... yelling at Phoebe so that she did not come "out west" (Salinger 200) with him and grow up prematurely. The motif of "the catcher in the rye" follows Holden on his quest, showing the reader his understanding of his own innocence and the protection of others innocence. This motif and the first explanation of Holden's relationship with innocence is introduced by a small boy singing a song about a body ... ; children from falling off a metaphorical cliff into the corruption of adulthood. At the conclusion of the novel, Holden realizes the true nature of innocence while watching Phoebe reach ...

• Word Count: 987
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... 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. That's all I did all day. I'd 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. Holden wants to stop children from falling ... into losing their innocence and becoming an adult, and he takes pleasure in the attempted thwarting of maturation. In the beginning of Catcher in the Rye, his initial character is one of a child. Throughout the book, he tak...

• Word Count: 1291
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... as he matures, he finally accepts the fact that everything is constantly changing and that is something that cannot be controlled. For instance, throughout the story, Holden wanted to embody the role of the saviour, the Catcher in the Rye who saved children when they lost their innocence and entered the adult world. He wanted to preserve their childhood and shield them from the trauma and evil the adult world brings. That is why with ... this ideology he himself embodied the limbo between childhood and adulthood. He also had a fascination with things ... ...

• Word Count: 1504
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography

... for love, beautiful love, to be swept away forever, love that defies all disappointments that fill every day of our lives. J.D. Salinger strongly and sharply reveals all these truths and more in his book, "The Catcher In The Rye", some of which we are going to discuss and draw our own conclusion from. " Holden is giving up his dream of escape, compromising with life: accepting less than ... the finely-hones standards he had set himself, and joining the rest of society. He betrays himself- Keast remarks in her 1987 review "Structure of the Catcher In The Rye". Although not all of us feel...

• Word Count: 1125
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... of other children protected. If he cannot protect himself he will protect the others. Both the "catcher" and the "deaf-mute" are there for a single desire: a wish to escape from an adult world in which he feels hat he can not belong. He seems himself as "the catcher in the rye", the only adult in a world of children: Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some 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 ... ...

• Word Count: 1843
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School