Contributed by Tim Towslee. Thank you Tim!
Publication History:
- c. 1941, sold to the New Yorker in November 1941 as “Am I Banging My Head Against the Wall?” (Greiner), publication delayed due to U.S. entry into WWII
- p. 21 December 1946 in The New Yorker as “Slight Rebellion Off Madison”
- collected in David Remmick’s Wonderful Town: New York Stories from the New Yorker (2000)
Character List:
Holden Caulfield: The central character. His middle name is Morrisey.
George Harrison: An acquaintance of Sally Hayes. He is a student at Andover.
Sally Hayes: A girl Holden likes and is meeting in the city for ice skating.
Carl Luce:: Carl is described as overweight and unattractive. He is a classmate of Holden’s at Pencey Prep.
Summary:
This story is the assumed basis for The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 17. In it, Holden Caulfield goes ice skating with Sally Hayes. After some small talk with her, Holden reveals his thoughts about his perceived pointlessness of prep school. He tells her he’d like for them to move away, far away, from the city; but Sally dismisses this as a ridiculous notion. Later, Holden and Carl Luce appear at the Wadsworth bar, where they drink scotch and sodas. Holden calls Carl an “intellectual guy” and asks him what he would do if he hated school and wanted to “get the hell out of New York.” Later, when he is alone Holden drunkenly calls Sally twice on a payphone. Then, after chatting with the piano player, Holden waits for a bus on the corner of Madison Avenue with tears in his eyes.