The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 20 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Where is Holden at the beginning of Chapter 20?

   • At a diner near Central Park
   • At Grand Central Station waiting for a train
   • At Ernie's in Greenwich Village, listening to the piano
   • Correct answer: At the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel, extremely drunk

   Chapter 20 opens with Holden still at the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel, where he has been drinking heavily and is now profoundly intoxicated.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What does Holden pretend while drunk at the bar?

   • Correct answer: That he has been shot in the gut, like a character in a movie
   • That he is waiting for a friend who is about to arrive
   • That he is a famous Hollywood writer, just like his brother D.B.
   • That he is a college student on holiday

   When he is really drunk, Holden starts "that stupid business with the bullet in my guts again," keeping his hand under his jacket so the blood won't drip, and later he tells Sally that Rocky's mob got him.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Who does Holden call on the phone while drunk?

   • Jane Gallagher
   • His sister Phoebe
   • Correct answer: Sally Hayes
   • His brother D.B.

   Holden calls Sally Hayes late at night, and her grandmother answers first. He rambles about coming over to trim her Christmas tree, and Sally tells him to go to bed.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does Holden do in the men's room of the Wicker Bar?

   • He gets into a fight with the piano player about Valencia
   • Correct answer: He dunks his head in a basin of cold water to try to sober up
   • He calls his parents from the pay phone to say he is coming home
   • He changes his clothes before going outside

   Holden dunks his head in cold water to sober up, then sits on the radiator dripping wet for a while before leaving the bar.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What happens to the record Holden bought for Phoebe?

   • He gives it to the hat-check girl for being so nice to him
   • He accidentally leaves it on the bench beside the lagoon
   • Correct answer: He drops it and it shatters, but he saves the broken pieces in his pocket
   • He throws it away because he is too drunk to carry it

   Holden drops 'Little Shirley Beans' on the way to Central Park and it breaks. Rather than discarding the pieces, he picks them up and puts them in his coat pocket -- unable to let go of the damaged gift.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does Holden find when he reaches the Central Park lagoon?

   • Correct answer: The lagoon is partly frozen, and he can't find a single duck
   • A crowd of people is ice-skating on the frozen lagoon
   • The ducks are asleep together near the edge of the water
   • A park worker explains to him exactly where the ducks have gone

   When Holden finally finds the lagoon, it is partly frozen and partly not. He walks all the way around it, nearly falling in once, but does not see a single duck.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Why was Holden not present at Allie's funeral?

   • His parents decided he was too young to attend
   • He refused to go because he could not accept Allie's death
   • He was away at boarding school and could not travel home in time
   • Correct answer: He was still in the hospital after he hurt his hand

   Holden says he wasn't at the funeral because he was still in the hospital, where he had to go after he hurt his hand (Chapter 5 tells how he broke the garage windows with his fist the night Allie died). D.B. told him about it afterward.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What bothers Holden most about visiting Allie's grave with his parents?

   • That his parents argued every time they went to the cemetery
   • Correct answer: That when it rained, the visitors ran to their cars, but Allie had to stay there
   • That Allie's grave was in a section far from the rest of the family
   • That very few people came to visit Allie's grave

   Holden went to Allie's grave with his parents a couple of times, and twice it started to rain. All the visitors could run to their cars, turn on their radios and go someplace nice for dinner, everybody except Allie, and Holden says he couldn't stand it.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What decision does Holden make at the end of Chapter 20?

   • To call his parents and confess that he has been expelled
   • To check himself into a hospital for pneumonia
   • To go back to Pencey Prep and apologize
   • Correct answer: To sneak home to see Phoebe while his parents are asleep

   Holden decides to sneak home to see Phoebe, reasoning that if he might die of pneumonia, he wants to see her one more time. He plans to sneak into the apartment very quietly and talk with her for a while, though he is afraid his parents will hear the creaky front door.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What motivates Holden to finally go home?

    • He wants to personally inform his parents that he was expelled from Pencey
    • Correct answer: He thinks how bad Phoebe would feel if he died, and wants to see her
    • He wants to deliver the record he purchased for Phoebe
    • A police officer finds him in the park and tells him to leave

    Worried that he is getting pneumonia and will die, Holden starts thinking how bad Phoebe would feel if that happened, and decides he'd better sneak home and see her, in case he died.

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11. 11

    Question 11. Which of the following events actually happen in Chapter 20?

    • Holden calls Sally Hayes while drunk, and her grandmother answers first.

      Happened

      Holden dials about twenty numbers before he gets the right one; Sally's grandmother answers and says Sally is asleep, and then Sally comes to the phone.

    • Holden finds the ducks at the Central Park lagoon.

      Didn't happen

      Holden finally finds the lagoon, partly frozen, but walks all around it and does not see a single duck.

    • Holden drops and breaks the 'Little Shirley Beans' record he bought for Phoebe.

      Happened

      Just as he gets into the park, Holden drops Phoebe's record and it breaks into about fifty pieces; he puts the pieces in his coat pocket.

    • Holden dunks his head in cold water in the men's room of the Wicker Bar.

      Happened

      In the men's room Holden fills a washbowl with cold water and dunks his head in it, right up to the ears.

    • Holden calls Phoebe from a pay phone in Central Park.

      Didn't happen

      The only person Holden phones in this chapter is Sally, from a phone booth near the bar; in the park he sits on a bench and skips coins across the lagoon.

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12. 12

    Question 12. Which of these statements about Holden's thoughts and memories in Chapter 20 are true?

    • Holden imagines his own funeral after worrying about dying of pneumonia.

      Happened

      Afraid the ice in his hair will give him pneumonia, Holden pictures all his relatives coming to his funeral and being stuck in a cemetery with his name on a tombstone.

    • Holden remembers that it rained twice while he was visiting Allie's grave.

      Happened

      Holden went to Allie's grave with his parents a couple of times, and twice it started to rain while they were there.

    • Holden attended Allie's funeral and gave a speech.

      Didn't happen

      Holden says he wasn't at the funeral; he was still in the hospital, and D.B. told him about it.

    • Holden was in the hospital during Allie's funeral because he had hurt his hand.

      Happened

      Holden says he was still in the hospital, where he had to go after he hurt his hand.

    • Holden throws the broken record pieces into the lagoon.

      Didn't happen

      Holden puts the broken pieces in his coat pocket; what he skips across the lagoon is his quarters and his nickel.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does 'boisterous' mean when Holden says he was careful not to get boisterous at the bar?

    • Clumsy, unsteady, and continually stumbling
    • Melancholy, silent, and withdrawn from everyone nearby
    • Correct answer: Noisy, rowdy, and full of rough, high-spirited energy
    • Arrogant, boastful, and eager to brag about oneself

    Boisterous means noisy and rowdy. Even while he is getting very drunk, Holden says he was careful not to get boisterous, because he didn't want anybody to notice him or ask how old he was.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What does 'economizing' mean when Holden says he had to start economizing on cabs?

    • Correct answer: Cutting back on spending in order to save money
    • Studying economics, finance, and international trade
    • Planning a trip along the shortest possible route
    • Spending money freely without worrying about cost

    Economizing means cutting back on spending to save money. Holden has hardly any money left, so he decides he has to start economizing on cabs and starts to wait for a bus instead.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What does 'concealing' mean when Holden says he was concealing the fact that he was wounded?

    • Applying pressure to a wound to stop the bleeding
    • Openly showing or revealing something to everyone
    • Correct answer: Keeping something hidden so that others cannot see it
    • Confessing a mistake and apologizing for it

    Concealing means keeping something hidden. Pretending he has a bullet in his guts, Holden keeps his hand under his jacket because he doesn't want anybody to know he is wounded.

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