Catcher In The Rye Persuasive Essay

The biggest battle humans will ever fight in life is with themselves. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, a 17 year old boy named Holden finds himself within this battle to become something that he is not. He mentions throughout the novel about his hope to be a catcher in the rye. “In the passage that gives the book its title, Holden explains that he cannot imagine himself fitting into any of the roles that society expects him to perform, like growing up to be a lawyer or scientist. Instead, he can only imagine being a catcher in the rye who stands at the edge of a large rye field watching over and protecting little kids from danger” (The Catcher). This is a metaphor that shows how Holden wants to be a protector of the innocent that when these children fall from the cliff, he will be the one to “catch them”. In this novel, the idea of catching is portrayed through Holden as he is

someone who avoids the innocent, which leaves the innocent so that they will not follow in his footsteps. This can be seen in many different ways throughout Salinger’s book including interactions between Holden and other characters as well as other events that portray how Holden proves himself to be a catcher in the rye. Throughout the novel The Catcher in the Rye, many of Holden's thoughts and decisions show how he is learning to be (and in some ways already is) a catcher in the rye.
First off, Holden shows that he has qualities of being a catcher in the rye is when Holden is a scene in which he is outside and it had recently snowed.

During this scene, Holden had made a snowball and was trying to decide what he wanted to throw it at. “The snow was very good for packing. I didn't throw it at anything, though. I started to throw it. At a car that was parked across the street. But I changed my mind. The car looked so nice and white. Then I started to throw it at a hydrant, but that looked too nice and white, too. Finally I didn't throw it at anything” (Salinger 47). When he decides that he won’t throw it because he doesn’t want to ruin the beauty of the snow it shows the idea of Holden being a catcher in the rye. Instead of throwing the snowball and ruining the pure look of the snow on the car and the fire hydrant, he decides to leave it alone, demonstrating how his restraint from intervening can in a way, be protecting the innocent. This is one of the major events in the novel that shows that Holden can be seen and thought of as a catcher in the

rye.
One of the major ways in the novel that shows Holden becoming a catcher in the rye is in his relationship with Jane, a friend that he met one summer and hung out with a lot as they were neighbors. Jane is represented as one of the innocent within Holden’s story and he is repeatedly given the chance to try to come in contact with her, but he never ends up talking or meeting her throughout the plot. While Holden does show his desire and respect for Jane, he still leaves her alone, following the idea of him being a “catcher” by avoiding the innocent to leave them pure. “As an innocent, Jane plays the same role as the car and hydrant; she is simply "too nice and white" in Holden's view, figuratively speaking, and this explains why he neither greets her at the dormitory nor speaks with her on the phone. Holden must avoid all contact... to preserve Jane's innocence intact.” (Takeuchi). This shows how Holden made sure to stay away from people as an act of saving them, helping to support the idea that Holden is a true catcher in the rye. Holden’s choices about Jane throughout the novel help Holden to develop more into the person he wishes to be.
One of the last major ideas portrayed in the book that shows that Holden’s character is developing into a catcher in the rye is when Holden visits the Museum of Natural History. This was a place that Holden had gone before when he was younger and remembered how the guards in the museum would politely tell children who were visiting not to touch the displays. "Another thing, if you touched one of the paddles or anything while you were passing, one of the guards would say to you, 'Don't touch anything, children' but he always said it in a nice voice, not like a goddam cop or anything” (Salinger 157). This observation by Holden supports the theory of a catcher in the rye being a person who does not interfere but rather leaves others alone for the sake of purity. "The museum, furthermore, is ‘full of glass cases’ that also protect by means of preventing touching, thereby enabling everything always to stay right where it was" (Takeuchi). If children were to touch the objects in the museum, they could be broken or damaged which reflects into the idea that when innocent people come into contact with people or things that are impure, it could change the purity of them. This strengthens the theory of Holden being a catcher in the rye as he makes decisions to not interfere with the pure, leaving them to stay as they are. Overall, the memories that Holden recalls about the museum helps support the idea that he is a catcher in the rye.
It can be seen that Holden has the qualities of a catcher in the rye in many different events and interactions he has throughout the book. “As ‘catching’--the act of saving--entails the paradoxical imperative of not catching, falling can be understood for Salinger to be an inherent quality of salvation” (Takeuchi). Therefore, by Holden not getting involved in the lives of others, he is saving them. While Holden may not view himself as the catcher in the rye that he aspires to be, the reader can find a lot of evidence throughout the novel that support the fact that he has learned how to become a catcher. In conclusion, it seems that Holden has successfully become the person who he wants to be and even though he may not notice, he has won the battle within himself.