In this chap­ter of *The Catch­er in the Rye*, the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on his thoughts after break­fast, specif­i­cal­ly fix­at­ing on nuns he encoun­tered and their hum­ble col­lec­tion bas­ket. He finds it dif­fi­cult to imag­ine his moth­er or Sal­ly Hayes’s moth­er engaged in sim­i­lar char­i­ta­ble activ­i­ties due to their poised lives. This con­tem­pla­tion evokes a deep sad­ness with­in him, stir­ring mem­o­ries of how triv­ial yet impact­ful such mun­dane sce­nar­ios can be.

He decides to take a stroll to Broad­way, yearn­ing to find a record store open on Sun­day to pur­chase a rare record called “Lit­tle Shirley Beans,” which he hopes will delight his sis­ter, Phoebe. The nar­ra­tive reveals his fond­ness for the record—a reflec­tion of his desire to con­nect with Phoebe, empha­siz­ing the strong bond they share. As he walks, he spots a fam­i­ly from church, and their son’s joy­ful singing of “If a body catch a body com­ing through the rye” lifts his spir­its momen­tar­i­ly amidst the bustling streets filled with movie-goers, which he finds unbear­ably depress­ing.

Once on Broad­way, he quick­ly finds the record he seeks, feel­ing a rush of hap­pi­ness that con­trasts with the sur­round­ing crowd’s eager­ness to watch films, which he detests. This con­tempt extends to the the­atri­cal world, as he pur­chas­es tick­ets to a show he spec­u­lates will impress Sal­ly. His thoughts drift to an expe­ri­ence with a renowned actor, Sir Lau­rence Olivi­er, and the con­trast­ing mem­o­ries of his child­hood enjoy­ment dur­ing vis­its to the muse­um.

After get­ting his tick­ets, he takes a cab to the park, despite his dwin­dling funds, want­i­ng to avoid the over­whelm­ing ambiance of Broad­way. Arriv­ing at the park, he is met with dis­ap­point­ment as the envi­ron­ment feels drea­ry and uninvit­ing, lack­ing the usu­al cheer expect­ed of a hol­i­day sea­son. He search­es for Phoebe, recall­ing nos­tal­gic moments spent in the same park, yet she is nowhere to be found.

Attempt­ing to locate her, he strikes up a con­ver­sa­tion with a girl who men­tions Phoebe is like­ly at the muse­um. Remem­ber­ing fond excur­sions with Phoebe in his youth, he decides to walk to the Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry, rem­i­nisc­ing about child­hood mem­o­ries and how spaces remain unchanged while peo­ple grow and evolve. How­ev­er, once there, he finds him­self unin­ter­est­ed and instead opts to head to the Bilt­more, con­flict­ed yet dri­ven by his pre­de­ter­mined plans with Sal­ly.