If a Body Catch a Body – Catcher in the Rye
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Everyone goes through a stage, most of the time in his or her late teens and early twenties, where they start questioning life and death, growing old, and what the point of it all is. Some question more than others, but I think everyone ponders over it at least once. I also think that everyone, when they get to be nearing the end of their high school career, or their college career, gets scared of growing up, becoming an adult, losing their innocence, and later dying, whether theyre willing to admit their fear or not. This is why so many people can relate somewhat to the novel Catcher in the Rye, because the narrator, although his feelings are somewhat extreme, is going through this stage in his life. Throughout the entire novel, Holden Caulfield has an underlying fear of death and losing innocence, and there are many signs to show this.
The most obvious sign that Holden is afraid of adulthood and death is in the title of the book itself. Its taken from a poem by Robert Burns called “Comin Thro The Rye.” Part of the poem goes,
“Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?” (lines 9-12).
At one point in the novel, Caulfield hears a young boy singing this song while walking on the edge of the curb, taking care to walk in a perfectly straight line while following his parents, who arent paying any attention to him. It makes him happy because this child is the picture of innocence. He isnt aware what he is singing about, hes just singing for singings sake (Salinger 121; ch. 16). The song gets stuck in Caulfields head, and later, when he sneaks into his sisters room, he tells her about it. He has it in his head that the first line goes, “If a body catch a body,” which she corrects him on.
“I thought it was if a body catch a body,” I said. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobodys around–nobody big, I mean–except me. And Im standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff–I mean if theyre running and they dont look where theyre going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. Thats all I do all day. Id just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know its crazy, but thats the only thing Id really like to be. I know its crazy.” (Salinger 179; ch. 22)
First of all, there are only children in the rye field, excluding Holden. Theyre playing a game, the picture of innocence, but theyre close to a cliff. The rye field symbolizes childhood, innocence and purity, but the cliff represents adulthood, and in Holdens mind, phoniness, and the bottom of the cliff represents death. Holdens placement could be a symbol of something as well. Hes on the edge of the cliff, which could symbolize the fact that hes close to adulthood, but not there yet, because he is unwilling to mature and lose his innocence. Holden wants to save the children from going into adulthood, because he sees adulthood as something that people should be saved from–something bad, or frightening.
Holden has many attributes other than his name that show that he could be scared of growing up. One, for instance, is the fact that he is still a virgin, and toys with the idea of sex, because its natural for a boy of his age, but at the same time he can never do it. Even when he gets the chance, he usually doesnt even try, for example, when he asked for a prostitute to come up to his room. Once the girl, Sunny, came up, he lied to her about just having undergone an operation, and that he wouldnt be able to (Salinger 101; ch. 13). Virginity symbolizes innocence in the utmost way possible, and part of the reason why people are emotional about losing their virginity is because theyre losing their innocence.
Also, Holden gets depressed whenever he comes across “fuck you,” scribbled onto a wall. Not only does it sadden him to see the words, but see where the words are written. Both times he encounters the words, hes in someplace that reminds him of his childhood, the museum and his old school, now his sisters. Its also interesting that he seems to think some adult came into the school to write that on the wall, when it was most likely one of the students. Holden has an idealistic view of children of purity and innocence, and he can only imagine an adult writing profanity on the wall. The vandalism affects him the way it does because hes worried about whatever child stumbles upon it. Hes concerned that their innocence will be tainted by seeing the profanity.
Another attribute is his disdain of “phonies,” which is just about every single adult. Theres only a couple of adults that he doesnt have something bad to say about, one being his brother, Allie, and another being a boy that