Catcher In The Rye

Catcher in the Rye

The book Catcher in the Rye, which is written by JD Slinger, is a novel on human behavior. In the book the young boy Holden Caulfield cannot

comprehend the fact that everyone has to grow up one day. He didn't want children to grow up because he feel's it turns them in to corrupt adults.

This dilemma is viewed when Holden tried to erase bad words that were written on the walls of the elementary school where his little sister Phoebe went." While I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written, "fuck you" on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them- all cockeyed, naturally- what it meant, and how they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. " (201). Holden's concern made him create stereotypes of holligans that would try to change the way the children acted. When his sister asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up he said "a catcher in the rye" which became his new fantasy for himself being a super hero saving every one when "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." (173). He wanted to stop the kids from losing

their innocence and becoming like a adult with increased maturity, which is a metaphor for "falling".

Through the book Holden takes steps to become less and less like a child and more like a man. In the begging of the book he is immature and childish, while thinking people are "phony's". Holden was the manager at the fencing team at Pencey, but soon lost all the equipment. He also flunked two schools for being absent and his effortless approach. He also had a strong fascination with his childhood, including the admiration of his little sister, the mourning of his brother and the joy he gets from thinking back on his childhood. Soon Holden starts to mature

...