The Fight with Stradlater — The Catcher in the Rye

Holden gets back from the movie and asks whether Stradlater tried anything with Jane. Stradlater will not answer and mocks the obsession. Holden calls him a moron and lunges. Stradlater is bigger and wrestles. He puts Holden on the floor and bloodies his nose. Holden keeps shouting about Jane. Stradlater is annoyed, not guilty, and tells him to shut up.

In the mirror Holden hates his own face and the picture of Jane in Ed Banky's car. He was helpless when Allie died, and he is helpless again. Ackley would make it worse. He does not have the nerve to phone Jane. He lies on the bed and imagines revenge, then wipes the blood with toilet paper. The fight is not only about an essay. It is about sensitive things getting walked on by someone who looks good doing it.

Stradlater comes back as if nothing happened. Holden calls him a secret slob. Stradlater tells him to grow up. Holden looks at the blood and decides he will not wait until Wednesday. Pencey now looks like one indifferent machine, and his face in the mirror is part of the proof. Grow up, Stradlater says, as if the blood were a mood Holden could set down.