Chapter 20 Practice Quiz — The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 20
Where is Holden at the beginning of Chapter 20?
He is at the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel, extremely drunk and sitting alone.
What movie-style fantasy does Holden indulge in while drunk at the bar?
He pretends he has been shot in the gut and imagines himself staggering around like a wounded tough guy from a movie.
Who does Holden call on the phone while drunk?
He calls Sally Hayes late at night, waking her grandmother, and tries to apologize and offer to come help trim her Christmas tree.
How does Sally respond to Holden's drunk phone call?
She is annoyed and tells him to go to bed. The conversation is incoherent and only deepens Holden's isolation.
What does Holden do in the men's room of the Wicker Bar?
He dunks his head in a basin of cold water, trying to sober up. He then sits on the radiator for a while, dripping wet.
What is Holden's emotional state when he leaves the Wicker Bar?
He is close to tears as he gets his coat from the hat-check girl and walks out into the cold December night.
Where does Holden walk after leaving the bar?
He walks to Central Park to find the lagoon and check on the ducks he has been asking about throughout the novel.
What happens to the 'Little Shirley Beans' record?
Holden drops it on the way to Central Park and it shatters. He picks up the broken pieces and puts them in his coat pocket rather than discarding them.
Why is the broken record symbolically significant?
It represents Holden's inability to preserve the things he values. The record was a carefully chosen gift for Phoebe -- something authentic in a phony world -- and its destruction mirrors the way everything Holden tries to protect keeps breaking.
What does Holden find when he reaches the Central Park lagoon?
The ducks are gone. The lagoon is empty and partially frozen, confirming that the ducks have migrated for the winter.
What do the absent ducks symbolize?
They symbolize the possibility that disappearance can be temporary, but also highlight Holden's inability to adapt to change. Unlike the ducks, who instinctively migrate when seasons change, Holden has no mechanism for navigating life's transitions.
What does Holden worry about while sitting on the park bench?
He worries that he will catch pneumonia and die from the freezing cold, with ice forming in his hair from the water he soaked his head in earlier.
What does Holden imagine when he thinks about dying?
He imagines his own funeral, which triggers memories of Allie's funeral and the rain that fell on the cemetery.
Why was Holden not present at Allie's funeral?
He was in the hospital because he had broken all the windows in the family garage with his bare fists the night Allie died of leukemia.
What detail about Allie's funeral torments Holden the most?
That it rained during the funeral and everyone ran to their cars and umbrellas, but Allie had to stay in the cemetery, exposed to the rain, unable to go home.
Why does Holden hate visiting Allie's grave?
He hates that Allie is surrounded by dead strangers and exposed to the elements. He still thinks of Allie as someone who deserves protection from discomfort, unable to accept the finality of death.
What decision does Holden make at the end of Chapter 20?
He decides to sneak home to see Phoebe, reasoning that if he might die of pneumonia, he wants to see her one more time. He plans to slip in and out while his parents are asleep.
Why is Holden's decision to visit Phoebe a turning point?
It is the first time in the novel that Holden moves toward connection rather than away from it. After chapters of isolation and failed interactions, he finally chooses to seek out someone he loves instead of continuing to drift alone.
How does the weather function symbolically in Chapter 20?
The freezing cold, ice in Holden's hair, and the bitter December night serve as pathetic fallacy -- the external weather mirrors Holden's internal desolation, loneliness, and emotional numbness.
What role does water play as a motif in Chapter 20?
Water recurs in multiple forms -- the basin where Holden dunks his head, the ice in his hair, the frozen lagoon, and the rain at Allie's funeral. In every instance, water is associated with cold, discomfort, and death rather than cleansing or renewal.
How does Holden's drunkenness affect his narration in this chapter?
The first-person narration becomes more unfiltered and emotionally honest. The alcohol dissolves Holden's usual defenses of sarcasm and irony, revealing raw grief, fear, and loneliness with minimal deflection.
What does Holden's refusal to throw away the broken record pieces reveal about his character?
It reveals his fundamental inability to let go of damaged things -- a trait directly connected to his grief for Allie. He treats broken objects with the same protective care he wishes he could give his dead brother.