe, he is very outgoing and will do almost anything for her. He snuck into his house and risked getting caught by his parents just to see Phoebe. He even spent some of the last money he had on buying her sister a record, which he ended up accidentally breaking.
When Holden is with Sunny, he seems a little bit surprised by his own actions. He says this is very unlike him to get a prostitute. He completely regrets his actions. Holden even says, “I kept hoping she’d be good looking. I didn’t care too much, though. I sort of just wanted to get it over with.” (93) This definitely shows Holden regrets his actions. He still seemed to try to be suave with Sunny even though he didn’t really want her to be there. He really seems to digress from having sex with her. Sunny was nervous, but wanted to get started and says, “Let’s go, hey.”
“Don’t you feel like talking for a while?” I asked her. It was a childish thing to say, but I was feeling so damn peculiar. “Are you in a very big hurry?” (95) Holden seems very nervous and does not want to use her. Holden ends up paying her, even though he doesn’t even use her.
On Holden’s date with Sally, at first he seems very happy to be with her. “Holden! she said, “It’s marvelous to see you! It’s been ages.”...”Swell to see you,” I said. I meant it, too.”(124) He was genuinely happy to see her. Even though he actually was happy to see her, he still wanted to fool around a little bit with her. “ We horsed around a little bit in the cab on the way over to the theater. At first she didn’t want to, because she had her lipstick on and all,...