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Holden returns to Phoebe’s room, where Phoebe refuses to look at him and predicts their father will “kill” him for being expelled. Holden minimizes the consequence and fantasizes about running away to a ranch, which Phoebe mocks. Prodded by her questions, he launches into why he hates Pencey—its phoniness, meanness, cliques, and a secret fraternity that excluded Robert Ackley.

Holden describes faculty hypocrisy, recalling Mr. Spencer fawning over Headmaster Thurmer, and a depressing Veterans’ Day alumnus obsessed with his restroom graffiti. Phoebe presses that Holden dislikes everything; when challenged to name something he likes, Holden struggles, thinking of two charitable nuns and a boy from Elkton Hills, James Castle, who leapt to his death rather than retract calling Phil Stabile conceited.

Phoebe insists he still hasn’t named anything, and Holden finally says he likes Allie and sitting talking with her. She dismisses these, pushing him to name a future job like lawyer or scientist. Holden rejects law as potentially phony—uncertain whether good deeds stem from vanity or virtue—and continues railing against inauthenticity.

Asked what he’d truly like to be, Holden shares his central fantasy: standing by a rye field cliff, catching children before they fall—“the catcher in the rye.” Phoebe is quiet, returning to the threat of their father’s anger. Holden, restless and seeking guidance, decides to call his former Elkton Hills English teacher, Mr. Antolini, and steps out to the living room to phone him, after humoring Phoebe’s brief belching lesson.