Catcher In The Rye Theme Essay

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Think about if we never had to grow up, would we have a better life if we could stay young forever? A main theme of the catcher in the rye is the fear of growing up, you can see this through the structure of the book itself, the characterization of Holden, and the dream that he has for himself.
The Catcher in the Rye has the structure of a reverse coming of age story, where Holden is venturing around New York because he isn't ready to return home. After Holden was notified that he was being expelled for Pency, a private boarding school he attended, he decided that he couldn't go home just yet, so he was going to hang around New York for a few day to let his parents digest the situation. “I mean not wait until Wednesday or anything. I just …show more content…
No plans for the future, which is one of the many causes of him flunking out of school. When asked what he would like to be, all he wants, is to be the catcher in the rye. “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.” (Salinger, 173) This portion Symbolizes Holden want to save the children from growing up. Although his dream is to literally save the children from falling off a cliff, he wants to shield them from from corruptions of society. This dream came through Holden's misinterpretations of a poem. “ “You know what I’d like to be? I mean if i had my goddam choice?” “What? Stop swearing” “ You know that song ‘if a body catch a body comin’ through the rye’? I’d like-” “it’s ‘if a body meet a body coming through the rye’!” Old Phoebe said. “ it’s a poem. By Robert Burns” “( Salinger, 173) This further shows how naive Holden is, having this dream being based on a poem that he doesn't fully understand. If he would have had the correct context of the poem he would understand that the author intended a very different interpretation of his
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