Catcher In The Rye Themes

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.

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

When we grow up we’re raised to do our best and to be mature. People know their right from wrongs. Throughout the novel The Catcher in the Rye by, J.D. Salinger the main character goes through a difficult life and time growing up. Growing up too fast is not the answer for everything. The main character Holden Caulfield is a misfit because he is very dramatic, he avoids facing things, and he shows reckless behavior.

I like how Salinger shows the phoniness of the adult world. “Phony” is probably the most used word in this novel. It means fake. Holden always uses this word to describe adulthood. In Chapter 22, he criticizes people around him as phony. “It was one of the worst schools I ever went to. It was full of phonies. And mean guys.” (Salinger, 167). Although Holden is phony himself and doesn’t self-reflect, in a sense, his judgement

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.

Holden wants to be the catcher in the rye and save the children from falling off the cliff. This cliff, however, is the real world, and Holden himself is afraid of it so he wants to protect children from it. This is also demonstrated when Holden visits his sister 's school and sees swears written on the wall. This makes Holden very mad, "It drove me damn near crazy. I thought of how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they 'd wonder what the hell it meant…But I rubbed it out anyway, finally"(201). Holden was able to protect the children for a short while but a few moments later he sees the same thing written on the wall again. Only this time it is scratched in with a knife or something and Holden is unable to rub it away like before and realizes "It 's hopeless, anyway…it 's impossible" (202) he indicates here that growing up and facing certain reality is inevitable. Holden finally realizes that he can 't protect the kids from the real world when he watches Phoebe ride a carrousel at the zoo. "All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring…this thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help develop and inform the text's major themes. One of the recurring themes in the novel The Catcher in the Rye is the omnipresent theme of death. It could be argued that the novel is not only full of references to death in the literal sense, physical disappearance, but also in the metaphorical, taking the form of spiritual disappearance, something which Holden often focuses on, along with the actual theme of mortality. It is possible that this occurs because of his reluctance to interact with the living world. As his means of escaping from the reality he despises, his mundane thoughts and the “phoniness” that he is surrounded by. Holden becomes increasingly attracted

Instead of acknowledging that adulthood scares and mystifies him, Holden invents a fantasy that adulthood is a world of superficiality and hypocrisy (“phoniness”), while childhood is a world of innocence, curiosity, and honesty. Nothing reveals his image of these two worlds better than his fantasy about the catcher in the rye: he imagines childhood as an idyllic field of rye in which children romp and play; adulthood, for the children of this world, is equivalent to death—a fatal fall over the edge of a cliff. His created understandings of childhood and adulthood allow Holden to cut himself off from the world by covering himself with a protective armor of cynicism. But as the book progresses, Holden’s experiences, particularly his encounters with Mr. Antolini and Phoebe, reveal the shallowness of his conceptions.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a story about growing up. It explores the obstacles we all face during our transition from child to adulthood. The tragedies and triumphs, the breakthroughs and setbacks, the happiness and heartache. As you follow the book's protagonist, Holden, through his journey into adulthood, you learn about his life, but more importantly, you learn about your own. You grow to sympathize with the young rebel, and you begin to see traces of yourself in him.

     Throughout “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden Caufield longs for intimacy with other human beings. One of Holden’s main problems is that he sees childhood as the ideal state of being. He thinks that all adults are phonies.

Holden’s deep connection is showed when he describes that he would want to be “the catcher in the rye” who “catches everybody if they [children] start to go over the cliff” (173). Falling off the cliff symbolizing the children transitioning into adulthood. Holden's most important desire at this point is to keep children from becoming adults as they would lose their innocence. Though the novel Holden confronts the idea that childrencan also be corrupt similar to adults, and that it is inevitable that he will transition from a teenage to an adult. Holden reaches his own epiphany similar to Raskolnikov, coming to terms that he can’t stop adulthood.

In J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, a young man named Holden Caulfield is on the edge of adulthood. He is a bright kid but struggles with many mental diseases mainly because of the passing of his brother Allie. This has caused him to not focus on school and has got him kicked out of many schools. He did not have many friends and he did not like many people. He thought of everyone as phony. Holden does not want to confront adulthood in fear of losing his childhood because of the fear of change, conformity to the phony world and the passing of his younger brother Allie.

One might argue that Holden’s actions is driven by his wish of becoming a “catcher in the rye.” Some of these behaviors are his love for children because of their innocence, his wish to act like a child or start to grow up, and his attitude towards adults. He tends to call people who are older than him phony because he feels people try too hard to conform to society. This fantasy of becoming a “catcher in the rye” began when he saw a little kid singing a song called, ‘Comin’ Thro the Rye’ in the street. At the end of his journey he is not a catcher, but rather the one who got caught.

Holden says “i mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going i have to come out from somewhere and catch them”, he would be the catcher in the rye protecting the kids from growing up , this thought of painfulness of growing up. Holden doesn't realize by becoming the catcher in the rye he is accepting the role of growing up.In the novel holden starts to grow up without knowing it he sees a world full of phony people and decides he wants no part in it.

“The Catcher in the Rye” is a classic American novel written by J.D. Salinger. In this book Salinger uses multiple themes, in order to connect the reader to the main character, Holden Caulfield, and the story itself. Three of the themes he uses in the book are innocence vs. maturity, “phoniness”, and loneliness. These themes are great in this novel when they stand alone. However, when Salinger uses them to connect to the others, it becomes a story that will stay with you for a lifetime, and the reader will understand why this novel is regarded as one of the best ever.