Comin Thro The Rye Poem

The poem “Comin Thro the Rye,” by Robert Burns was originally a scout song for children. Throughout the book, The Catcher in The Rye, Holden misinterpreted this poem. Instead of reading the poem the right way, “Comin Thro the Rye,” he read it as “Catcher in the Rye.” This poem symbolizes Holden’s misconstrued desires. Holden has experienced the dark and wicked aspects of the adult world and has caught a glimpse of what happens when you lose your innocence. He is longing to preserve the innocence of childhood. Holden decides to be the ‘catcher in the rye’ because he wants to detain children from falling off the cliff and letting them wander around in adolescent, which is represented by ‘rye.’ By preserving their innocence, the children will

His experiences in relation to this, have caused him to want to be the ‘catcher in the rye.’ Him yearning to prevent children from losing their innocence and roaming in adolescent is seen on many occasions throughout the book. To Holden, the adult world is filled with challenges and experiences that causes pain, he doesn’t want children going through that. While Holden is at Phoebe’s elementary school; he sees something unpleasant that really bothers him and says, “Somebody’d written ‘f*ck you’ on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it,” (Salinger 201). Holden was angered at the fact that his little sister and other children would see this inappropriate phrase. So he attempted to rub it off so the kids wouldn’t see, “...I rubbed it out anyway,” (Salinger 201). That phrase is something commonly used by adolescent and it represents anything but innocence. Holden trying to rub it off so the kids won’t see it is him trying to be a ‘catcher in the rye,’ He doesn’t want them losing their innocence by being exposed to this word and possibly using

The things he dealt with and the frightened changes of the adult world, he doesn’t want children going through that. His experiences with death deeply affected him and it was difficult for him to overcome. Holden wants to save children from dealing with that pain, when Holden was in Elkton Hills, he experienced the horrific death of one of his classmates, James Castle. Holden remembers the scene saying, “...so i put on my bathrobe and I ran downstairs too, and there was old James Castle laying right on the stone steps and all,” (Salinger 170). The death of James Castle really weighed on Holden and while he died, he was wearing Holden’s turtleneck. The pain Holden felt from his death is something he wants to prevent kids from feeling. He wants to hinder children from growing up to experiences hurt like that, hence the ‘catcher in the rye.’ It’s his way of catching bodies coming through the