Summary: Chapter 5
After a dry and unappetizing steak dinner in the dining
hall, Holden gets into a snowball fight with some of the other Pencey
boys. He and his friend Mal Brossard decide to take a bus into Agerstown
to see a movie—though Holden hates movies—and Holden convinces Mal
to let Ackley go with them. As it turns out, Ackley and Brossard have
already seen the film, so the trio simply eats some burgers, plays
a little pinball, and heads back to Pencey.
After the excursion, Mal goes off to look for
a bridge game, and Ackley sits on Holden’s bed squeezing pimples
and concocting stories about a girl he claims to have had sex with
the summer before. Holden finally gets him to leave by beginning
to work on the English assignment for Stradlater. Stradlater had
said the composition was supposed to be a simple description of
a room, a house, or something similarly straightforward. But Holden cannot
think of anything to say about a house or a room, so he writes about
a baseball glove that his brother Allie used to copy poems onto
in green ink.
Several years before, Allie died of leukemia. Though he
was two years younger than Holden, Holden says that Allie was the
most intelligent member of his family. He also says that Allie was
an incredibly nice, innocent child. Holden clearly still feels Allie’s
loss strongly. He gives a brief description of Allie, mentioning
his bright red hair. He also recounts that the night Allie died,
he slept in the garage and broke all the windows with his bare hands.
After he finishes the composition for Stradlater, he stares out
the window and listens to Ackley snore in the next room.
Summary: Chapter 6
Home from his date, Stradlater barges into the
room. He reads Holden’s composition and becomes visibly annoyed,
asserting that it has nothing to do with the assignment and that
it’s no wonder Holden is being expelled. Holden tears the composition
up and throws it away angrily. Afterward, he smokes a cigarette
in the room just to annoy Stradlater. The tension between the two increases
when Holden asks Stradlater about his date with Jane. When Stradlater
nonchalantly refuses to tell Holden any of the details, Holden attacks
him, but Stradlater pins him to the floor and tries to get him to
calm down. Holden relentlessly insults Stradlater, driving him crazy
until he punches Holden and bloodies his nose. Stradlater then becomes
worried that he has hurt Holden and will get into trouble. Holden
insults him some more, and Stradlater finally leaves the room. Holden
gets up and goes into Ackley’s room, his face covered in blood.
Analysis: Chapters 5–6
Holden’s kindness to Ackley in Chapter 5 comes as a surprise
after the disdain that Holden has displayed for him in the previous
two chapters. Though he continues to complain about Ackley, the
sympathy he feels for his next-door neighbor is evident when he
convinces Mal Brossard to let Ackley join them at the movies. Equally
surprising is Holden’s willingness to go to the movies after his
diatribes against their superficiality. Holden’s actions are inconsistent
with his opinions, but instead of making him seem like a hypocrite,
this makes him more likable: he is kind to Ackley without commenting
on it, and he shows himself capable of going to the movies with
his friends like a normal teenager.
The most important revelation in these chapters
comes about when Holden writes the composition for Stradlater, divulging that
his brother Allie died of leukemia several years before. Holden
idealizes Allie, praising his intelligence and sensitivity—the poem--covered
baseball glove is a perfect emblem for both—but remaining silent
about his emotional reaction to Allie’s death. He alludes to his
behavior almost in passing, saying that he slept in the garage on
the night of Allie’s death and broke all the windows with his bare
hands, “just for the hell of it.” He tried to break the car windows
as well, but could not because his hand was already fractured from
smashing the garage windows. Throughout the novel, it becomes increasingly
clear that Allie’s death was one of the most traumatic experiences
of Holden’s life and may play a major role in his current psychological
breakdown. Indeed, the cynicism that Holden uses to avoid expressing his
feelings may result from Allie’s death.
