Catcher in the Rye and Children

In order to persevere the innocents of children can difficult and most of the time you just need to allow the children to grow up and face the real world. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield is always talking about young children and their innocents. In chapter 22 there is the theme of protecting the innocence of children. There are also many symbols in this chapter. The theme in chapter 22 was and throughout the novel was protecting the innocence of children. In the novel, Holden mentions to Phoebe that he would like to be a catcher in the rye. He goes on and on about how he would catch the kids who were about to fall off. He states What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff (173)When Holden says this it's him trying to say that he wants to protect the kids that are falling out of there youth and maturing or growing up. This quote shows how much Holden does not want children to grow up and lose the innocents and face the real world. He might feel this way because he believes that everyone around him is phony, he does not like that about people. So Holden does not want the children to grow up and be phony. Although in chapter 22 there was the theme of children losing their innocence there is also many symbols in this chapter. In this chapter, there are many symbols, for example, the kids represent the childhood they had. Another symbol is the cliff, the cliff stands for the fall of the kid's innocents. There is also the field of the rye that is the children's innocents so holden id trying to keep them in the field. Lastly, Holden is the attempt of not growing up and staying innocent, but also the way to avoid the real world and stay a kid.I mean if theyre running and they dont look where theyre going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them (173)The significance of this quote is that when the kids are out living life not knowing where life will take them Holden would be there to shelter them from seeing the real world and from becoming adults. This shows that Holden really cares about the way children see the world and he wants them to stay the way they are for as long as possible so they dont become phony. The themes and symbols in this chapter of The Catcher in the Rye both go back to protecting the innocence of children and sheltering them from becoming adults. In chapter 22 of The Catcher in the Rye, there is the repeated theme of protecting the innocence of children. Also in this chapter, there are many symbols that show protecting children or the innocents of children. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield is always talking about young children and their innocents. Throughout this novel, Holden's main points were always about the innocence that kids have and how people should shelter them from the harsh world. Holden believed that children aren't phony and had a type of vibe that they eventually grow out of and grow up and Holden did not like that.

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