Chapter 9

Quote 1: "I didn't want to start an argument."Okay," I said. Then I thought of something, all of a sudden. "Hey, listen", I said. "You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?" I realize it was only one chance in a million[..]." (ch.9) (p.67) (F,C,T)

Quote 2: "Well, the thing is, I don't want to stay at any hotels on the East Side where I might run into some acquaintances of mine. I'm traveling incognito," I said. I hate saying corny things like "traveling incognito." But when I'm with somebody that's corny, I always act corny too. "Do you happen to know whose band's at the Taft or the New Yorker, by any chance?" (ch.9) (p.68) (C)

Holden seems to be very obsessed with what the birds do in the winter and where they go. This is the second time in the book that the topic has been brought up. Later on when he is reminiscing on his childhood field trips to the museum, he talks about how there is a display in the museum of the birds flying south for the winter. This made me wonder why he would bring this up twice now when he obviously knows they fly south for the winter. Maybe he is trying to incorporate his brother who passed away. He always seems to think that everything has an end, he almost has a negative perspective on life. Which is easy to do when you lose a loved one, but he just seems to think everything dies. Which also right again, everything does die eventually, but Holden just doesn't see it as everything dies. I think he may see it as, him just being curious about life, but then again he knows where the birds go. I would have to say I'm a little confused by this.
The reason Holden doesn't want to stay at any hotels because his family doesn't know he is in town, and they don't know that he failed out of another school, so he doesn't want to be seen by any one he knows. Because his mom has been very fragile because of his brothers death and he doesn't want to tell her anything else to upset her. In this chapter he basically  called up a hooker and she turns him down because he is too young. What more would we want to know about him? We found out he's failed out of school, he thinks everything is phony, he called up a hooker, and he lies just to lie. If that does not say a lot about someones character I don't know what does. He tells us he is curious about sex and he tells us that he has never had it, but he has fooled around with girls. He also tells us that he made a contract with himself that he wouldn't do anything with girls that he really didn't care for, but then he tells us he also broke that in the same week.