Summary: Chapter 25
After leaving Mr. Antolini’s, Holden goes to
Grand Central Station and spends the night sleeping on a bench in
the waiting room. The next day, he walks up and down Fifth Avenue,
watching the children and feeling more and more nervous and overwhelmed.
Every time he crosses a street, he feels like he will disappear,
so each time he reaches a curb, he calls to Allie, pleading with
his dead brother to let him make it to the other side. He decides
to leave New York, hitchhike west, and never go home or to school
again. He imagines living as a hermit, never talking to anybody,
and marrying a deaf-mute girl.
He goes to Phoebe’s school and writes her a note
telling her to meet him at the Museum of Art so he can return the
money she lent him. As he wanders around his old school, he becomes
even more depressed when he finds the words “fuck you” scrawled
on the walls.
While waiting at the museum, Holden shows two young kids where
the mummies are. He leads them down the hallway to the tomb exhibit,
but they get scared and run off, leaving Holden alone in the dark,
cramped passage. Holden likes it at first, but then sees another
“fuck you” written on the wall. Disgusted, he speculates that when
he dies, somebody will probably write the words “fuck you” on his
tombstone. He leaves the exhibit to wait for Phoebe. On the way
to the bathroom, he passes out, but he downplays the incident.
Phoebe arrives at the museum with a suitcase and begs
Holden to take her with him. He feels dizzy and worries that he
will pass out again. He tells her that she cannot possibly go with
him and feels even closer to fainting. She gets angry, refuses to
look at him, and gruffly returns his hunting hat. Holden tells her
he won’t go away and asks her to go back to school. She angrily
refuses, and he offers to take her to the zoo.
They walk to the zoo, Holden on one side of the street,
Phoebe following angrily on the other. After looking at some animals,
they walk to the park, now on the same side of the street, although
still not quite together. They come to the carousel, and Holden
convinces Phoebe to ride it. He sits on a park bench, watching her
go around and around. They have reconciled, he is wearing his red hunting
hat, and suddenly he feels so happy he thinks he might cry.
Summary: Chapter 26
Holden concludes his story by refusing to discuss what
happened after his day in the park with Phoebe, although he does
say that he went home, got sick, and was sent to the rest home from
which he now tells his story. He says he is supposed to go to a
new school in the fall and thinks that he will apply himself there,
but he doesn’t feel like talking about it. He wishes he hadn’t talked
about his experiences so much in the first place, even to D. B.,
who often comes to visit him in the rest home. Talking about what
happened to him makes him miss all the people in his story.
