Phoebe Caulfield Catcher
May 7 2012
Phoebe Caulfield : The True Catcher in the Rye
Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye reveals a teenager’s dramatic struggle against death and growing up. The book is composed of stories after the protagonist Holden Caulfield’s expulsion from a private school. He leaves school early to explore New York before returning home, interacting with teachers, prostitutes, nuns, an ex-girlfriend and his sister along the way. We characterize Holden as an innocent child that possesses an ideal fantasy of becoming a catcher in the rye, protecting an unsophisticated world of love, passion and justice. It seems Holden, a “guardian” towards childhood and innocence is the hero or “catcher” without any questions. Throughout the entire book, however, …show more content…
“Nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me” clearly reveals this statement. People are not where they are suppose to be, at least not paying attention. There is a gnawing scene in the book – Holden is wandering aimlessly along the Broadway and there is a little boy and his parents walking in front of him. ”The cars zoomed by, brakes and screeched all over the place, his parents paid no attention to him and he kept on walking next to the curb and singing ‘if a body catch a body coming through the rye’”(Salinger 115). At the end of the story, when Holden takes his sister to carrousel, worrying Phoebe falling off the horse, Caulfield watched her carefully as a catcher. Suddenly the rain pours, and “all the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel , so they wouldn’t get soaked to the skin or anything”(Salinger 212). All these description are epitomes of the world in which adults abandoned their responsibility of taking care of the children. As a 16-year-old child, Holden experienced expulsion three times. He lies, makes fun of Ackley and pretends to be outsider from the world around him only to conceal the fact that he is fragile. He doesn’t receive any warm cares or even any attempts to understand his willings from the adults. Holden’s Lawyer father always wants him to go to Yale or Princeton and cares nothing else; His mother messed up with his gifts – Holden wanted a speed skating but received a figure skating instead. Even coming home Holden has to hide in the closet to void his parents getting home from a party and stealthily sneak out before being noticed. Clearly, Holden no longer trust his parents, who don’t play the role as catchers to their children
Phoebe Caulfield : The True Catcher in the Rye
Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye reveals a teenager’s dramatic struggle against death and growing up. The book is composed of stories after the protagonist Holden Caulfield’s expulsion from a private school. He leaves school early to explore New York before returning home, interacting with teachers, prostitutes, nuns, an ex-girlfriend and his sister along the way. We characterize Holden as an innocent child that possesses an ideal fantasy of becoming a catcher in the rye, protecting an unsophisticated world of love, passion and justice. It seems Holden, a “guardian” towards childhood and innocence is the hero or “catcher” without any questions. Throughout the entire book, however, …show more content…
“Nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me” clearly reveals this statement. People are not where they are suppose to be, at least not paying attention. There is a gnawing scene in the book – Holden is wandering aimlessly along the Broadway and there is a little boy and his parents walking in front of him. ”The cars zoomed by, brakes and screeched all over the place, his parents paid no attention to him and he kept on walking next to the curb and singing ‘if a body catch a body coming through the rye’”(Salinger 115). At the end of the story, when Holden takes his sister to carrousel, worrying Phoebe falling off the horse, Caulfield watched her carefully as a catcher. Suddenly the rain pours, and “all the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel , so they wouldn’t get soaked to the skin or anything”(Salinger 212). All these description are epitomes of the world in which adults abandoned their responsibility of taking care of the children. As a 16-year-old child, Holden experienced expulsion three times. He lies, makes fun of Ackley and pretends to be outsider from the world around him only to conceal the fact that he is fragile. He doesn’t receive any warm cares or even any attempts to understand his willings from the adults. Holden’s Lawyer father always wants him to go to Yale or Princeton and cares nothing else; His mother messed up with his gifts – Holden wanted a speed skating but received a figure skating instead. Even coming home Holden has to hide in the closet to void his parents getting home from a party and stealthily sneak out before being noticed. Clearly, Holden no longer trust his parents, who don’t play the role as catchers to their children