Ashwini

Chapter 14 Summary: Holden remembers an event that occurred before his brother Allie died. Holden didn’t let his brother play in a BB-gun game and still feels guilty about it. He gets into bed and has a sudden feeling to start praying although he isn’t very religious but doesn’t end up praying. While he’s in bed, the door starts knocking abruptly and Holden opens it. At the door, an elevator operator, Maurice, comes to help demand the five dollars that Sunny wanted before. Maurice pushes Holden to the wall because Holden doesn’t want give the money. Whilst this is happening, Sunny takes Holden’s money from his wallet. Holden starts insulting Maurice when Maurice hits Holden’s groin and then, Maurice attacks Holden in the stomach. Holden is left unstable on the floor and imagines he is buff and takes revenge on Maurice by shooting him in the stomach with a gun. Soon, he somehow goes to sleep.
Three Techniques Used:
Direct address – The effect of addressing the reader is to engage the reader and voice out the narrator’s, Holden, opinions directly so they can understand Holden’s views on a particular notion without any changes to his thoughts. For example, “If you want to know the truth, I can’t even stand ministers.”
Colloquialism – Holden uses colloquial language frequently to create a casual tone. It allows the reader to comprehend Holden’s mood and lets Holden and the reader share a common ground. The spontaneous aspect of his colloquial speech creates a realistic attribute to Holden. Examples include “What’s the matter? Wudduya want?’ I said,” and “I told him he was a goddam dirty moron.”
Truncated sentences – These short sentences are used to illustrate the mood of a character or to create abruptness. In this particular context, Holden’s mood is portrayed as annoyed and angered. For example, Holden shares his emotions and opinions in the quote “The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I’m not kidding.”
Links to Individual and Society: In Chapter 14, the relationship between Holden and the other characters shape our understanding of the fact that Holden doesn’t share pleasant mutuality towards a number of people. He is also afraid to be fight back to others when he is disrupted, for example, the use of truncated sentences in the quote, “He smacked me. I didn’t even try to get out of the way or duck or anything,” emphasises this concept. Holden has a very wild imagination and his immaturity and illogicality after being bullied shows his individual character compared to other teenage boys, which could be the reason why he is often alienated. His distressed attitude towards life represents the depressive behaviour an individual would feel when being an outcast in society and this is portrayed in the omniscient narration of the quote, “What I really felt like doing though, was committing suicide.”