Chapter 18

After his date, Holden stops at a drugstore for a sandwich and calls Jane once again, but no one answers the call. On a late Sunday afternoon, Holden decides to call Carl Luce, a senior from Whooton School. Carl is three years older than Holden and used to be his student advisor. They agree to meet at ten that night at the Wicker Bar.

With plenty of time at his disposal, Holden decides to watch a movie. He does not find it interesting. When a woman beside him cries, Holden thinks that the world may call her a kind-hearted soul for being moved by the movie. Holden, on the other hand, does not find her crying noble or endearing. He reasons that she’d only cared about her own emotions, ignoring her son beside her who’d wanted to visit the bathroom. Holden thinks that the more sentimental people are, the more mean they are at heart.

The movie makes him think about the war. He recalls asking his brother D.B. about his experience in the war. D.B. had told him that he hated it. He’d also confessed that he couldn’t tell the enemies from his own troops, and that he didn’t have to fire at anyone. Holden recalls that Allie had once asked D.B. if the war had given him enough material to write about. D.B. had answered with a question of his own: he’d asked Allie who he thought was the better war poet—Rupert Brooke or Emily Dickinson. Allie had picked the latter.

Holden then remembers D.B. ‘s fondness for Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, a novel Holden doesn’t like. He tells himself that The Great Gatsby is a much better novel.

Holden’s encounters with Sunny and Sally were troubling and disappointing to all involved. Yet, he still seeks out human company. That he calls Carl in the aftermath of his disappointing encounters with Sunny and Sally is also telling. Holden seems to wonder if spending time with a male might alleviate his angst and loneliness.