Study Questions
1. In Holden’s opinion why does Pencey Prep serve steak on Saturday night?

2. What is Ackley’s characteristic response whenever he is asked to go somewhere with the other boys?

3. Why do Holden, Brossard, and Ackley not go to the movies after all?

4. Why does Holden not like to sit next to Brossard and Ackley at the movies?

5. What card game does Brossard enjoy most of all?

6. What does Holden write about for Stradlater’s composition?

7. Why did Allie have writing on his baseball mitt?

8. How did Allie die?

9. How did Holden react to Allie’s death?

10. Does Holden express dislike or sympathy for Ackley at the end of this chapter?

Answers
1. Holden thinks that steak is served on Saturday so that when parents who visit on Sunday ask what was served last night, the boys would answer, “Steak.”

2. Ackley’s usual response is never to answer right away. Then he asks who else is going.

3. They do not go to the movie because Brossard and Ackley had already seen the movie that was playing.

4. Brossard and Ackley laugh excessively while watching a movie.

5. Brossard enjoys playing bridge.

6. Holden writes about his brother Allie’s baseball mitt.

7. Allie had poems written on the mitt so that he would have something to read when he was in the field, and nobody was up at bat.

8. Allie died of leukemia on July 18, 1946.

9. Holden slept in the garage the night Allie died and broke all the windows in the garage with his fist.

10. Holden catalogs all of Ackley’s physical problems and concludes that one had to feel sorry for him.