Chapter 3 Summary of Catcher in the Rye

In this chapter, our protagonist makes a rather bold and quite frank statement, he claims to be a frequent and "terrific" and "awful" liar. This reveals a deeper side to Holden's personality. The way I interpreted this was that he is very self-aware in the way that he knows that he lies therefore it's almost an excuse not to change this habit because he knows he does it and continues to do so because it has become a safety blanket for him. He lies to everyone so often that it almost turns into the truth. He begins to believe his own lies and it prevents people from getting to know him, which I believe he desires. He wants to be the only person that knows himself, but when he lies he loses a little part of his true self. He tends to drift from topic to topic in the matter of one paragraph, he is all over the map. He explains to us a bit of the setting at Pencey and how the other boys are in his wing and introduces to us Stradlater and Ackley, his roommates.