Catcher In The Rye Loss Of Innocence Essay

In The Catcher in The Rye, by J.D, the main character, Holden, can be seen as a troubled teenager growing up in a less than perfect society. Throughout the novel Holden struggles with the fact that many young and innocent kids will grow up and see the world from a different perspective. He naturally becomes worried for all future generations who will one day grow, as he did, and loose their innocence. The fixation of youth and innocence can be seen in the title of the book, as well as throughout the novel.

Holden misinterpretation of the poem shows that he is trying to protect his younger sister from growing up. He explains that he thought the poem was about children falling off a cliff, and that he had to catch the children falling off. Children going over the cliff would be symbolic of a child entering adulthood, which Holden is trying to prevent Phoebe from doing. While Holden is telling Phoebe this, his hat is on backwards like a catcher in baseball:”I had my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it.”

They were catching up in D.B. The room when Holden brings up a song, which like the average little sister, Phoebe corrects him and says it’s actually a poem by Robert Burns. The poem reads “If a body meets a body coming through the rye”. However, Holden thought it was “If a body catches a body coming through the rye”. This phrase inspired him to save children who are playing.

when she gets angry. She refuses to listen to his apologies and ends up leaving. Holden thinks that Sally is very phony of a person. Holden meets Carl Luce and tries to talk about sex with him , which annoys Carl and he leaves Holden early, but Holden continues to drink and ultimately gets very drunk. Holden is exhausted both physically and mentally and decides that it is time to go home. He sneaks into his apartment and wakes up Phoebe to be able to let her know what is going on. He tells her of his fantasy of himself being a Catcher In The Rye, a person who catches little children as they are about to fall off of a cliff. Phoebe tells him that he has misremembered the Robert Burns’s poem which says “if a body meet a body, coming through the

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old boy, transitions from childhood to adulthood. The death of Holden’s little brother signifies the beginning his loss of innocence and growth of maturity. As he enters adulthood, Holden views society differently from his peers by characterizing most of his peers and adults he meets as “phonies.” Thus, Holden takes the impossible challenge of preserving the innocence in children because he wants to prevent children from experiencing the corruption in society. The Catcher In The Rye embodies Holden’s struggle to preserve the innocence of children and reveals the inevitability of and the necessity of encountering the harsh realities of life.

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s outlook in life is either the innocence of childhood or the cruelty of adulthood. He believes that the innocence of childhood is very valuable and it should be protected from

Arguably, the novel’s most obvious symbol can be found in the title. Holden discusses and explains with Phoebe that he wants to be the “catcher in the rye”. He imagines himself wearing a giant baseball glove, ready to catch the kids as they ponder and fall off the cliff while playing in the rye. The children in the poem symbolize childhood. Furthermore, the field in the poem represents innocence, the action of falling from the cliff is the fall from innocence. Moreover, Holden symbolizes the protector of children, he protects them from losing their innocence and childhood. Furthermore, it also represents his desire to avoid the harsh reality of the adult life. Ironically, Holden mistakes the meaning and words of the song, much in the same way he mistakes the cause of his torment, it comes from himself, not from others. For example, "I thought it was 'If a body catch a body,'" I said. "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they're running and they don't look where

Ramachandra Rao: "First of all, it is a savior image, and shows us the extent of Holden's re-ligious idealism. Secondly, it crystallizes for us Holden's concept of good and evil; childhood is good, the only pure good, but it is surrounded by perils, the cliff of adolescence over which the children will plunge in the evil of adulthood unless stopped. But finally, the image is based on a mis-understanding. The Burns poem goes ‘If a body meet a body' not ‘if a body catch a body,' and the fact that Phoebe is aware of this and Holden is not, plus the manner in which these two words (‘catch' and ‘meet') are re-examined and re-interpreted by Holden at the end of the novel, shows us in a powerful and deeply suggestive way the center of Holden's diffi-culty." Holden's view of life as it is and the way life should be is based on a misunder-standing of man's place in society. Having difficulty coming to grips with this misunder-standing, Holden crosses a threshold. Later he fatefully comes in contact with his sister once again, at the Central Park carrousel in the final scene of the novel. At the sight of his sister he is overcome by a love for all people when he sees how much his sister cares about him. Domenic Bruni, incorporates this theme in his statement: "Holden has accepted a new position—an undiscriminating love for all mankind. He even expresses that he misses all the people

Which led to Holden’s voyage in New York City. Holden starts off as somewhat of a conformist at the beginning of the book. Since the world is so cruel and takes away your innocence, he did his best to be different or so such as a rebel. In the book Holden says, “One of the biggest reasons I

Holden has numerous distinct attributes pertaining to both childhood and adulthood. His transition from growing and relational life, to an uncontrolled spiritual realm, this stresses him. He has instances of introspection that helps him encompass a realization for his own livelihood. When he shares with his sister Phoebe what he would sincerely like to do with his life he says “I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.” (Salinger 173) That quote reveals the reasoning for the title of the book because Holden wants nothing more than to protect the innocence of children.

Everyone is born into this world with a sense of innocence, completely oblivious to the cruelties of the world. However, as humans grow up and reach early- adulthood, they begin to realize the realities of this world, all that is real and all that is, in fact, a figment of the imagination. As people learn that it is truly impossible to stay hidden from the harsh realities of adulthood for their entire life, they also learn that it is impossible to shield others from these truths as well. They learn that although they may not be able to protect themselves from life’s misfortunes, they must perceiver, move forward, and not hold anyone back in their tracks. Just as all humans eventually learn to accept and move past life’s various misfortunes,

In many novels the title of the story is more important than most people initially think. It often reveals important information about the story. In The Catcher In the Rye, Holden says that his dream job would to be the catcher in rye. This is significant to the story because of how Holden feels that adults are trying to ruin the innocence of children, and how he can be the one that saves them. Holden then realizes he cannot always be the one to save the children. This is show throughout the book but especially in the scene where Holden takes Phoebe to the carousel.This shows that Holden wants to be the catcher in the rye so that he can help keep the children their innocence from adults.

In the novel, the first clue to the significance of the title that you are introduced to is when a little boy is singing as he strolls through the park. In chapter 16, Holden listens to a child singing to himself "If a body catch a body coming through the Rye. " Holden describes the little boy in terms of innocence: "The kid was swell. He was walking in the street, instead of on the sidewalk, but right next to the curb. He was making out like he was walking a very straight line, the way kids do, and the whole time he kept singing and humming." Holden also comments on how the child’s parents are paying no attention to him. To Holden the little boy represents innocence and youth untouched by adult corruption. Listening to the boy sing makes Holden feel less depressed.

The title of the novel, “The Catcher in the Rye”, plays a significant role throughout the book as it has a substantial connection to Holden’s story. This title greatly allows for the main character, Holden Caulfield, to express his feelings towards life and towards human nature. Holden can see that the world he now lives in as it is becoming filled with corrupted people and minds. He believes the children are ruined by the ribald behavior of the older generations around them and as he shows the reader in the novel, these thoughts allow for holden to realize his true purpose in life, which would be to help save the children from this vindictive world. Holden also needs to save himself from this conflict as he is also caught between the innocence of youth and the unscrupulous behavior of adulthood. Holden’s struggle with this conflict is why he yearns to become a "Catcher in the Rye."

In the book, though, the poem doesn’t appear itself, instead we come across the song adaptation, which was popular amongst kids in that time. Holden, hears a child humming the song, when he walks on the sidewalk and it immediately becomes stuck in his head. But in order to understand the impact it had on his later motives, we need to understand the meaning of the song itself and Holden’s misconception of it. Originally, the poem, is about a girl named Jenny, who walks through a field of rye, then has casual sex with someone - “Gin a body meet a body Coming thro' the rye”. (“If a body meet a body coming through the rye” in the modern song version) Holden, on the other hand, mishears the part as “if a body catch a body coming through the Rye” which creates a completely different story in his mindset. On the contrary to the original, Holden imagines children playing in a field of rye, near the edge of a cliff, and him catching them when they start to fall