After leaving Pencey, Holden boards on a train to New York. While on board, the mother of one of his fellow classmates, Ernest Morrow, notices the Pencey sticker on his suitcase, and proceeds to sit next to him. Being his devious self, he introduces himself as Rudolf Shmidt, which is actually the school's janitor. He continues lying to her by telling her a false description of her son, until she got off at another stop. Finally arriving at his stop, Holden contemplates on who to call, but fails to think of anyone. He then hops on a cab, and asks the cab driver about the fate of ducks when it's winter, but doesn't know anything about it. Holden then checks in into the hotel, and enters his room. Before unpacking, he looks out his window, and observes a man trying on woman's clothing, and a couple squirting water into each others faces. He considers lying through the phone to talk to Jane, but decides he's not in the mood to lie. Remembering a phone number he received from a guy he knew, Holden decides to call it. The number belonged to a woman who wasn't exactly a prostitute, but occasionally was. When she picks up, Holden introduces himself with his real name, and tries to convince her to come over. However, she feels like it's too late, and they both hang up. Holden then decides to hit the hotel's nightclub, but starts thinking about his younger sister, Phoebe. He remembers how smart and curious she is, similar to Allie. After arriving at the nightclub and being denied Scotch due to his age, he notices three ladies sitting near him. Thinking the other two look ugly, he asks the blonde for a dance. Turns out she's a pretty good dancer, but not a good conversationalist, which annoys Holden. After continuing on to dance with all three ladies and leaving, he has Jane once again in his mind. He reflects on how close they were, how special she is, and how mad he gets whenever he thinks of her with Stradlater. He then decides to go to Ernie's, a nightclub his brother, D.B., used to go to. On the cab ride, Holden once again asks the question about the ducks, which nearly leads to an argument between him and the cab driver. Once he arrives and gets seated, Holden criticizes how phony people can be, before Lillian Simmons, one of his brother's old flings, notices him. She's obviously more interested in hearing about D.B. than Holden, so Holden makes up an excuse to leave. Tired of cab drives, he decides to walk to the hotel instead. On the way, he reflects on how he tends to act tough, but doesn't actually get into fights. Once he arrives, the elevator guy asks him if he want's a "throw" with a prostitute, which Holden embarrassingly agrees to. While waiting for the prostitute, he confesses to being a virgin, albeit being close not to. Once the prostitute arrives, whose name is Sunny, Holden gets nervous, and decides he really just wants company. Obviously annoyed, Sunny demands $10, but Holden only pays up $5. After she leaves, he starts talking to Allie, which he often does when he's depressed. He then gets in bed and reflects on the Bible, Jesus, and Religion. Interrupting his thoughts, someone starts to loudly knock on his door. Nervously, Holden opens the door and it reveals to be Maurice, the elevator guy, and Sunny. Maurice wants the extra $5 that Holden "owes" Sunny, and resorts to punching him, until Sunny grabs it from his wallet. After they both leave, Holden imagines himself having a gun, and killing Maurice, and afterward, Jane recovering him. He then blames the movies for imagining this.
Quotation:
"Listen," he said. "If you was a fish, Mother Nature'd take care of you, wouldn't she? Right? You don't think them fish just die when it gets to be winter, do ya?""No, but--"
"You're goddam right they don't," Horwitz said" (Salinger 101)
Reaction:
This conversation represents how despite Holden is going through depression, he still has a future laid out for him. Horwitz means that everyone has a fate, no matter who they are.
