#9;

In chapter nine Esther and the other girls are getting their pictures taken individually. Their scholarships are coming to an end, and there will be a feature in the magazine about them. Each person gets one prop, something that resembles what they want to be. One girl had an ere of corn because she wanted to be a farmer's wife. Esther didn't know what to use, so she takes a fake rose. The photographer is telling her to smile and to show them how happy it makes her to write a poem. Finally she smiles and the photographer says she looks like she's going to cry. After he says this, she does start to cry. When she's done, she looks up and sees that everyone left. Jay Cee eventually comes back with some humorous short stories, telling her to read, it will Cheer her up. After this, she goes to a final party with Doreen. She sets Esther up with a man and he tries to have sex with her, but she won't. He gets aggressive and finally punches him, giving him a bloody nose. She leaves after that and when her mom picks her up to take her home after being in New York City for so long, she hasn't washed the blood off her face.
Response: I'd probably punch the jerk in the face too! I would defiantly wash the blood off my face though, that's kind of gross...

#8;

The day after Christmas Esther and Buddy's dad drive up to see Buddy. Buddy's dad tells Esther that he and his wife have always wanted a daughter and that she would do just fine, marrying Buddy. The color scheme where Buddy is staying because of his TB reminds her of liver. Everything is dark and gloomy. Esther comments on how she can't believe that Buddy is fat because he has always been very toned and active. He says it's because they make him eat so much and then just lie around. Buddy's dad leaves and he has her read a poem that he wrote. He then proposes to her. Esther didn't say yes, nor did she say no. Buddy takes Esther skiing and while Esther is going down the hill, another skier gets in her way. She falls very hard. She says that she wants to go back up and try again, but Buddy tells her no, saying that her leg is broken in two places.
Response: Why would a place holding sick people be a gross and depressing color? You'd think it'd be like a pale yellow or something. Something cheery!

#7;

Esther goes on the date with Constantin. She thinks that he's a little on the short side, but still fairly attractive. She talks about her trip to the UN and how they see girl scouts there. When they go out to eat, Constantin keeps filling her glass with wine. Esther felt so good, that she decided that she was going to have sex with Constantin. She keeps thinking about the waitress that Buddy had sex with, so she thinks that she needs to sleep with one to be even with him. They go back to Constantin's apartment and sit out on the balcony for an hour, just drinking wine. She finally says that she's going to go lie down, so Constantin follows her to the bed. He lays down next to her, and eventually they both fall asleep. Esther wakes up to the sound of rain and Constantin takes her home at 3 a.m.
Response: Hmmm, is Constantin gay? Given the chance, I'd assume he would have taken it, but he didn't.

#6;

Buddy was at Yale studying medicine. Esther kept begging him to show her some things, and then one day she skips out on school and goes to Yale with him. She sees cadavers and baby fetuses. She then goes to the hospital and sees a woman giving birth. She was screaming in pain, but Buddy said that she was on medicine so she wouldn't remember any of the pain. Esther disagreed, she thinks that if you're in that much pain you have to remember it. The baby's had would not come out, so the doctor cut a slit in the woman and then when the baby was born, he sewed it back up. They go back to Buddy's room and he gets naked for her and asks her to do the same, but she says that maybe some other time she will. Then she asks about the times that he has had sex, and when he finds out she isn't mad, he tells her about it. Later when she is back at college, he calls her telling her that he has TB.
Response: I wasn't really sure what TB was. I knew that it's tuberculosis, but I didn't know how bad the disease actually is, so I had to google it (:

#5;

Somebody calls Esther and wakes her up, but she has no idea who it could be. It was a man she met one before and he's foreign. He asked her to go out with him to the UN and then get a bite to eat. She then tells us about a boy Buddy. Everyone thinks they'll get married, but she says he's a hypocrite. she tells us about going to the Yale Junior Prom with him and their first kiss.

#4;

Esther continues telling us about what happened at Jay Cee's office. She read some stories and then typed up what she thought of them. She's back at Laddie's Day and then they go to the movie premiere. She thought she was going to puke, but she wasn't sure if it was from too much caviar or because she thought the movie was so bad. Betsy felt horrible too, so they both went back to the hotel. They each puked in the cab and in the hotel elevator. Esther goes to lay down, but needs to throw up again. She goes into the bathroom and pukes ten times. Finally somebody is banging on the door, so she unlocks it. Her and the other 9 girls that were at the banquet got food poisoning from the crab meat.
Response: I've had food poisoning before, so I can relate. It absolutely sucks. You think you can't throw up anymore then you get the dry heaves to the point where you can hardly breathe. Blahhh,ew.

#3;

Chapter three opens up with Esther at a banquet. The organizers put her and Doreen next to each other, except Doreen isn't there. Doreen is with Lenny. Doreen has been skipping out on all the events that she's supposed to go to so that she can spend time with Lenny. Doreen tried to get Esther to skip a fur show and tag along with her and Lenny, but she won't. She decides to go to neither and just sleep in and then go to the park. Jay Cee, her boss, calls her though. Jay asks her to come into the office so they can talk. Jay asks Esther what she is going to do when she graduates college, but Esther doesn't know. She wants to be an editor, but Jay says hat she needs to learn more languages. Esther then tells the reader about college and how she got straight A's in all of her courses, but she doesn't have any room left for foreign languages.
Response: I'm not sure why Doreen would skip out on everything. Knowing I'm one of thousands that tried to get the scholarship, I would go. I would take advantage of the opportunity. Plus I wouldn't want to loose the scholarship.

#2;

Doreen and "Elly" go to Lenny's apartment. It's very Western. Instead of having pictures on the walls, he has antlers and deer heads. Lenny is a disc jockey and had his own studio in his apartment. Lenny and Doreen begin to dance and are both getting very drunk. They begin to dance, then Doreen's dress falls down, and Lenny tries to bite her hip. "Elly" decides to leave. She walks back to the hotel and takes a hot bath. She then goes to sleep. In the middle of the night she is woken by Doreen at her door. She's so drunk that she can hardly stand. She then throws up and falls asleep. "Elly" leaves her in the hall, saying to herself that she needs to be closer with Betsy than with Doreen. Betsy is another one of the girls their on scholarship. When she checks the hallway in the morning, Doreen is gone.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath #1;

In chapter one you learn that the main character is from a small town no one has really ever heard of. She's also very poor. She lived in the same town for 19 years and never went anywhere. She won a scholarship writing poems and now works for a magazine. All of her expenses are payed for a month, as well at 10 other women. They all go to a party the magazine company is putting on, but while on the way there a man comes over to hers and Doreen's cab. They get out and go to the bar with him. They ask her what her name is, but she lies and says her name is Elly and that she's from Chicago. The man's name is Lenny and he wants Doreen to go with him, but she won't go unless "Elly" goes as well.
Response: Why would she lie and say her name is Elly? So far I really like this book (:

#18(Catcher);

Holden, leaving his date, goes to get something to eat. He begins to think about Jane again and goes to call her, but she doesn't pick up. He thinks about a time when he saw her dance with this jerk, but when he confronted her about it, she stuck up for him. After Jane doesn't answer, Holden calls an old roommate, Carl Lunce. He agrees to meet up later to go get some drinks. Holden had some time to kill, so he goes to see a movie at the Radio City Music Hall. While he's there, he thinks about the drummer. Him and Allie were always fascinated about him. He hardly ever played, but he always looked like he was having the time of his life. The movie Holden sees is about war and he thinks back to how D.B. said the war sucked, but yet he recommended a book about it.


Response: Jane and Allie are mentioned yet again. He needs to stop, he's just getting really depressed.

#17(Catcher);

Two o'clock rolls around and Holden goes to meet Sally. She's late, as usual, but she looks great so Holden immediately forgives her. On the way to the show, they begin making out in the taxicab. The show is good, but Holden again thinks the actors are too good, like Ernie was. Sally finds some guy she knew and begins flirting with him and Holden gets very annoyed. They go ice skating after the show and Sally rent a short skirted outfit that Holden finds attractive. Both of them suck at skating so they take a break. While they are taking their break, Holden just starts to unravel. He talks about phonies, school, being lonely, and running away together. Sally says that they can't just get up and leave, so Holden gets pissed. He says she's a royal pain in the ass and Sally starts to cry. She'd never been called anything like that before. Holden tries apologizing like a madman, but she won't forgive him. He finally just leaves her.


Response: Yay Holden! Finally admits to someone how lonely and depressed he is. I thought it was kind of a jerk move to just walk away from his date though.

#16(Catcher);

After breakfast, Holden goes on a walk and goes down Broadway. While he's there he gets Phoebe a record called Little Shirley Beans. He talks about how a black lady sings it instead of a white girl so it sounds raunchy rather than cute. He thinks about Phoebe some more and says how she always understands Holden. Holden then hears some kids singing and they say "if a body catch a body coming through the rye." Something about them singing, cheers him up. Again, Holden wants to talk to Jane, so he calls her. Her mother answers the phone, however, so Holden hangs up. Holden really feels like seeing his sister, so he goes to the park to see her because she's always there on Saturdays, but then he realizes that it's Sunday. After this, Holden goes to buy dinner theater tickets for his date with Sally.


Response: I'm glad Holden has a date with Sally. It will do him some good to get out and actually talk with someone and hangout. Poor lonely, Holden.

#15(Catcher);

Holden wakes up in the morning and calls a girl, Sally Hayes. He's known her for quite a while. They set up a date to go to a show, even though Holden thinks they're nothing but phonies. Holden leaves the hotel and leaves his bags in a locker at Grand Central Station. Holden starts to talk about how his mom is always nervous and upset since Allie died and his dad gets mad at him when he loses things. While he's at Grand Central Station, he decides to get breakfast and two nuns walk into the place. Holden shoots the breeze with one of them and gives them some money. Even though Holden is low on money and he needs to pay for his date, he feels bad about not giving more than he did.


Response: Why does Holden do a 360 with his feelings? He thinks everyone is a phony, but he feels bad about not giving more money to the nuns.

#14(Catcher);

After Sunny leaves, Holden begins to think about a time when he left Allie out. He usually included him in things, but this one time he wouldn't let Allie come with. Holden still feels guilty about ditching him. After this Holden gets ready for bed, in his pajamas, he wants to pray but isn't so sure he knows how to anymore. As Holden is getting into bed, there's a knock at his door. Holden goes and opens it to find Maurice, the elevator guy, and Sunny. They demanded the extra five dollars that Holden didn't pay, but Holden refuses, saying that Maurice only said five. Eventually Maurice has Holden against the wall and Sunny just takes five dollars from his wallet. After they leave, Holden begins to have a fantasy about getting shot in the gut and walking down the back stairs, bleeding out, to get his revenge on Maurice. He finally gets in to bed and sleeps.


Response: Wow. What a bunch of scammers! All Holden wanted to do was talk, poor guy.

#13(Catcher);

After Holden leaves the nightclub, he decides to walk back to the hotel instead of getting a cab. He walks all 41 blocks. While he's walking, he begins to think about his gloves that were stolen while he was at Pencey. He says how he would beat the crap out of the person that took them, but he knows that he's just a coward and wouldn't actually do anything about it. Holden gets back to the hotel and while he's in the elevator, the elevator man offers him a prostitute for five dollars. Holden, feeling lonely, accepts the offer. Holden then tells us how he isn't aggressive enough to have done anything with women in the past. When the prostitute, Sunny, arrives he finds her very young. She also has a very high voice and he gets very annoyed. He tells her he doesn't want to do anything but talk, so Sunny gets pissed. Holden says he'll still pay her and gives her five dollars, but Sunny demands ten. Holden refuses, saying the elevator man said only five dollars. Sunny takes the money and leaves.


Response: Poor Holden, feeling all lonely and such. I think in this chapter we get to see how depressed and lonely he really is. It's almost as if he's calling out for help on a few occasions.

#12(Catcher);

Holden is still lonely and takes a taxicab to Ernie's, a club where his brother D.B. used to go to quite a bit. Holden always used to go, but he got fed up with all the phonies, so he stopped going. When he's in the taxi, he again asks about the ducks. Ernie's in named after Ernie(go figure.) Ernie is this black guy who is a terrific piano player. The only problem is that Ernie knows he's really good, so therefor he's a phony. He's sitting there and drinking a scotch and soda when Lillian walks up to him. Lillian is a lady who used to date D.B. back in the day. He gets so annoyed of her that he has to leave Ernie's.


Response: I hate it when just because somebody had dated one of your siblings, they think that you're automatically pals. No, get away from me. (:

#11(Catcher);

Holden starts walking around, and once again, talks about Jane. He says how they were so close when they were younger and hung out almost everyday. They never did anything physical, except for one day when she was crying Holden kissed her all over the place. Jane was the best hand holder though, you never had to worry about it. They would go to movies and hold hands from start to finish. Jane is also the one person who knows about Allie and has seen the mitt(outside of family, that is.)


Response: I really think that Holden loves Jane. She's also they only one who knows about Allie, and I think that's what he really wants to talk about all the times he's lonely, so he begins to miss her more and more.

#10(Catcher);

Holden is still lonely up in his room, so he goes downstairs to the Lavender Room. As he's leaving his room, he begins to tell us about Phoebe. Saying how intelligent she is, but her one flaw is how she sometimes gets annoyed easily. When he gets to the club type place, the waiter refuses to serve him alcohol, so he's stuck having a coke. Holden is feeling very sexy and begins to dance with three women. They enjoy dancing, but they are clearly uninterested, for he is young and isn't famous. He gets annoyed of them and says he just saw some actor leave. They fall for it, and he buys their drinks then leaves.


Response: Holden says how much he hates movies, how phony they are. But he always seems to be talking about them and knowing quite a bit about them.

#9(Catcher);

After getting off the train, Holden really wants to call someone. Everyone he wants to call is asleep or he'd have to talk to the parents, which he doesn't want to do. So he just decides to take a cab to a hotel. While he's in the cab, he tries to make smalltalk with the driver, asking about the ducks and where they go in the winter. The cab driver doesn't care, but is pretty interested in the fist. Once Holden gets to his room, he notices out of his window he can see a couple spitting their drinks on each other and he also sees a tranny. Holden gets pretty horny and remembers he has the number of a prostitute. He calls her up, but she refuses to go out saying she needs her beauty sleep.


Response: Ah,the ducks again. If I saw a tranny, I doubt I'd get horny. I'd get freaked/weirded/grossed out. Blahhh.

#8(Catcher);

After Holden packs and was crying for a bit, he walked over to the train station. Nobody is really on the train because it's so late, but still, a lady sits next to him. They begin talking and Holden finds out that she's one of his classmate's mother. Holden doesn't like the guy, but he makes up these huge lies about him and saying he's the best guy ever and how modest he is. Soon, the mom asks him why he's left so early, hoping everything is alright at home. Holden says yes, but he has a brain tumor on the back of his head.


Response: A brain tumor? Really? He's not joking when he says he has a problem with lying and not being able to stop. A brain tumor..?!

#7(Catcher);

Holden wakes Ackley and they talk for awhile. Holden wants to sleep there, but Ackley won't let him sleep in his roommates bed. Holden begings messing around, asking if he could join a monastery without being Catholic. Ackley gets mad and then Holden gets mad basically because Ackley is a phony. Holden decides that it's time to leave. He's had enough of Pencey and he just gets lonely there, so he decides to go to New York for a few days until Wednesday and then he'll go home to his parents.


Response: I just don't understand why Holden doesn't go home. Yeah, his parents will be pissed, but they'll be pissed on Wednesday when he goes home too. I don't know...

#6(Catcher);

Strandlater gets back from his date and is pissed. We never really find out why he was so upset when he got back. (I think it's because he didn't get any...) Strandlater then reads the paper Holden wrote and got even more pissed. It was supposed to be about a room and Holden writes about a dumb baseball mitt. Strandlater continues saying things about how no wonder he's getting expelled and such. Holden, getting pissed, gets up and takes the paper and rips it up. Both of them are just getting more and more upset. Holden begins to smoke, knowing it will make Strandlater mad and asks how his date with Jane went. Srandlater doesn't want to talk about it, but does say that he was in some guys car then entire night. Words are being thrown around and Holden tries to punch Strandlater, but misses his target and hits him in the side of the head. Strandlater leaps on top of his chest and Holden keeps calling him a moron. Strandlater says he won't let him up unless he stops, so of course Holden says he will. Holden then gets up and calls him a moron again and Strandlater punches him. Strandlater leaves and Holden goes to the mirror; there's blood everywhere and Holden is enthralled by all of it. Holden then goes into Ackley's room to wake him.


Response: So Strandlater is basically a jerk. Although Holden is just jealous, I think. I think that he really likes Jane and wishes that it was him on the date instead of Strandlater.

#5(Catcher);

After dinner, Holden decides to go into town to see a movie with his friend Mal Brossard. Holden figures Ackley isn't doing anything, so he invites him along as well. Ackley and Mal had both seen the movie already, so they just go grab a burger instead. When the get back to Pencey, Ackley comes to Holden's room and Holden cannot get him to leave. Finally he just tells him to leave, saying he has to write the composition for Strandlater. The paper was supposed to be about a house or a room, but Holden can't think of anything. He instead, writes about his brother, Allie's, old baseball mit. It's very warn and has poems written on it in Greek. Allie died of leukimia a few years before. After finding this out, Holden tells us about Allie and how the night he died, Holden slept in the garage and broke all the windows with his fist.


Response: Holden and Allie must have been very close if he carries his baseball mit around with him. I have no idea what I would do if my brother would die; I don't even want to think about that.

#4(Catcher);

Chapter four opens up with Strandlater going to shave, and Holden goes and watches him and talks to him. Strandlater begins to tell about the date he has, and how she knows Holden. Her name is Jane and they used to be neighbors. After Holden describes Jane, Strandlater asks him to write a composition that has to describe a room or a house in great detail. Holden doesn't agree, but says that if he has nothing better to do he will. Holden then describes how Ackley and Strandlater are both stupid, but both differently. After Strandlater leaves, Holden feels very anxious and nervous about Strandlater's date with Jane. Ackley then comes in and pops his pimples in Holden's room until dinner.


Response: I think that even though Holden said he might not do the paper, he will end up doing it because he won't have anything better to do. Strandlater is kind of a jerk to just expect him to write the paper for him, no questions asked.

Characters;(Catcher)

Holden: Holden is the main character and likes to joke around a lot. He got kicked out of prep school because he was failing 4 of 5 classes.
Ackley: Ackley has no respect for others properties.
Strandlater:

#3;(Catcher)

Holden lied to Mr. Spencer, saying he needed to get equipment from the gym. He was really only going back to his room. He sits down and starts to read a book when somebody from the room next to his comes in. Ackley walks around the room, picking everything up and looking at it. He talks about how he hates Holden's roommate, Stradlater. Stradlater then walks in, asking to borrow Holden's jacket. Ackley leaves and Standlater goes to shave for his date.

#2;(Catcher)

Holden goes to Mr. Spencer's house and tells a little about Mr. Spencer. He goes into Mr. Spencer's room and he is sitting in a chair, reading a magazine. Holden sits on the cement hard bed and Mr. Spencer begins to question Holden on where he's going in lie, if he had any idea what he was doing, and about getting kicked out of school. Mr. Spencer tries to throw things on the bed, but misses both times and Holden has to pick them up for him. Suddenly, he's had enough. Holden has to leave, and as he's leaving Mr. Spencer yells good luck to him.

#1;(Catcher)

The story starts off with main character, Holden, telling us that he's not going to tell us about his semi rough childhood. He then begins to tell us about his time at Pencey Prep and how he got kicked out. He's standing on top of a hill next to a cannon, looking down at a football game, but not really watching it. He says how he's the manager of the fencing team and lost the equipment on the subway that morning and the entire team was mad at him. He stands there, trying to feel something, so he can say goodbye. He then remembers a time when he was throwing a football, even after it got dark, until a teacher yelled at them to get ready for dinner. After remembering this, he turns around and starts running to Mr. Spencer's house.