Toward the end of the first half of the book, Holden leaves pency and goes to New York City. Here he checks into a hotel , putting off going to home to his parents. That night when going back to his room, he orders a prostitute from the man running the elevator, Maurice. The man told him it was only a five dollar fee. After the girl had had left the room, both she and Maurice came back to his room demanding another five dollars even though he had already paid them. They now claimed that the price had always been ten dollars. Holden, acted very stubborn and refused to give them any more money. By choosing to to stand his ground, Maurice ended up beating up Holden. My question is this, standing up for your rights is without a doubt the right thing to do, but when Holden knew he was going to get hurt by doing it, why dindn't he just give him the five dollars? I could see his point if it was a large sum of money, but this time it wasn't.

I think this specific situation goes back to the idea that Holden is trying to grow up and actlike an adult, but inside he's still just a kid. Holden is trying to act like an more mature by ordering a prostitute in the first place, but when she gets there all he can do is talk becaus ehe really is a kid. When both the prostitute and Maurice come back to his room, he once again tries to act like an adult. But I think this was the wrong decision to make. If he had just given Maurice th five dollars that he "owed" him, he would have avoided getting himself into serious trouble. I don't understand why he didn't just give up when Maurice started approaching him. They, did in fact, end up getting five dollars anyway by taking it themselves out of his wallet. To me, Holden's decision to refuse them payment in this situation made no sense.

I think by Holden,having this need to feel mature, he gets himself into a lot of trouble. What he thinks is mature is sometimes something that he is too immature to stand behind and carry though. Other times he's still just too young to act in certain ways.