Analysis of the J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.
The rock slides beneath my feet and tumbles toward the edge treacherously, at last rolling over. I hear it hit the stony ground many seconds later. As the sound echoes I hear a cry from a child, a joyful cry, at the game they are playing. A young boy backs dangerously close to the edge. I rush forward and catch him and push him away from the cliff, away from danger. This is my job. I am the catcher in the rye. One of the children walks knowingly to the edge and sits with her feet dangling over; she would not allow me to catch her. She tells me that so much more exists for me, and that I must pursue it or I, the catcher, will fall. I see a child move toward the edge. I watch. If he falls, he falls. He falls. He catches himself, hanging there for many long minutes. I exchange a glance with the girl; she nods encouragingly in his direction. He climbs. I learn then that this sheltered life, though it protects the children, prevents them from growing, learning, and maturing. I am standing between them and their future, just as I am ignoring my own. My job cannot be to protect the innocent; they must overcome the obstacles and learn to protect themselves. She has caught me now; she has saved me from a fall of a horrible kind.
In Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Holden first invents the idea of taking the part of the “catcher in the rye” when his little sister accuses him of not liking anything, “not one thing” (Salinger 173). Holden blames his hesitation to answer on being unable to “concentrate too hot” (169). Through this conversation with his sister, Holden eventually abandons his desire to be the catcher in the rye, a protector of the innocent, when he realizes that a sheltered life inhibits the ability to learn and mature.
Holden's desire to preserve the innocence in children reflects even in how he treats the snow at school. He packs together a snowball, but “I didn't throw it at anything…. I started to throw it. At a car that was parked across the street. But I changed my mind. The car looked so nice and white. Then I started to throw it at a hydrant, but that looked too nice and white, too. Finally I didn't throw it at anything” (36). A snow-covered lawn always stands out as more beautiful smooth and untouched than when containing scattered footprints. Likewise, Holden decides to not throw the snowball at the car or the hydrant because he does not want to ruin the beauty of the smooth snow resting there. The “nice and white,” in this case, describes the snow as untouched, but could also symbolize the innocence, specifically of the relationship between Holden and Jane. Yet innocent, Jane “plays the same role as the car and hydrant; she is simply "too nice and white" in Holden's views, figuratively speaking, and this explains why he neither greets her at the dormitory nor speaks with her on the phone” (Takeuchi par 4). Like the smooth untouched snow, Holden must avoid all contact to save Jane's innocence.
Salinger uses the museum also to demonstrate how “not touching” saves, or protects. Holden acknowledges such about the museum when he says that “certain things should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone” (158). In order to preserve what lies in the museum, the guards ensure that no one touches them; the museum's artifacts should “stay the way they are” and be left alone.
While Holden stands watching his sister on the carousel, he thinks, “If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them” (211). This thought seems to contradict Holden's desire to be the catcher in the rye, but rather he “no longer clings to the same desperate scenarios that defined him as a participant in his story” (Takeuchi par 3). By releasing the dreams of being a catcher in the rye, Holden accepts life as it is and learns from it, instead of letting it pass by without truly taking part in it.
After Holden talks to his sister the night he returns home, he visits his old English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who tries to catch him by warning him of his fall: “it's a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling” (187). Antolini describes the fall as for men who “thought their environment couldn't supply them with [what they were looking for]. So they gave up looking” (187). Antolini knows this illustrates Holden and his view on the world, just as his sister claims he likes nothing and aspires for nothing in his future.
Antolini's warning takes some effect the following day as Holden walks along the street. He feels that he would “never get to the other side of the street,” that he would “go down, down, down, and nobody'd ever see me again” (197). Holden admits that the feeling frightens him, just as Antolini knew that such a “horrible” kind of fall would torment Holden. Holden confronts the dread by talking to Allie each time he crosses the street and fears not reaching the other side. Upon surviving, Holden thanks Allie, and the process repeats itself until the fear passes.
After Holden relates his future hopes to Phoebe, he hands her his hunting hat, signifying their exchange in the rolls of the catcher in the rye. It is Phoebe's turn to catch Holden, and only she actually succeeds, even over respected teachers, his parents, and his classmates.
Though Holden's desire to protect children by being a catcher in the rye, he also, as Phoebe and Antolini point out, does not care to make legitimate choices concerning his future. Eventually he realizes that children will not “grow up” if someone always protects them from possible harm. When Holden allows his sister to take a chance with “falling” in the scene of the carousel, he evidently has moved on from his childish desire and accepts the reality of learning in order to grow, making difficult decisions in order to grow.
Salinger applies “falling” to a great extent, and catching those who fall or potentially could fall. In his novel, “falling can be understood for Salinger to be an inherent quality of salvation (Takeuchi par 11). The freedom to fall yields maturity and understanding, even as Holden begins to understand that he must let the innocent risk reaching out and falling.
Works Cited
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1945.
Takeuchi, Yasuhiro. "The Burning Carousel and the Carnivalesque: Subversion and Transcendence at the Close of The Catcher in the Rye." Studies in the Novel. 34.3 (Fall 2002) 30 Mar. 2008. .
