The Catcher in the Rye By J.D. Salinger

Maurice & Sunny

By Bethan, Danielle, Holly G, Holly H and Josie

As Holden’s digression into his personal life and his thoughts deepen. The reader comes across two characters; Sunny and Maurice, who appear to be two normal people of New York City, but as the story progresses, we begin to see Holden’s personality show as he steps into “…a big mess…” with Sunny and Maurice!

We are introduced to the character Maurice...

• Persistent- “uh huh. Well how bout it, ya interested?” Trying to scare Holden into paying for a prostitute. It implies Maurice might need the money.

• Although Maurice says the prices more than once he still lies and says Holden is trying to steal from him and Sunny.

• One gets the picture that Maurice is trying to live up to the image of “pimp” by trying to act all tough. Uses words like “chief”.

• Sunny says to leave Holden alone after they get the five dollars Holden apparently owes him, but Holden keeps bad-mouthing the two. Although he doesn’t need to, Maurice still punches Holden, apparently to prove a point that he will not be spoken to and looked down upon by a “high-class kid” like Holden.

We are introduced to the character of Sunny...

• Sunny was a prostitute that Holden hired from Maurice in The Edmond Hotel.

• Holden was astonished by the fact that Sunny was only a teenager. • She was acting too mature for her age which intimidated Holden. I don’t

think he could understand why she wanted to grow up too fast.

• “She was a pretty spooky kid. Even with that little bitty voice she had, she could sort of scare you a little bit. If she'd been a big old prostitute, with a lot of makeup on her face and all, she wouldn't have been half as

spooky.”

And we gain a better understanding of Holden’s character...

A strong theme throughout the text is of Holden’s innocence, or his desire to preserve innocence. In this scene this theme is strongly highlighted...

“ All of a sudden I started to cry. I’d give anything if I hadn’t, but I did.”Holden begins to cry when Sunny and Maurice take his money, and after Maurice “shoves” him for the first time. This is an innocent reaction. Holden doesn’t fight back physically, but rather talks to Maurice and cries. His innocence is shown in the previous chapter too, when he decides against sleeping with Sunny, the prostitute, “ ‘Don’t you feel like talking for a while?’ I asked her. It was a childish thing to say, but I was feeling so damn peculiar.”

Holden’s Character... • When Maurice is threatening to beat Holden up for not handing over an

extra $5, Holden thinks of himself as a coward, “I was pretty scared. I’m very yellow about those things.” When in actual fact we learn that he is brave even though he doesn’t know it – Holden thinks that having courage is not having any fears and being tough, but in reality you are more brave if you are scared and you still don’t give in or back down, which is what Holden did, “’It’s ten bucks, chief. I tole ya that...’ ‘You did not tell me that. You said five bucks a throw... I distinctly heard you-’” Holden stands by what he knows he heard, even with the thuggish Maurice threatening him. It takes a lot of courage to do this, many people in that situation would have handed over the money and not stood by what they knew was the truth.

• This scene exposes this very admirable aspect of Holden’s personality, which is refreshing when throughout the novel we are faced with many of his flaws.

The End.