Catcher in the rye 2
Catcher in the rye 2In The Catcher In The Rye Salinger portrays the main character Holden Caulfield as a protector of innocence which is shown through his protection of children, giving up his own innocence to help others, and his disgust of the graffiti on the walls. Holden is a very strong minded individual and is very open about the way he feels about things. Although it does not seem that he is the "protector of innocence" at first, as the story progresses he begins to shed more of his own innocence to affect those around him.
The main way Holden wants to be a protector is to keep children from growing up and becoming phony and corrupt as he feels most adults become. Some would believe that Holden has become obsessed with his sister even if he just wants to protect her. Holden does not want her to change. Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that's impossible but it's too bad anyway. Anyway, I kept thinking about all that while I walked.
Holden's sister, Phoebe, is his connection to children. Holden believes all children are like her and that they are much more superior than adults. When an adult does something that is somewhat abnormal, Holden finds this a disgusting show of what people become as they get older Holden would like to keep Phoebe a child because he is troubled by the differences he sees between children and adults, both in their physical appearances and in their personalities. Holden finds children physically acceptable under any condition, but not adults. Holden then has a dream to become a "catcher" and save all the children who may fall. Holden's wish to become this catcher begins to propel him through his novel and in the end gives him a purpose to even continue living. Since the beginning of the novel Holden never really expresses any liking for anything in the world except his sister. When he begins to think about his sister and all of the things she is going through he begins to feel a purpose and. To a person who never felt like his life had any direction and gave him something to focus on. Holden expresses his wish of becoming a catcher in a quiet speech to himself:
I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and 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 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...
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