Val Arthur’s Reviews > The Catcher in the Rye > Status Update

"The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement's designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn't supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn't supply them with. So they gave up looking."

"I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around –nobody big, I mean –except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff –I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them."

"...I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. [...] one day Bobby and I were going to take our lunches and all, and our BB guns [...] Allie heard us talking about it, and he wanted to go, and I wouldn't let him. I told him he was a child. So once in a while, when I get very depressed, I keep saying to him, 'Okay. Go home and get your bike and meet me in front of Bobby's house. Hurry up.'"

'After I shut the door and started back to the living room, he yelled something at me, but I couldn't exactly hear him. I'm pretty sure he yelled "Good luck!" at me. I hope not. I hope the hell not. I'd never yell "Good luck!" at anybody. It sounds terrible, when you think about it.'