CATCHER IN THE RYE
"Before One Can Save Others, They Must Save Themselves First" The story of "the catcher in the rye" is a metaphor for death. The catcher in this story saves children from falling off the cliff and dying. In J.D. Salinger's novel titled The Catcher in the Rye, Holden who is the main character, wants to be a "catcher in the rye" so that he can prevent his sister and other innocent children from falling off the hypothetical cliff. In the novel, this falling from a cliff represents a child's fall from innocence; and where they land is where they will be as an adult. Holden himself fears adulthood because he fears having to come face to face with real problems which occur when one takes the leap from childhood to adulthood. These fears drive him to attempt to save his sister and all children from falling from innocence into adulthood. In this novel, we see Holden using his own experiences to protect children from adulthood and we see others trying to protect Holden from experiencing a great fall himself. Holden has a dream of becoming a catcher in a ry
Antolini's apartment, he leaves himself helpless because he can not follow his dream of being a catcher in the rye because he is going to have a great fall himself and he can not be saved from his great fall because he left his catcher in the rye behind. Antolini, Holden learns that he can not save other children until he saves himself. In reality, if one falls off a cliff, they will die; yet in Holden's world a loss of innocence and death are related. Through answering his sister's question about what he wants to do with his life, Holden expresses that he wants to be a catcher in the rye, and save children from falling from innocence; but through his conversation with Mr. Holden can not understand that because he feels that he is supposed to be the catcher in the rye watching out for children, not the child being watched after. Holden fears a fall from innocence because he fears having to deal with problems. Antolini tells Holden that he will experience a dramatic fall of his own. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. (Salinger, 173)" When he says this, he is explaining to Phoebe what he wants to do with his life. He tries to save children from falling from innocence yet at the same time he can not save himself from falling. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they are running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. This fear drives Holden to want to save all children from falling from innocence. Antolini pets Holden in a fatherly manner; this wakes Holden up and makes him think that Mr. He does not want children to be exposed to the adult world because it is complicated and consists of real problems.
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