1. ”I was only thirteen, and they were going to have my psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don't blame them. I really don't. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddamn windows with my fist, just for the hell of it."( After Holden's little brother died, he slept in the garage that same night and broke all the windows out with anger.)
2. “Do you know where the ducks go?”( Holden uses unusual small talk like this to try and make situations less awkward.)
3. “I was way early when I got there, so I just sat down on one of those leather couches right near the clock in the lobby and watched the girls. It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them. When they got out of school and college, I mean. You figured most of them would probably marry dopey guys. Guys that always talk about how many miles they get to the gallon in their goddam cars.”( Here Holden is makin excuses why girls are not good for him, and all the flaws of a nice girl.)
4. "You don't like anything that's happening.It made me even more depressed when she said that.Yes I do. Yes I do. Sure I do. Don't say that. Why the hell do you say that? Because you don't. You don't like any schools. You don't like a million things. You don't.I do! That's where you're wrong that's exactly where you're wrong! Why the hell do you have to say that? I said. Boy, she was depressing me.”( Holden is finally confronted with the fact that he does not care for anything in the world.)
5. Psychotic acts
5.1. Breaking windows
5.2. Problems with girls
5.3. Ducks in the pond
6. Attitude
6.1. Thinks everything is phony
6.1.1. "Then I went over and laid down on Ely's bed. ... Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome."
6.1.2. "Boy, do I hate it," I said. "But it isn't just that. It's everything. I hate living in New York and all. Taxicabs, and Madison avenue buses, with the drivers and all always yelling at you to get out at the rear door, and being introduced to phony guys that call the Lunts angels, and going up and down in elevators when you just want to go outside, and guys fitting your pants all the time at Brooks, and people always–" "Don't shout, please," old Sally said. Which was very funny, because I wasn't even shouting."( This is one of many instances where Holden calls something phony.)
6.2. Doesn't care about his own wellbeing
7. Timeline
7.1. Brothers death
7.2. prep school
7.3. prep school failure
7.4. journey home
8. Symbols
8.1. Red Hunting Cap
8.1.1. “I put my red hunting hat on,and turned the peak around to the back, the way i liked it, and then i yelled at the top of my goddamn voice,”Sleep tight, ya morons!”( Here Holden refers back to the mysterious hunting cap. Holden always seems to have it on in awkward situations.)
8.2. "Wait a second take the rest of your dough, too. I started giving her the rest of the dough she'd lent me. You keep it. Keep it for me, she said. Then she said right afterward Please. That's depressing, when somebody says please to you. I mean if it's Phoebe or somebody. That depressed the hell out of me. But I put the dough back in my pocket.”( Simple words that seem meaningless to us really hit a nerve on Holden, especially from children.)
8.3. Children
8.4. Swearing
9. isolation
9.1. sent to prep school
9.2. No real friends
9.2.1. “The next part I don't remember so hot. All I know is I got up from the bed, like I was going down to the can or something, and then I tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddam throat open. It probably would've hurt him a lot, but I did it with my right hand, and I can't make a good fist with that hand. On account of that injury I told you about."( Holden uses graphic imagery here to express his anger toward Stradlader that is psycho.)
9.3. lack of family care
9.3.1. “I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy. I mean, that's all I told D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. He's in Hollywood. That isn't too far from this crumby place.”( Holden is angered by other people's success when it comes to talking about his own life.)