The most powerful theme in this book has got to be the fear of growing up Holden portrays this in several instances in the book For example Holden is almost constantly calling several things phony These phony things are usually things he relates to adulthood Not only does Holden fear adulthood himself but he also wants to save others from becoming adults As he explains about his dream job we learn that Holdens only place in life is to catch people who fall from the rye A global issue is people