Curriculum Connection: Important Quotations

As you read, pay special attention to these quotes:

1. "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules."

"Yes sir. I know it is. I know it."

Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right - I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it? Nothing. No game.

2. "[Ackley] took another look at my hat. 'Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer, for Chrissake,' he said. 'That's a deer-shooting hat.' 'Like hell it is.' I took it off and sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. 'This is a people shooting hat,' I said. 'I shoot people in this hat.'"

3. "The best thing though, in that museum, was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move...nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you."

4. “...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. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be in the catcher in the rye and all.”

5. “I have a feeling that you're riding for some kind of terrible, terrible fall...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...So they gave up looking.”

Think about:

What do these quotes mean?

What do these quotes tell us about Holden?

Are there any symbols in these quotes? If so, what do they symbolize?