In chapter 13 of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden walks to his hotel wearing his red hat and he notices that the hotel lobby smells like cigar smoke. The elevator attendant offers to send a woman to Holden's room. Holden agrees, too depressed to argue.
Holden trips over a suitcase when the prostitute sent to his room, Sunny, knocks at the door. Now, Sunny scoffs at the idea that Holden is 22, another lie, but pulls off her dress anyway. Embarrassed and shocked, Holden asks Sunny if she has time to talk to him.
talk. Holden admits that he prefers not to have sex but would pay her anyway. He makes up a quick excuse. He just had an operation on his clavichord.
Sonny sits in his lap and talks dirty, making Holden more nervous and uncomfortable. Irritated, Sonny demands ten dollars to leave. Holden gives her five.
Holden has one foot in the world of his childhood and the other in the unexplored adult realm, and this chapter points out that contrast painfully. Holden brags that he has a great capacity to drink. He says that he once drank so heavily he didn't even show it.
He even had to force himself to vomit. And also, he's had many chances to lose his virginity, but he respects girls so much. That's why he hasn't done it.
Now, he steals himself for Sonny's arrival by saying that he just wanted practice. New York City is described here in full sensory details. Holden rides in cabs that smell of vomit.
He sits at tables in smoky clubs. The setting plays into his penchant for exaggeration. And that exaggeration reflects Holden's lonely...
isolated mindset.