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Robert Ackley
Sally Hayes is a beautiful young woman whom Holden has dated in the past. Like Holden, Sally goes to a private school, but her school lets out for winter break earlier than Pencey, which is why she’s able to meet Holden in New York City when he calls her. Despite this invitation, though, Holden doesn’t truly respect Sally, though he finds her attractive and thus decides to spend time with her. Still, he has trouble enjoying himself when he’s in her presence, since she uses phrases that annoy him and likes things that he finds shallow and pointless. For instance, he gets frustrated with her because she likes a play that they see together on Broadway, though he also tells her on this date that he loves her—an excessive display of emotion that pours forth from him simply because he’s eager for human interaction. After the play, Sally suggests that they go ice-skating, but this outing only turns into an argument when Holden tries to explain his cynical worldview to her. Unlike him, Sally thinks that people should follow rules in life, an idea that so thoroughly upsets Holden that he calls her a “royal pain in the ass” before leaving.
Sally Hayes Quotes in The Catcher in the Rye
The The Catcher in the Rye quotes below are all either spoken by Sally Hayes or refer to Sally Hayes. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 17
Quotes
Then, just to show you how crazy I am, when we were coming out of this big clinch, I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it. I’m crazy. I swear to God I am.
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“You ought to go to a boys’ school sometime. Try it sometime,” I said. “It’s full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques.”
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I said no, there wouldn’t be marvelous places to go to after I went to college and all. Open your ears. It’d be entirely different. We’d have to go downstairs in elevators with suitcases and stuff. We’d have to phone up everybody and tell ’em good-by and send ’em postcards from hotels and all…It wouldn’t be the same at all. You don’t see what I mean at all.
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Get the entire The Catcher in the Rye LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sally Hayes Quotes in The Catcher in the Rye
The The Catcher in the Rye quotes below are all either spoken by Sally Hayes or refer to Sally Hayes. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 17
Quotes
Then, just to show you how crazy I am, when we were coming out of this big clinch, I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it. I’m crazy. I swear to God I am.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“You ought to go to a boys’ school sometime. Try it sometime,” I said. “It’s full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques.”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
I said no, there wouldn’t be marvelous places to go to after I went to college and all. Open your ears. It’d be entirely different. We’d have to go downstairs in elevators with suitcases and stuff. We’d have to phone up everybody and tell ’em good-by and send ’em postcards from hotels and all…It wouldn’t be the same at all. You don’t see what I mean at all.
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