Holden retorts back to Phoebe that he’d “‘be the catcher in the rye and all’” (191). Holden explains what he means in that, “‘ I keep picturing all these kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all…nobody’s [big] around… and I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff… 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 catch them’”(191). In this description Holden reveals that he would like to be the guardian over those children and he would like to be there to catch them if they go over the cliff. Of course this is symbolically saying that, he would like to be the one to protect children from the world and from ageing, two of which he has unfortunately got his fair share of. Because both the world and ageing intel that loss of innocence and adulteration of innocence is eminent, both ideas that Holden would like to protect from the young, and for himself. Thus, Holden would like to serve as that protector and catcher of all the children that fall into the ways of the world, and to show the right path to life, but it is tough for him to do that because he himself wants to stay innocent
Holden retorts back to Phoebe that he’d “‘be the catcher in the rye and all’” (191). Holden explains what he means in that, “‘ I keep picturing all these kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all…nobody’s [big] around… and I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff… 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 catch them’”(191). In this description Holden reveals that he would like to be the guardian over those children and he would like to be there to catch them if they go over the cliff. Of course this is symbolically saying that, he would like to be the one to protect children from the world and from ageing, two of which he has unfortunately got his fair share of. Because both the world and ageing intel that loss of innocence and adulteration of innocence is eminent, both ideas that Holden would like to protect from the young, and for himself. Thus, Holden would like to serve as that protector and catcher of all the children that fall into the ways of the world, and to show the right path to life, but it is tough for him to do that because he himself wants to stay innocent