The Catcher in the Rye Summary of Chunk 6 (Chapters 15 - 17)
by J.D. Salinger

The next morning, Holden calls Sally Hayes out for a date, and she agrees to meet him later that afternoon. In the meantime, he goes out to breakfast and runs into two nuns who are devoid of all pretentiousness. In the end, he donates some money to their charity and holds a conversation with one of them.

After breakfast, Holden takes a long walk. In the streets he sees a little boy singing the old children's song "If a body catch a body coming through the rye" to himself with total disregard for the outside world. After a while, he ends up at the park and spies a lot of little kids skating. Both sights lift his spirits. Thinking about his own childhood, Holden offers a description of the natural history museum as a place where things don't change. However, upon arrival at the museum, he finds himself unable to walk in.

Finally, it is time to meet Sally for the show. Again, we find Holden highly critical of everything from the actors to Sally herself. After the show, they go ice skating and in a conversation over cokes Holden gets heated up and proposes that they run away to the woods together. Sally, of course, refuses, and Holden calls her a "royal pain in the ass," attempts to apologize, and finally leaves.