The Catcher in the Rye

A detailed Summary of The Catcher in the Rye


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 s


ome 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)

"While I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written 'Fuck you' on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them- all cockeyed, naturally- what it meant, and how they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever'd written it. I figured it was some perverty bum that'd sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something and then wrote it on the wall. I kept picturing myself catching him at it, and how I'd smash his head on the stone steps till hew as good and goddam dead and bloody." (Salinger 201)

"'You take adults, they always look lousy when they're asleep with their mouths open, but kids don't... They look all right.'

Some common words found in the essay are:
York Holden, Stradlater Holden, Holden's Allie, Allie Holden's, Rye Holden's, Holden Caufield, Catcher Rye, Holden Caulfield, catcher rye, little kids, little boy, dead allie, grow holden, elementary school, throughout book, busy streets, gin body,

Approximate Word count = 850
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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