
While reading this set of chapters, Holden is still rude to an extent. I feel like he doesn't really know how to act around them, he certainly doesn't act like himself. One thing that Holden has in common with every woman that he has interacted with besides Jane, and his little sister, Phoebe, is the fact that he lies to every single one of them. Holden either lies about his name, age, or whether or not he has somewhere else to be. Earlier on in the book, Holden said that he was a "terrific liar" and at that moment, my class figured out that it was our job, as the reader, to decipher what is real and what is not. I figured that since Holden told us about his lying problem, he probably doesn't trust anyone. So, in chapter eight, when he met Mrs. Morrow, he gave her the name, Rudolf Schmidt only because he, "...didn't feel like giving her my life history." That's a pretty lousy excuse to not give someone their real name. That is what made me think of the fact that Holden might not trust anyone.

The second female interaction that I will mention is in chapter 10, when Holden talks about his sister, Phoebe. Holden didn't speak to her in person, but he thought about her and told the audience more about her. I feel like Holden holds Phoebe to almost the same light as Allie because the three of them had special memories together when they were young.

The third interaction with females that I'm going to use is Jane in chapter 11. Earlier in the book, the reader saw that Holden was in love with Jane, but we only knew that along with the fact that they used to live next to each other and that Jane would keep her kings in the back row while playing checkers. Now, in chapter 11, we get to see more of Jane. Before they met, Holden's mother didn't like Jane or her mother because their dog would relieve itself in their yard.


Holden wasn't the only one to open up in this friendship. While playing checkers, Jane's step-father came out, looking for cigarettes and Jane didn't respond. She simply looked down at the checkered board, acting as if she was concentrating on her next move. When he left, Holden saw the tears escape from Jane's eyes and sat next to her, kissing her (never on the lips) to comfort her. Then they went to a movie and Holden told us that they held hands. He liked holding her hand because she didn't act like it was strange like other girls. Because of that, they would hold hands frequently and Holden said that he got to know who Jane was without "necking" her. Meaning, without being intimate with her. This one point made me give Holden a little more respect because he said that he didn't need to be intimate with Jane to get to know her. They spent a lot of time together and he learned who she was. Holden respected Jane and wouldn't do anything that she didn't want him to do.
The last female interaction that I'm going to talk about is Sunny from chapter 13. Holden was feeling down while he was in the hotel, on his way home from being kicked out at Pencey and the elevator asked him if he wanted something to do that night. After accepting the offer, Holden realized that he had hired a prostitute for a while.


Going back to the women that I have mentioned earlier, all of these interactions were different. The first one, with Mrs. Morrow, Holden was full of himself and made her believe that her son was modest and he wanted to get a cocktail with her (it ended up not happening). Phoebe was the one girl that Holden blatantly said was pretty and she's his sister, so that interaction was going to be different, along with the fact that it was a memory. Jane was also a memory, but that one was more of an intimate love instead of a family love. Holden didn't tell us that he loves Jane, but it's obvious that he does from how he acted in the beginning of the book when he thought that Stradlater was intimate with her. Holden told us that he went crazy, so, when he was thinking about Jane in chapter 11, he was definitely thinking about love. The last woman, Sunny, was the first woman that we see Holden get nervous and kind of drop his kind of "bad boy" vibe. In the beginning of the book, we learned that Holden failed out of four schools and added Pencey to the list. He seemed like he just didn't care about anything, but here, when he's with Sunny, he stops. He doesn't want her services. If he truly didn't care, then he would have taken advantage of having a prostitute with him. Now, we're starting to see Holden break his icy wall that he built when Allie died. He's starting to care, even if it's a little bit.
Thank you for reading my blog :)
Have a good night!

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