Examples Of Holden's Dream Job In Catcher In The Rye

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

The relationship between Holden and Phoebe forms a major theme that the novel aims to deliver. The fact that he is having this conversation with Phoebe, a child who is anything but simple and innocent, reveals the oversimplification of his worldview. Holden himself realizes this to a degree when he acknowledges that his idea is “crazy”, yet he cannot come up with anything more pragmatic; he has trouble seeing the world in any other way. His “catcher in the rye” fantasy reflects his innocence, his belief in pure, uncorrupted youth, and his desire to protect that spirit. On the other hand, it represents his extreme disconnection from reality and his naïve view of the world. Phoebe exposes to Holden a living embodiment of childhood. And it is a scene with her where she exposes to Holden the illogical nature of his supervisory actions, indicating that his desire to preserve her innocence will only halt her own inevitable development. Phoebe is the Greek word for “protector of children” (Bloom 2009, p185). Within the novel she is Holden’s protector. She comforts him, provides him with financial security, and protects him from getting in trouble with their mother. Reiff describes this reversal of roles between Holden and Phoebe as “Now, instead of saving the world by protecting the children, Holden wants to reject the world and shut himself off from evil by becoming a ‘deaf-mute’ in the West. It is Phoebe who rescues him from this total withdrawal” (Reiff 2008, p71). Phoebe forces Holden to view her as a human—living and progressing— rather than as a forever preserved child, and it is this humanization that causes Holden to accept her eventual progression into

Holden visits his parents apartment because he wanted to see his little sister. Holden has to sneak into the apartment because if his parents see that he ditched school his father will “kill him”. He talks to Phoebe but Holden can’t stay their for a long time because soon his parents will wake up. As Holden is leaving, he passes Phoebe the red hunting hat; “Then I took my hunting hat out of my coat pocket and gave it to her. She likes those kinds of crazy hats. She didn’t want to take it, but I made her.”(Salinger,198). Phoebe is a very mature girl for her age, she is very smart and initiative. She is also very aware of her surrounding and reality, slowly losing her innocence. Holden as a big brother wants to protect and try to save her innocence. Holden “makes her” take the red hunting hat because he doesn’t want what happened to him, happen to her. He wants her experience her childhood and not race to adulthood. Phoebe at first is hesitant because she wants to live her own life. However Holden is scared of her falling out the rye, meaning going to adulthood. The fact that he gave her his favorite hat that he uses for protection show how he also wants her to be protected from the corruption of the outside world. Holden doesn’t just the desire of innocence but to preserve his sister's

Holden is very fond of Phoebe and also very protective of her, when Holden goes to her school his protective attribute is very relevant. When Holden gets into Phoebe’s school Holden is surprised with extreme profanity on the walls in the school, during his time in the school he sees the words “Fuck You” written on the walls thought the school. The first time Holden saw the words he instantly began to think of how Phoebe and the other kids would feel if they were to see it. It upset Holden so much that he thought, “I kept wanting to kill whoever’d written it… I’d smash his head on the stone steps till he was good and goddamn dead and bloody. (p.201)” His obsession with innocence was so strong that Holden felt compelled to kill the “perverty bum (p.201)” Though he could never act on his feelings he decided to make an effort to clean the graffiti off the walls, once again protecting and preserving innocence. A more personal and compelling occasion where Holden was the protector of Phoebe’s innocence is when they went to the carrousel near the zoo. While approaching the carrousel Holden thought of his past when D.B, Allie, Phoebe and himself use to go to the carrousel all the time and how Phoebe couldn’t get enough of it. After remembering how happy it made her Holden told her she should go on, Phoebe declined claiming she was too big to ride even though she really wanted to but after insisting, she got on. Holden then watched her go around in circles while he sat on one of the benches. “[Holden thought to himself] I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn

In chapter 21 Holden returns home two days early because he wants to say his goodbyes to Phoebe, when arriving at his family's apartment he walks over to Phoebe’s room and sees that she is not there, he then goes to D.B’s room to find her sleeping. Before deciding to wake up Phoebe, Holden sits in D.B’s room and looks at his brother’s desk and says “You ought to see her doing her homework or something at that crazy desk. It’s almost as big as the bed. You can hardly see her when she’s doing her homework. That’s the kind of stuff she likes, though” (Salinger 175-176). Phoebe is a smart, strong and a confident young woman. Phoebe redefines stereotypes by being intelligent which is one of the traits that Holden admires throughout the course of the novel. Phoebe embodies such a conception of perfection by being intelligent that she becomes an ideal for Holden as he thinks highly of

When Holden makes a plan to run away and hitchhike to someplace West, he decides to meet Phoebe before he leaves. As soon as they meet, his sister exclaims that she wants to go with him, holding a suitcase in her hand. Holden replies sternly explaining to Phoebe that she "can't take anything. Because [she is] not going. [He is] going alone.

Holden wants to keep Phoebe's innocence and youth safe by participating in childlike activities, which satisfies her and his inner child. He desires to protect the innocence of Phoebe because he does whatever Phoebe pleases, whether he wants to or not. Holden’s love and protectiveness for Phoebe prevent him from seeing the damage he causes her and that he needs to let her mature and grow. All things considered, while Holden's childish behavior indicates that he wants to avoid adulthood, he engages in adult behaviors such as dreaming of running away to a new life, drinking alcohol, and smoking cigarettes. Holden commits several adult acts in front of children, indirectly exposing them to the terrible realities of adulthood, though he is trying to protect the children’s innocence and purity.

His realization of this impossibility makes very depressed. Holden believes that the cruel adult world steals children's innocence and transforms them into phonies. His beliefs resulted in him not liking anything. Phoebe tries to prove this to him by asking him what he wants to be, he says he what's to be the catcher in the rye, she corrects him," It's if a body meet a body coming through the rye!"(173). Holden wants to be a catcher who protects children from the adult

During the first encounter, Holden meets with Phoebe in her room, back in his family’s apartment, and Phoebe tells Holden to name something he’d “like to be” (172) for career choice. Holden responds, “I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be” (173). His description of what that means, is he would stand in a field of rye, on the edge of a cliff, and wait for children to come running towards him. Then, before they could run off the cliff, he would catch them and replace them safely back into the field. His vision of the children falling off the cliff is quite literal, but their fall actually symbolizes what Holden see’s as an impending death to all children - becoming an adult. And thus, through this moment, we see how Allie’s death has affected him most. He was robbed of his innocence at too young of an age and because this had caused him so much pain, he could not bare to see it happen to anybody else. That, in turn, is what caused him to resist the adult world so thoroughly. At the end of the book, Holden has one final moment with Phoebe, in which his transformation finally happens. When they go to a carrousel that is part of a city fair, Phoebe goes on to ride and Holden watches from a bench. As he sits

She plays a significant role in the novel and is critical in helping Holden reevaluate his perception of the world (French). Holden is trying to prevent Phoebe from losing her innocence by shielding her from the impurity of the real world. Holden eventually realizes this is impossible when she mentions she is going to follow him out west if he leaves. When Holden see’s f*** you on the walls he realizes that phoniness is everywhere and there is really no way to escape

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.

Phoebe is even seen by Holden as an impressive young child, and tells his audience that, “she'd wear white gloves and walk right between us, like a lady and all” 68). Holden compares Phoebe to “a lady” and convey’s even though she is a little child, she looks and acts like an adult at times. However, Holden does not want Phoebe to grow up the way he did, wants to protect her innocence, and does not want Phoebe to end up like him. That is why Holden wants to be “The Catcher In The Rye,” and wants to “catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (173). By not letting the kids fall off the cliff, he is protecting

When Phoebe asks Holden what he likes, he replies by saying, "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 they're going 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. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy." (Salinger 173). The top of the cliff symbolizes the innocent child life, but below the cliff symbolizes the adult world of phoniness. Holden wants to catch the children before the run off into the phony adult world. In conclusion, Holden wants to be the “catcher in the rye” as he wants to catch children’s innocence before they fall into the phony adult

After Phoebe asks what he wants to be when he grows up, Holden goes into detail and illustrates, “… 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 they’re going 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”(Steinbeck 191). Holden values a child’s security in the highest regards and is willing to save one from hitting the bottom of a cliff. As the bottom of the cliff represents the unpleasant and demanding world of adulthood, Holden is finally separating himself from childhood and accepting that he is an adult. After Holden encourages Phoebe to enjoy the carousel, he observes, “All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddamn horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but its bad if you say anything to them…”(Steinbeck 232). Holden is overprotective over his younger sister Phoebe, except when she is on the carousel and he learns that she can develop her own independence. Noting that children also have risks and decisions they have to make themselves without adult interaction, like reaching for a gold ring but knowing the risk of falling. Holden can finally completely separate his adult self and his child self, and only look back with nostalgia. Earlier, Holden regards himself as “the catcher”, the savior who protects children from frightening reality of adulthood, but after seeing a lot of maturity in Phoebe he encourages her to reach for “the gold ring”, without any need for safety and

Holden says, “I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing i’d really like to be” (Salinger, 173). Holden says that he would catch the kids that are about to fall of the edge of the cliff. This symbolizes Holden trying to protect the kids innocence. He wants to be a hero and save all the kids. For Holden when someone loses their innocence it means that they have just fallen and now they have to be an adult. This isn't true because you could lose your innocence at any time and it doesn’t mean that now you have to be an