Catcher In The Rye Holden Caulfield Comparison

In The Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger utilizes flashback and allusion to Robert Burns’ poem “Comin’ Thro The Rye” to illustrate Holden’s dream of preserving the innocence of children, “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules”. Holden’s love for the innocence of childhood makes him very hesitant in the transition of being an adult. Usually, Holden finds children to be straightforward and easy going. This is because they always say what they mean, and never try to sugarcoat anything just to try and fit into society. He uses his younger sister Phoebe as an example of this innocence when he says, “I mean if you tell old Phoebe something, she knows exactly what the hell you’re talking about. I mean you can even take her anywhere with

Holden’s description of his sister represents her as a child who is always willing to speak her mind and not say certain things just to fit in with everyone else. He feels this way about most children in general, not just his sister Phoebe. He loves all of the personalities of an average child and is not willing to give all of that up just to become an adult. Holden though thinks he can find relief by saving the innocence of others, especially children. When Holden talks about children and fearing them of becoming adults, he says that "I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff…. I just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy but that's the only thing I'd really like to be" (Salinger 173). It seems like the only thing he wants to do right now is to save children from taking a terrible fall into an abyss known as adulthood. Holden would try to keep Phoebe as clean as possible on anything inappropriate that could affect her. One example is when Holden saw swearing words on walls at Phoebe’s elementary school, he tried to erase them out of disbelief, “I saw something that drove me