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Showing posts from February, 2026

Dissecting Holden's argument with Sally

"It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques. [...] If you try to have a little intelligent--" (170).  "It's full of phonies and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day" The first line is a window into Holden's idea of intelligence and adulthood, in that the unnamed all boys school is only preparing kids to go and get a regular 9-5 office job with a decent enough salary to make a living, which is exactly what Holden doesn't want, because to him, a 9-5 office job is synonymous with the taint of adulthood; "I said no, there wouldn't be marvelous places to go to after I we...