The Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is a story of a boy named Holden Caulfield who is attending a boys academy by the name of Pency Prep. Holden feels as though he has faced the world and lost, and that nobody or anything can bring him joy. If you were to describe Holden Caulfield in one word it would be innocence. Throughout the story Holden is trying to make people keep their innocence and for people who do not, Holden refers to them as phonies. This behavior has many downsides; one being that he never seems to see something to the very end. What Holden learns throughout the story is that no one can keep his or her innocence, and that it is necessary for us to fall as some point, but that we have control over how hard we fall.
The title itself is about Holden wanting to catch little kids from falling off a cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if theyre running and they dont look where theyre going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. Thats all Id do all day. Id just be the catcher in the rye and all. (Pg. 173) To him falling is when you loose your innocence, and when you loose your innocence you are a phony, but in order to move forward in life one must be a phony.
Jane Gallagher, although never actually appearing in the book, has a great influence on Holden sense of purity and innocence. Throughout the book, it is clear that he not only finds her very attractive, but that he also respects her. I think Holden reason for this is the fact that he remembers her as she once was, an innocent child. When Stradlater tells Holden that Jane Gallagher is his date, Holden gets excited to hear from her, but then quickly gets mad that she is going out with a punk like Stradlater. Holden then tells Stradlater a long story about how Jane and he used to play checkers all the time and how Jane used to keep all of her kings in the back row. Stradlater clearly could care less but Holden seems to constantly bring it up anyways because it signifies a time of happiness and innocence, something he clearly values. He gets so angry whenever he thinks of Jane with Stradlater. After Stradlater gets back from his date Holden tries to fight Stradlater because he is afraid that Jane could have lost the innocence she once had as a child.
As Holden continues on his mission, he comes across the Museum of Natural History. He talks about how he used to go there every Saturday with his teacher back in his younger years and quickly states that the one thing he loves about the museum is how it always stays the same The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobodyd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, Nobodyd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you." (Pg. 121) Although Holden believes that, he chooses subconsciously to remain outside because he is afraid that of the chance that the museum could have changed. Jane Gallagher had obviously changed since his childhood but Holden refused to believe that, so if the museum could change, then so could Jane as well. In Holden mind, he believes if the museum does not remain the same, it could hurt him, so he makes the decision not to enter.
As the story goes on Holden constantly drinks to escape the problems he has with his life. He tries to find things and people who might make him happy, but he cant anymore. No one is perfect, and you cant preserve innocence forever. Although knowing this, Holden tries dearly to preserve the childhood innocence in children just as he does Jane Image of keeping her kings in the back row, a memory of a time when he was happy. Phoebe was one of the only people he seemed to be happy around and he tried to protect her the whole time because to him she was as Jane and he once were, young, pure and innocent. Holden tried to preserve this memory through Phoebe, whether it was erasing the vulgar words on the school walls or yelling at her to stay when she tried to go away with him. As a result of this behavior, his life was miserable the whole time he tried.
Holden tries to protect himself as well. He constantly struggles to hold onto his sanity while trying to keep his innocence and not be phony. The truth is he is phony. This is symbolic to the way Jane kept her kings in the back row, as it represents a lack of change, something that Holden fears and tries to conquer but inevitably fails at throughout the story. Through the beginning of the book Holden pretended he wasnt a virgin, but admits he was when Sunny, the prostitute is coming over, If you want to know the truth, Im a virgin. I really am. (Pg. 92) He also lies all of the time, which he admits to doing frequently. Holden pretends to not be innocent; he tries to act tuff while knowing hes yellow. Holden was trying to lose his innocence through the whole story, but always fell back into his fear of change. Even when Sunny came over to sleep with him, he refused her.
The moment that Holden finally falls is when Phoebe is on the carousel and Holden wants to protect her but stops himself, "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"(Pg. 211) This is when Holden lets go of his dreams of being the catcher in the rye. He realizes that all children must fall, like he just did. Everyone falls no matter who is there to catch us. Holden now knows that he cant keep holding onto his old thoughts of what Jane used to be as a child, and that loosing our innocence is a sign of maturity. You cant stay young forever and in turn, realizing this is when he finds true happiness.
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