Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Catcher in the Rye Study Guide Answers

Our English teacher downloaded this study guide off the web years ago, sadly after countless searches I still haven't found the answers to this guide. So I answered them and here they are.
Keep in mind though, I never actually read the book. This is all based on SparkNotes summaries and the PinkMonkey Guide. So if you find any errors, comment, and I will fix it.
Take these answers as you want, right or wrong I have no idea, I only ask that people from this year use them as a reference and change up the answers rather than copy paste the whole bit.

The Catcher in the Rye Study Questions
by Morgan Gillespie
Chapter 1
1. Holden is the narrator of the entire story and he promises to tell the story of his crazy Christmas
2. DB is Holden’s brother and he calls him a prostitute because he sells himself as a writer.
3. Pencey Prep is the school Holden attends.
4. Holden is leaving because he failed all his classes but one, he feels passive.
Chapter 2
1. Mr. Spencer is his history teacher and Holden visits him because he is a nice guy
2. Holden describes himself as an average guy?
3. Mr. Spencer reads the essay because it is a failure of an essay, a joke. Holden is not happy by having the essay read aloud to him.
4. Whooton and Elkton Hills are old schools, which Holden left because they stunk too.
Chapter 3
1. Holden bought a red hat in New York
2. Holden likes DB, Lardner, and Isak Dinese. No, I don’t enjoy these writers.3. Ackley is Holden’s neighbor. Holden seems to not really like him and I do not blame him. The kid is a punk.
4. Stradlater is his roommate, a beefy conceited ladies man.
Chapter 4
1. Stradlater asks Holden to write an essay for him
2. Stradlater’s date is Jane, a girl Holden likes.
3. Jane was an old neighbor of Holden and he liked her. Holden is upset that Stradlater is dating her.
Chapter 5
1. Holden goes to Agerstown to see a movie. Ends up back at his room writing that essay.
2. After failing to write on such a simple essay topic, Holden writes about a baseball glove his brother used to write poems upon in green ink.
3. Allie was Holden’s brother. He was a rather intelligent and innocent child. Holden loved him.
4. Allie died several years before; he would be 2 years younger than Holden, which puts him at 14, compared to Holden at 16.
Chapter 6
1. Holden is worried about how Stradlater’s date with Jane went.
2. Stradlater doesn’t like the “composition” because it has absolutely nothing to do with the essay topic. Understandably he is annoyed. Holden sensing this irritation tears up the essay which initiates tension only magnified when Holden tries to leak out info about the date. Ending in a fight and Holden getting his face beat in.
Chapter 7
1. Holden goes to Ackley’s room because his face is all bloodied up, needs a place to stay and Ackley sits and listens to Holden’s whining.
2. He calls Ackley these names because he actually listens but then becomes annoyed and Holden becomes upset.
3. Holden leaves because he is simply upset with everyone’s phoniness, especially Ackley at the moment. He plans to go to New York.
Chapter 81. An attractive older woman who ends up being a mother of his classmate
2. Holden lies to her and tells her how popular her son is. He does this to make her feel better.
3. Holden uses the excuse that he has a brain tumor operation in New York
Chapter 9
1. DB, Phoebe, Jane, Sally.. ends up calling no one.
2. Holden attempts to strike up a conversation with a taxi driver and fails.
3. Holden sees a couple with a strange fetish involving cross dressing and spitting their drinks into each others face.
4. What sex rule? Holden is aroused by the odd couple and wants sex now.
5. Faith is a whore recommended to him by a boy at a party, however Holden wants her now rather than tomorrow and hangs up on her.
Chapter 10
1. Holden likes that his sister is intelligent, humorous, clever and a good writer.
2. He tries to order a cocktail, but the waiter refuses and he is stuck ordering a coke.
3. He likes these women and flirts with them, trying to dance with them as well.
Chapter 11
1. Holden has a crush on her. That is what happens when you have a crush.
2. Jane is the only girl Holden has gotten close to, the only girl he shared his brother’s baseball glove with.
Chapter 12
1. Horwitz is a cab driver; Holden tries again for some odd reason to speak to him about the ducks in the central park lagoon.
2. Ernie plays the piano; Holden is not impressed and considers him a phony because he expects him to be full of himself. He calls him over to his table to drink probably just to talk and get someone else on the piano.
3. Lillian Simmons is an ex girlfriend of his brother DB. Holden feels she is annoying
4. Holden has to leave the nightclub to get away from Lillian, he feels she ruined the night for him
Chapter 13
1. Holden wouldn’t have done anything, he realizes that he is a coward at heart and doesn’t like violence. Holden is indeed a coward.
2. Holden feels like crap, depressed and flustered.
3. Unable to say no, Holden agrees to have a prostitute sent up to his room for $5. Even though Holden knows, he is too scared to actually do anything with the girl. She comes up into the room; Holden becomes flustered and tells her he can’t do anything due to a recent surgery. He pays her $5 and she requests $10, he denies and she leaves.
Chapter 14
1. Holden recalls an incident where he excluded Allie from a game and he now feels guilty for doing so. He ‘invites’ Allie in an attempt to make himself feel better.
2. Holden feels that he doesn’t like organized religion, although he still feels the desire to pray.
3. Maurice is the prostitutes pimp; he knocks on the door demanding the other $5. Holden is punched and pinned, and then the money is taken out of his wallet. Holden didn’t have a choice but to give him the money, he is a weak kid who isn’t in the slightest bit assertive.
4. Holden feels like crap and imagines himself taking his revenge on Maurice. He also considers jumping out of the window, but he knows he is too much of a coward to even do that and goes to sleep.
Chapter 15
1. Sally Hayes is Holden’s ex girlfriend. Holden thinks she is attractive.
2. Holden’s father is described to seem like an angry man, but it is most likely a normal reaction to Holden always losing his property.
3. Holden thinks about Dick because he notices the raggedy suitcases owned by the Nuns, just like Dick.
4. Holden actually respects the Nuns and does not consider them fake.
Chapter 16
1. Holden has time to spare and begins to walk around, he decides to head to the record store to buy a gift for Phoebe.
2. Holden sees the boy singing, “Comin’ Thro the Rye” This cheers Holden up a bit.
3. Holden doesn’t usually like movies and shows and has little interest in seeing the movie be bought tickets for, “I know my love.” As usual, he considers actors to be phonies.
4. Holden liked the museum as a kid because everything seemed to stay right; everything there stayed the same where as every time he went there, he was different. By the time he gets to the museum however, he no longer wishes to go.
Chapter 17
1. Harris Macklin is an actor in the movie; Holden doesn’t like him because he believes he is too good at what he does and is probably full of himself.
2. He tells her this to get her to make out with him, it works.
3. Holden considers him a phony because Sally is flirting with him and he is slightly pretentious, no this boy is not a phony.
4. They go skating mostly so Sally can show off her legs and rear. It works, however they are both terrible skaters and quit skating after a short time and head to the bar.
Chapter 18
1. Holden doesn’t enjoy the movie nor the Christmas special ad, he wouldn’t like the show and neither would I.
2. Holden doesn’t like the movie, it is a sad romanticized war movie, likely similar to the novel A Farewell to Arms.
3. Holden is thinking about war because that is what the movie was about and Holden realizes he could never be in the military.
Chapter 19
1. Carl Luce was his academic advisor back in the Whooten School. He spoke with Carl about sex stories.
2. Holden finds Luce amusing, but fake and effeminate. He makes an effort to see him because no one else in his address book seems to want to and he wants to talk about sex.
3. Carl thinks Holden needs Psychoanalysis, Carl is probably right.
Chapter 20
1. Holden pretends to be wounded in the stomach, holding his hand under his jacket to prevent bleeding.
2. Holden is drunk when he calls Sally and is blind to her reaction, she is angered by his late night call.
3. Holden drops and breaks the record he bought for Phoebe.
4. Holden missed the funeral because he was recovering in the hospital from the hand wounds.
Chapter 21
1. He begins rummaging through her school books and reading her notes.
2. Phoebe is bursting with energy, even though she was just woken up in the middle of the night. She begins to feverishly tell Holden stories, about her school play, a movie she saw, another movie DB was working on, a bully at school and that his parents are at a party.
3. Phoebe covers her head with the pillow because she realizes Holden was kicked out of school and she doesn’t to hear his justification.
Chapter 22
1. Holden is angered when she asks and responds angrily, listing all the things he hated about the school. Holden then spouts random garbage about artificiality penetrating to the very core of society. He isn’t being honest, as no one else really asked him about why he flunked out other than Mr Spencer. Holden would most certainly not be happier at my school. He’d consider everyone to be a ‘Phony’ by his childish definition.
2. James Castle was a young boy back in Elkton Hills School who jumped out a window and committed suicide. When he is asked to think of 1 thing he likes, his mind goes back, thinking about the nuns at breakfast and young James who was tormented by all the boys.
3. Holden says he likes Allie. Phoebe isn’t satisfied with his answer and exclaims that Allie is dead.
4. Holden says he would not like to be a lawyer because they are phonies just like his father.
5. Holden says he would like to be the catcher in the rye. This is because he wants to protect children and his misinterpretation of the poem, “Comin’ Thro the Rye” leads him to imagine a field of children playing next to a cliff, where he would be protecting children from falling off the cliff.
Chapter 23
1. Mr. Antolini is an English teacher Holden had back in Elkton Hills. Holden likes him because he was the only one who demonstrated any kindness / courage to the body of James Castle when he died.
2. Phoebe turns on the radio and Holden asks her to dance, they know a series of dances already and Holden has mentioned earlier in the novel about various types of dancers and how he enjoys dancing. While dancing with his sister they move very well together and Holden enjoys this.
3. Phoebe gives Holden the money from her Christmas fund. He cries because she unquestionably gives Holden the money without even thinking, she loves him.
4. Holden hides in the closet then sneaks out of the house and heads to Antolini’s house. He hides out until Wednesday, when he would normally be home if he had stayed in school.
Chapter 24
1. Mr. Antolini has a similar talk with Holden that Mr. Spencer had, asking about why he flunked out. However, it is more of a 2 way conversation more than a lecture. Holden actually opens up a bit more and tells Antolini things that he didn’t like about Pency Prep.
2. Wihelm Stekel is an Austrian physician and psychologist, he is quoted in an effort to make Holden see his point. Holden should have taken Mr. Antolinis advice to hear, but instead Holden wanted compassion and felt even worse.
3. Holden is upset when he wakes up as he finds, Mr. Antolini stroking his forehead. Holden sees this as a homosexual advance upon him and freaks out. He probably was having a bad dream and talking to himself, sweating most likely and Mr. Antolini was attempting to comfort him. One more thing that Holden saw as safe, has now become horrible and dirty, once again Holden is on his own.
Chapter 25
1. Holden returns to Grand Central Station and he sleeps on a bench of the waiting room.
2. After reading the article about hormones he now believes he has cancer and becomes more depressed. No, I do not usually worry about my health, be it while I am depressed or not.
3. Holden laughs because one of the men unloading the Christmas tree says, “Hold it up, for chrissake. This is quite an ironic line to say to a Christmas tree. However, Holden is depressed by the sheer amount of Christmas spirit that everyone else seems to have.
4. Holden doesn’t eat the doughnuts because his stomach is upset, no doubt due to the events. No, I eat to survive.
5. The streets begin to grow mentally wider, further and further as if it is a dark nightmare and the streets keep growing and he may not be able to make it across.
6. Holden decides to hitchhike out west, meeting up with Phoebe one last time before he heads out.
7. Holden goes to Phoebe’s school to leave a note for her to meet him in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for lunch. The graffiti makes him angry because it is offensive and contains profanity.
8. Holden gets along fine with the two boys; he leads them to the mummy exhibit. He shows a similar attitude to his sister.
9. Holden yells at Phoebe because she has come to run away with him.
10. Phoebe becomes upset and Holden makes it up to her by not running away.
11. They both go to the Zoo and carousel in Central Park
12. Holden feels like the carousel phoebe rides represents his life, spinning around and around.
Chapter 26
1. We aren’t told what happens to Holden, all we know is that he got sick, was sent to the rest home and will be attending a different school in the fall. He tells the analyst that the rest of the story is irrelevant. Holden doesn’t tell about the rest probably because his father was very angry and it was a hard time, possibly even physical.
2. Holden is going back to school in September. No, Holden will not likely apply himself again, although he believes he will.
3. Holden is in a sanatorium out in California to recover.
4. DB brings an “English Babe” that is in a movie he is creating, D.B. asks how Holden feels about telling people about this “whole thing”
5. Holden regrets sharing so many private personal experiences with others and sharing each one cause him to miss the people he spoke of even more.
Here are the questions so search results are better! Thanks for posting them anon.Taken from


http://www.classjump.com/m/mshealy/documents/9641385522.pdf


I take no credit for this content.


Note: It has come to my attention that the questions I answered and the questions I took from that study guide don't exactly match up.  Sorry, it was all that I could find, so you may need to pick and match.  I simply posted all the answers to the questions I was asked. 


Chapter 1
1. What does Holden mean when he says that his brother D.B. is out in Hollywood "being a prostitute"?
2. Where is Holden as the story begins?
3. Where and what is Pencey Prep?
4. How did Holden let the fencing team down?
5. Why was Holden being kicked out of Pencey Prep?
6. What kind of health does Holden appear to be in?
Chapter 2
1. Who is Mr. Spencer and why does Holden visit him?
2. What did Spencer do that particularly annoyed Holden?
3. What does Holden give us as the reason for "leaving" Elkton Hills?
Chapter 3
1. What does Holden mean, "I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot"? Give examples of what he reads.
2. Who is Ackley? Describe him.
3. What does Ackley do that annoys Holden?
Chapter 4
1. Who is Stradlater? Why does Holden refer to him as a "secret slob"? What does he look like?
2. What point does Holden try to make about people when he talks about Stradlater and the "commas" andAckley's description of the basketball player?
3. Why did it make Holden nervous that Stradlater was going out with Jane Gallagher?
Chapter 5
1. Who is Allie, and why is his baseball mitt so special to Holden?
2. Why did Holden's parents want to have him psychoanalyzed?
Chapter 6
1. What do Holden and Stradlater fight over?
2. Holden says that he is a "pacifist". What is that, and is he?
Chapter 7
1. Why does Holden suddenly decide to visit Ackley's room?
2. Where does Holden then decide to go?
3. What is his final good-bye to Pencey Prep?
4. Why do you think Holden was crying as he left?
Chapter 8
1. What does Holden mean when he says, "Mothers are all slightly insane"?
2. What are some of the lies Holden tells Mrs. Morrow? Do you think he's as sorry for them as he stated?
Chapter 9
1. Holden calls other people phony. In what way is he one?
Chapter 10
1. Who is Phoebe, and what is Holden's opinion of her?
2. What evidence is there that shows us that Holden probably doesn't look as old as he says he looks?
Chapter 11
1. What was the past relationship like between Holden and Jane?
Chapter 12
1. What do Holden and the cab driver talk about?
2. Why does Holden leave Ernie's?
Chapter 13
1. Previously Holden stated he was a "pacifist". Does his description of how he would deal with the "glove thief" supportthis, or is he just "yellow"?
Chapter 14
1. Does Holden have any guilt feelings about Allie? Do you feel this is abnormal in any way, or normal?
2. What made Holden cry?
3. What evidence shows us that Holden might have made a good actor?
Chapter 15
1. What is the point that Holden tries to make about people when he elaborates about the suitcases of the nuns and ofhis former roommate?
2. How does Holden treat the nuns?
3. Why does Holden think it spoils a conversation if someone asks what religion he is?
Chapter 16
1. Who does Holden make a date with? Why does he call her up if he thinks she's a phony?
2. How does Holden treat little kids? Give an example.
3. Does Holden know his way around the city? What does this tell us about him? 
Chapter 17
1. How do Holden's feelings for women compare to his feelings for men?
2. How does Holden feel about actors? How does he feel about The Lunts?
3. What is Holden's point about the difference between men owning a car and men owning a horse?
4. How does Holden describe a boy's school when talking to Sally?
5. Why does Holden want to take off with Sally now instead of after college? What’s the difference in his eyes?
Chapter 18
1. What is Holden's opinion of the Christmas show at Radio City?
2. Why did Holden think the woman who cried through the movie was a phony?
Chapter 19
1. Why did Holden get mad at Luce for calling his (Luce's) old girlfriend the "Whore of New Hampshire"?
2. Who was Luce to Holden?
Chapter 20
1. How does Holden "act" again in this chapter?
2. What happens to Holden at the Wicker Bar?
3. What happens to Phoebe's record?
4. Where does Holden go right after he leaves the bar?
5. What information does Holden finally tell us about Allie's funeral?
6. What does Holden say about Allie that contradicts all his other statements about being an atheist?
7. After he leaves the park, where does Holden go?
Chapter 21
1. What does Holden find so intriguing about Phoebe's note- book?
Chapter 22
1. Why did it depress Holden when an "old guy" told him that his days at Pencey were the happiest days of his life?
2. What does it tell us about Holden when Phoebe states, "You don't like anything that's happening"?
3. Why does Holden think about James Castle when Phoebe asks him to name one thing that he likes a lot? Why doeshe deny really knowing James? What does it tell us about Holden when he says, "Just because somebody's dead, youdon't just stop liking them, for God's sake---especially if they were a thousand times nicer than the people you knowthat’re alive and all"?
4. What does Holden tell Phoebe he'd like to be?
Chapter 23
1. Who is Mr. Antolini?
2. How does Phoebe cover for Holden when their parents come home?
3. In talking with her parents how does Phoebe "sound" like Holden?
4. What does Phoebe do that makes Holden cry?
5. What does Holden give to Phoebe?
Chapter 24
1. Why did Holden fail his speech class?
2. How does Holden feel physically while he talks to Mr. Antolini?
3. What does Holden say about him hating people, such as Ackley and Stradlater?
4. What does Antolini's quote mean, "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while themark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one"?
5. How does Antolini upset and scare Holden?
Chapter 24
1. Later, after he has had time to think about it, what does Holden think about Antolini?
2. Why does the article on hormones upset Holden?
3. What strange feeling does Holden start to have when he steps off of curbs?
4. Why does he keep repeating, "Allie, don't let me disappear"?
5. What does Holden decide he must do next? Where does he first go?
6. With all the bad language that Holden uses, why was he so upset that curse words were written on a school wall?
7. How does Holden treat the two small boys in the museum?
8. Why is it so important to Holden that Phoebe not be mad at him? Relate this to his past, and Allie.
9. What does Holden mean when he states, "The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to letthem do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them"?
10. What is the carrousel symbolic of?
Chapter 25
1. At the conclusion, where is Holden?
2. What was the past relationship like between Holden and Jane?
Chapter 26
1. What does Holden mean when he says, “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”?

13 comments:

  1. No problem my friend - if you have the actual questions themselves, feel free to post those on here too. That way others can find this page easily.
    Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Link to the print out with the questions:

    http://www.classjump.com/m/mshealy/documents/9641385522.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, I'm a teacher who has been looking for a good study guide with answers. Good work little trooper!

    ReplyDelete
  4. hate this find your own aswers lazies!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I LOVE YOU!! This whole assignment was a waste of time to begin with! Imagine a teacher who writes there own questions! That would be a sight to see...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thx soo much!!! Your answers n my answers put toqether are really qood!!! Thank qod I found this website bc I did not read the last 2 chapters of the book! Thank u soo much aqain! (:

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No problem! I am happy they helped.

      Getting messages from students in the same obnoxious situation I found myself in so many years ago is a nice random mood booster. Always puts a smile on my face.

      Delete
  7. You have mad my life worth living for!!!! I love you long time!!!!!!! All kidding aside, I truly love you!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. My friend told me about this site and honestly most of them are spot on, job work and thank you for the help.
    oh yeah and I FUCKING LOVE YOU

    ReplyDelete
  9. Enjoy free essays, examples of research papers, sample term papers, free dissertation samples and paper writing tips for all students. Example papers and sample papers on the most popular topics. Visit us at Study guide

    ReplyDelete
  10. thanks i hope theyre right

    ReplyDelete
  11. Can u tell me the answers of these questions?
    What is ironic about Holden?
    Why did Holden write Mr.Spencer a note at the bottom of his history paper
    Describe Mr.Spencer's physical conditions in this chapter.

    ReplyDelete
  12. You are a life saver but can you give the page references to your answers. I am really struggling with my homework on this book!!!

    ReplyDelete