Chapter 22

Holden goes to the living room to get a cigarette, and when he is back Phoebe is still mad at him. She refuses to talk to him for a while, and when she eventually responds, she only repeats that their father will kill Holden for getting expelled.

Holden then tries to gain her sympathy by telling her how awful Pencey Prep was and that he did not like anything there. He tells her that he found everyone pretentious and phony. Phebe tells him that he hardly ever likes anyone, and asks him to name something or someone he does like. Holden can only think of the nuns he had met at the Grand Central Station and of a boy named James Castle, a fellow-student from Elkton Hills. James had jumped out of a window and died after being bullied by a group of boys. He then tells Phoebe that he likes Allie and talking to Phoebe. She argues that this does not really count since Allie is no more. She then asks him what he wants to be. She wonders if he’d like to become a scientist or a lawyer. Holden says he could never be a scientist. He adds that he might be interested in law if it might enable him to help people, and not just to earn money.

During this conversation, Holden thinks of the boy he had heard singing outside Broadway. He remembers the lyrics of the song: “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye.” Phoebe interrupts him to correct the lyrics, but Holden tells her that he is imagining himself standing on a cliff with many children around him. Every now and then, he tells her, some kids might venture dangerously close to the precipice, and that he would have to catch them before their fall.

This is Holden’s epiphany: he finally seems to have clarity about what he wants to do in life, and although this is not really a concrete profession, it still gives him a sense of purpose. Phoebe once again tells him that their dad will kill him if he finds out that Holden has been expelled. Holden now decides to call his English teacher, Mr. Antolini, and heads to the living room to make the call.