Chapter 3, 4 & 5 - School.

Holden at School.
Holden opens Chapter Three with a short coversation on lying, then we learn that Holden lives in a dormitory donated by a former student named Ossenburger. Holden tries to relax, he puts on his Cap and starts reading Out Of Africa (which he borrowed from the library by accident). A few pages into Out of Africa, this guy Robert Ackley "barges" in. He's a tall guy with dirty teeth and pimples. Holden isn't "too crazy about him". Ackley is a senior, so likes to act in charge around Holden, Ackley also hates Stradlater (Holden's room mate) A school "hot-shot" as Holden calls him. Stradlater runs into the room where Holden is horsing around and asks him if he could borrow Holden's hound's-tooth jacket. Holden tells him not to stretch it with his "godamn" shoulders.

In chapter 4 Holden goes to the Bathroom with Stradlater to watch him get ready and "horse around". Later, Stradlater asks Holden to do him a favour and write him a "descriptive as hell" composition (essay) but he askes him to not make it amazing and asks him to put the commas in the wrong place, so it looks like Stradlater has written it. This annoys Holden. Holden then asks who His date is, it turns out Holden knows her. Holden worries about jane as he admits that Stradlater is "a sext bastard".

The start of chapter 5 involves Holden telling us that on a saturday night, the boys at Pency all get Steak for tea, to impress the parents the next day. Holden describes the steaks as "these little hard, dry jobs that you could hardly even cut. Holden decides he wants to go into town, he asks Mal Brossard  (a friend) and Ackley to go with him, Holden packs a Snowball which he plans on throwing out of the window at something, but can't decide, so keeps it until the bus driver tells him to ditch it before getting on the bus. However, the only film that is on is one that Mal and Ackley have already seen, and as Holden hates the Movies, they end up going back to the dorm. Holden puts on a bathrobe and his red cap and writes Stradlaters composition. Holden ends up writing about his brother - Allie, who died of Leukemia in 1946. Holden tells us that he as out of control when Allie died and went into the garage and broke all the windows with his fist – "just for the hell of it." He still can't make a good fist, but whatever – it's not like he's going to be a violinist or something, he says. Holden then goes to bed and  listens to Ackley snoring and feels "a little sorry for the crazy sonuvabitch."