Liz

Chapter#2 Summary
Holden discusses with his (ex) history teacher: Mr Spencer, about how Holden is a moron and helping him... Throughout the chapter, Holden is criticising Spencer, the school’s he’s been too (especially Elkton). It shows his contempt of the society which he lives in, thus alienating himself from it. Also he does not mention who or what he likes, but what he does not like, further showing that he believes society is ‘bad’ and such.
One) Repetition: He constantly repeats statements (not one after the other, but he still repeats them), showing that his state of mind is child-like as all he can think of is excuses and repeating them. “He’s a phony, she’s a phony...” (No, this isn’t an exact quote)
Two) Irony: He says he hates, for example, when Spencer says “boy”, yet just before: “I also say ‘Boy!’ quite a lot”. It shows that his hatred, possibly due to Allie’s death, runs deep enough to hate society and the qualities in which he has as well. It also, stated by him, show he has a weak vocabulary, thus a similar character.
Three) Truncated Sentences: This also shows his state of mind being similar to a younger child.
Throughout this chapter, through the before mentioned techniques, it shows Holden has a very child-like character/state of mind. This may be due to society, or society has isolated him because of it, or even Allie’s death. Regardless, it separates him from society, making him into an ‘individual’.