Preservation of Innocence In The Catcher in the Rye Essay Sample

The dominating theme of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is protection of innocence, especially of children. Holden, the protagonist, continuously demonstrates that this is his primary virtue. He has yet to recover from having his own childhood stripped from him when his younger brother died. Holden can't see a way to regain that innocence but instead he makes it clear that he wants to save other children, as he does not want to grow up and advance fully into the world of adulthood. When his pre adolescent sister asks him to identify one thing he’d like to be when he is older, he begins to illustrate a field of rye full of children playing and expresses:

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 catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.(93)

The power of Holden’s guilt is immense due to the fact that he failed to save Allie and is failing to save himself. This attachment of being the catcher is unrealistic. The sad and straightforward truth is that its impossible to stop the natural progress of maturing. 

Given that he demonstrates instability throughout the whole novel we still see that he has this one set goal, to be the catcher in the rye. He refers to items but they have a further meaning to them. The symbolism behind each item and or person is significant to him and the novel itself,  illustrating Holden’s isolation from the adult world. Allie’s baseball mitt shows us that Holden holds himself accountable for the death of Allie. His little brother only at the age of 11 died of leukemia. As observed we see that Allie’s death could've been the trigger to Holden’s behavior especially because he still has a very special place in Holden's heart. He truly was someone who he deeply cares about and we see that when Holden first introduces him within the beginning pages. 

He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in their class. And they weren't just shooting the crap. They really meant it. But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody. People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily, but Allie never did, and he had very red hair.(21)

The mitt symbolizes the innocence that Holden yearns for as Allie’s purity is reflected within that mitt. It's an item that he holds on to very dearly as his memories of Allie are his bright red hair to the poems written all over the mitt. Since Allie died when he was young, he was still innocent and not in the phony world as Holden calls it. Holden has put him on a pedestal and his desire to protect others and to cling to the past is based on idealing Allie.

Holden’s goal to fulfill that position of the catcher in the rye is foreshadowed by the moments when he expresses his appreciation for things that don't change. When we are introduced to his love for the museum we see the correlation and why he admires it, “the inside of that auditorium had such a nice smell. It always smelled like it was raining outside, even if it wasn't, and you were in the only nice, dry, cosy place in the world. I loved that damn museum.”(65) He speaks about it with such admiration that it's almost questionable. His next reflections help us understand why that is :

The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody'd be different. (65)

He very specifically describes that his favorite part of the museum is the fact that everything stays the same, as we see this recurring theme. But if we use common knowledge we know that everything in museums are typically in glass cases in order to preserve the masterpiece. He wants to keep children from growing up and wants to preserve their innocence like the artist wants to conserve the art work so others visiting the museum will not destroy it.  

Protecting his sister Phoebe is another main reason Holden wants to be the catcher. He had a chance to actually fulfill that position as he goes to Phoebe school and  encounters upsetting graffiti on the walls. He is very disappointed and almost angry with whoever wrote that profanity. 

But while I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written "Fuck you" on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them--all cockeyed, naturally--what it meant, and how they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever's written it. (108)

We truly see that he is upset about this and actually goes on to fix it by trying to erase it. But as tries to erase we encounter one of the few moments where Holden is coming to the realization where he sees that the task is too big to take on the way it should be.   

I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another "Fuck you" on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn't come off. It's hopeless, anyway. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the "Fuck you" signs in the world. It's impossible.

Holden is discontented as this only proves that the innocent world of children has already been corrupted by the profanities of the adult world. In addition, profanity in such places like an elementary school distresses him because he associates it with Phoebe, little kids, and innocence. Thus, their innocence is tainted by these profanity words on the walls. 

We soon come back and recollect Holden as a whole. Holden’s actions toward the beginning of the novel is due to his brother's death. Now we analyze that his behaviors towards the end of the book reflect on his little sister Phoebe. Phoebe is Holden's little sister, despite being 10 years of age she hears her brother out and understands him. She is someone who is very dear to him and also happens to be a young child with her innocence persevered. Although Holden’s narrative is to protect his little sister the most, Phoebe only complicates this. Instead of symphazting and comforting her brother she gets angry with him and tells him, “You don’t like anything that’s happening.” (91)

She certainly isn't wrong but as a result of this Holden starts to realize that she is beginning to mature which is something he doesn't like in the slightest, he thinks it's terrible even. There truly is anything he could do though, but he already starts to encounter it, he recogines it with the “fuck yous’ and he see it again when having the conversation with her. It's until they go to the carousel where we encounter one the biggest moments, Holden starting to become distant to his own narrative.

All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab 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.(114)

He can't stop the phonies. He can’t erase every fuck you written. He can't keep it in a glass case. He simply can not be the catcher at the edge of a cliff. Not even a red hunting hat can protect Holden. But we already knew this from the beginning. Could he have possibly acknowledged this and simply was in denial the whole time, there is a chance even if it is a slight one. One thing is for certain though, preserving innocent children from the brutal and corrupt world can never be done. Not by Holden or anyone. But maybe with a semi positive mind set like his we can come to realize that Holden is not a bad person nor has bad intentions, because wouldn't it be nice to be young and innocent before all the problems rise up and life itself starts to complicate?