A meaningful vignette that is very powerful in chapter 15 of Catcher in the Rye is when Holden shares his thoughts of the suitcases. Holden is helping his new acquaintances from the diner, who happen to be two nuns, with their luggage. While he is lifting their luggage, he notices how their luggage isn't very expensive. This bothers Holden and leads him into telling the story of how his old roommate had cheap luggage.
Holden's previous roommate was named Dick Slagle, and he had very inexpensive suitcases. Holden explains that he originally felt bad because Slagle would always hide his suitcases under his bed, because he assumed he didn't want people to compare his with Holden's. Holden had very nice suitcases from Mark Cross.
Holden didn't realize what his roommate was trying to do until he hid his suitcases one day.
"What I did, I finally put my suitcases under my bed, instead of the rack, so that old Slagle wouldn't get a ------ inferiority complex about it."
The ironic thing was Holden wasn't expecting his roommate to take his suitcases out from under his bed and put them back on the rack. Holden then goes on to describe that Slagle only wanted the other guys to think that Holden's suitcases were his.
There is a underlying lesson involved in this vignette that Holden discovers. Holden describes that despite the fact you may assume someone doesn't care about what they have or do compared to others, but on the inside they really do. They really do care a lot about comparing themselves to others, and that is surprising to someone like Holden. Holden doesn't understand how that works, and that is why he chooses to just say he hates people with inexpensive luggage.
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