Holden Caulfield Symbolism

The Glass Case In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, the author, J.D. Salinger, takes the reader through Holden Caulfield’s struggles with adolescence as he makes his way through New York City in the 1940’s. Salinger shows how Holden attempts to go on an unrealistic quest to save children from a sudden loss of innocence. Holden’s wake-up call comes in the form of his little sister, Phoebe, who unintentionally illustrates to her big brother that reaching for the gold ring isn’t always a scary thing, but a part of life that everyone must go through. The author uses symbolism to create Holden’s idea of becoming “The Catcher in the Rye,” a way of preventing others from the abrupt loss of innocence. Holden’s idea is challenged by his interactions,
Phoebe is the youngest figure in his life and is at the age where she is between a child and adolescent. When Holden feels Phoebe’s innocence is threatened, he gets defensive and angry. As he walked the halls of Phoebe’s school he comes across profanity written on the wall and automatically thinks “how Phoebe and all the other little kids who would see it, and how they’d wonder what it meant, and finally some dirty kid would tell them and maybe even worry about it” (201). This upsets him because profanity is a gateway to loosing innocence completely. Phoebe created the whole gist of becoming a hero figure of The Catcher in the Rye. He kept “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. What I’d have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (173). Holden’s altruistic ideal is now proposed in words that he wants to keep children from falling off the edge, and becoming a grownup which to him is the same as death. Holden than gives Phoebe his red hunting hat as a way to never truly lose her innocence. Only to be disappointed to see her “take off my red hunting hat-the one I gave her- and practically chucked it right in my face” (207). Salinger delibritly put this in the book to show that everyone must lose their innocence at one time or another and cannot be avoided but only postponed. “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them” (211). This challenged the thoughts of Holden’s ideal of being The Catcher in the Rye. Throughout the book he constantly believes he can save others, and watching Phoebe reach for something that she might fall off of scared him, but not enough for him to go save her. He found