Holden Caulfield was (believe it or not) an average teenager in an adult world with many conflicting ideas and thoughts. He was trying to establish his own personality, and was searching for secure values. Yet, he found nearly everyone and everything to be "phoney". He observed that the principal shook hands with rich parents while discarding the poorer and that most people were hypocrites. It was these (plus many more "phoney) elements that Holden did not want the kids to see - kids like Phoebe. He was protecting them against the adult and materialistic world and was 'catching' them before they fell. He had already seen too many 'falls' and in fact it was these people who 'fell' who fell into the category of non-phoniness. This was probably because Holden's memories of them remained pure

At the same time, Holden's want to be the 'catcher' also shows his immaturity. The fact that he believed he could change the world, the way people behaved, and that he could stop all the phoniess in the world. He attempted to rub out a 'f*** you' sign outside of Phoebe's school. He was successful. He completely removed all the traces of the two words and he was quite satisfied that did so. But it only late that he came to realisation that could not alter everything. He later found another "f*** you' sign. This time, scratched with a rock. He found himself hopeless. Holden tried as hard as he could to remove the sign but he started thinking. He thought that there would be a million signs just like that one in the world. There was no way he could rub out all of them At this point, he was helpless. The more the thought about it, the more he realised how impotent he was in the world. He could not be the 'catcher in the rye'.

. Many people fell. James Castle 'fell' out of the window and Allie 'fell' to death. He thought that these innocent people had gone. They had been eaten by the phoniness and that they didn't have a 'catcher' to protect them from harm. Holden wanted to prevent any more of this happening by being the 'catcher' himself.

But being the 'catcher' it distanced himself from many characters in the book. He stayed away from everyone who he thought was phony, hypocritical, or

Some common words found in the essay are:
Robert Ackley, Holden Caulfield, Phoebe Holden, James Castle, Burns Holden, Catcher Rye, adult world, , Rye Bibliography, you' sign, catcher rye,
Approximate Word count = 940
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)