The Title Of Catcher and The Rye

I thought the title of this book was really random to me because it had nothing to do with a catcher or rye? Once I started reading it, it still really did not make any sense at all because this book was about him getting with girls and calling them up when he was bored because he is weird. It all began to make since when I got to the part in the book when Phoebe, Holden's younger sister, ends up asks Holden what he was planning on doing the rest of his life and where he wanted to go in the future. He surprisingly answers her and says that he would like to be spending his time up on a mountain in a rye field watching all of the children playing with each other (Salinger 112). I think that Holden wants to be involved with people like him on a mountain with his sister. He also says that while they are playing and having fun if one of them starts to slip and fall over the edge, he wants to save her and wants to be the one to catch them. He wants the gratitude of saving her and being the hero.

This is where the title the catcher in the rye came from. Even though this very troubled kid that does a lot of things that are not what an average kid would do, he still has dreams and he still wishes about what he would like or what he wants like a lot of kids do. He still has dreams like everyone else. This also shows you that he is internally a really nice and loving boy because this dream of his is really nice and caring about his sister and the girl that would supposedly slip and she would be saved by Holden. Inside every kid there is that little kid caring and naive sense that would help anyone if they were in trouble. Holden truly cares about people and he just wants to do something good for once in his life and I think that is why he dreams this and is what he wants to do when he is older. I think this also shows everyone has some good in them.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. Print