The Catcher in the Rye: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

Holden decides to buy a record for Phoebe. The album is for children, and Holden knows it might be hard to find, but he has wanted to buy it for Phoebe ever since he heard it at Pencey. Making his way to a record store, he decides to look for Phoebe in the park after he buys the album, since she usually spends her Sundays in the park. When he nears a church, he starts walking behind a family dressed in clothes indicating that they don’t have much money. The parents are walking together without paying attention to their young son, who sings, “If a body catch a body coming through the rye.” Holden finds the boy’s voice touching, and he appreciates that he’s simply singing for the sake of singing. Consequently, the song makes Holden happier than he’s been all day.     

Holden goes to Broadway to buy theater tickets for his date with Sally. He despises the way everyone around him is dressed up and excited to go to the movies or a play. He finds it especially despicable that these people actively want to spend their Sundays doing these things, so he hastily ducks into a record store and buys the album for Phoebe. Though it’s rather expensive, purchasing it for her once again improves his mood. Eager to give it to her, he hurries toward the park, though not before stopping in a drugstore and calling Jane. When her mother answers, though, he immediately hangs up, feeling as if he has to be in the right “mood” to converse with a girl’s mother. He then remembers to buy the theater tickets.

Holden gets tickets for him and Sally to go to a play starring several famous actors. He knows that Sally will be immensely pleased to see this production, but he himself is hardly excited. This is because he hates actors, thinking that they never actually behave like real people. Or, rather, he dislikes it when actors are too good at acting, since this only reminds him that they’ve studied their parts and worked hard to be realistic. Worst of all, Holden constantly worries that an actor is going to do something “phony,” which makes it hard for him to enjoy the theater. 

Having secured theater tickets, Holden goes to the park to find Phoebe. When he arrives, though, she’s nowhere to be seen, so he asks a little girl if she knows his sister. The girl is busy lacing up her roller-skates, and Holden gladly helps her tighten them as she informs him that Phoebe is most likely at the Museum of Natural History, since the classes in their school have been taking turns going there on the weekends. The little girl’s class went last Saturday, so she thinks Phoebe is probably there with her class this weekend. This delights Holden, who decides to make his way to the museum. Just as he’s about to leave, though, he remembers that it’s Sunday, not Saturday. All the same, he goes anyway.

Holden thinks about how comforting it is that the displays in the Museum of Natural History are frozen in time. He fondly remembers the fieldtrips he took here as a kid each year, recalling that the glass display cases never changed. This is the beauty of the museum, he thinks—you can always go back and discover that the only thing that has changed is you yourself. This, he believes, is how life should be, since he thinks certain things should always stay the same, though he recognizes that this is impossible.

Despite his nostalgic thoughts about the museum, Holden can’t bring himself to go inside when he arrives. Suddenly, the idea of entering seems vastly unpleasant, so he hails a taxi and makes his way to where he’s going to meet Sally, though the idea of going on a date with her doesn’t appeal to him, either.