The Symbolism Of The Catcher In The Rye

Holden’s dream career of being the catcher in the rye, is symbolic. He says to phoebe that his job would be to catch the kids from falling off the cliff near the rye field where the kids are playing. The kids playing in the field symbolizes childhood and the field is symbolizing innocence. The cliff is symbolizing the idea of falling from the innocence, growing up. Holden is consistently troubled by aging throughout the book. He is frightened by change and has a difficult time understanding its complexity. Instead of acknowledging his fears of adulthood, he ignores them and over idolizes childhood. He creates this black and white world where childhood is innocence, curiosity, honesty, and the adult world is full of phoniness. The concept of the catcher in the rye is really where Holden reveals his thoughts on this. He wishes to save the kids from falling from the cliff, to

There is also an element of irony as the whole concept came from Holden mishearing the lyrics. He thought the line was “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye,” but the actual lyric is “If a body meet a body, coming through the rye.” The song asks if it is wrong for two people to have a romantic encounter out in the rye fields, invisible from the public eyes. It is ironic that the actual lyric “meet” refers to a sexual relationship between two people. Holden substitutes “catch” taking the complete opposite meaning. Holden aspires to catch children before they fall into adulthood, including the knowledge of such intimate relations.

There is an element of charm in the idea of saving kids from aging, kids will forever be kids. They won’t have the trouble of adulthood, the stress of a job, the worries of having a family. They