Meaning in Context – ‘For a Million Bucks’ in a Sentence

grammarmeaningmeaning-in-contextsentence-meaning

I am reading The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger, and I've found it difficult to interpret the phrase "for a million bucks" in the context below.

Then a funny thing happened. When I got to the museum, all of a sudden
I wouldn't have gone inside for a million bucks. It just didn't appeal to me.

This is quoted from the last paragraph of the chapter 16 in the novel.

I thought this meant Holden didn't wanna go inside because he felt as if the entrance fee was high as a million bucks. But a Japanese translation of this scene says that Holden wouldn't have wanted to enter the museum if he had gotten a million bucks.

I want to know the correct interpretation in this scene. I'd appreciate it if you would answer my question.

Best Answer

Your interpretation of

for a million bucks

to mean

the fee was a million dollars

is not 100% wrong. In the following dialogue, it would indeed mean "the fee is a million dollars":

A: What do I have to do to get inside?
B: You can get inside for a million bucks.

But in the passage you've quoted, a well-known idiom is formed. It is signaled by the negated subjunctive:

I wouldn't have [verb] for [price]

is an expression of

Even if you offer me [price], I refuse to [verb].

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