In JD Salingers' Catcher in the Rye, a troubled teenager named Holden Caufield struggles with the fact that everyone has to grow up. Holden has a fixation on childhood, which shows itself in many forms. The idea of protect innocence of Holden Caulfield has been clearly shown throughout the book – The Catcher in the Rye by Holden's misinterpretation of the song, his glorification of children, inordinate admiration of Phoebe, idealization of his dead younger brother Allie.
             While walking through the busy streets of New York, Holden notices a lighthearted little boy who is walking and humming, "If a body catch a body coming through the rye"(Salinger 43). Holden finds it humorous that a little child can hum so nonchalantly as the cars on the busy streets honk at him. Despite the fast-moving cars, which represent the average phonies in the world, the child pays no attention to them. When Holden sees that the little boy will not allow himself to be pulled into the average crowd of people, he realizes that not everyone wishes to fall from their simple childhood into adulthood. From Holden's encounter with this little boy, he wants to become the "catcher in the rye." He says to Phoebe,
             I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around-nobody big, I mean – except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. (Salinger 173)
             By saying that he wants to catch all the children that are running and not looking where they're going, Holden is saying that he wants to save all the little children from the fake behavior of the adults in the world. He wants to prevent the childr...