Catcher In The Rye Analysis Essay

The Dark Fall of Caulfield The song “Catcher” by the Swedish band Komeda refers to Holden’s fantasy. The lyrics include, “ Who will catch you when you fall? / Who will do it all? And/ There ain’t no catcher in the rye” (from the album Kokomedada, 2003). These are apt words because Holden’s dream job is to protect children from growing up and becoming phonies and perverts. In Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield's New York odyssey leads to his dark fall. The sixteen year-old protagonist Holden faces rejection by Old Luce, Stradlater, and the taxi driver Horwits throughout the Catcher in the Rye. Holden starts to realize that he is lonely and has no one and finally is feeling the rejection as he says “ Have just one more drink...please I’m lonesome as hell. No kidding” (149 Sallinger). Throughout the day no one has joined Holden for a drink which he is so desperate to have . Holden demonstrates that he is losing his sanity and that he is also losing the companions he has. As a matter of fact at the club Holden gets ignored by a girl“She wasn’t listening to me, even. Her mind was wandering all over the place”(71). The blond girl that Holden asks to dance ignores Holden while he is talking to her. Here even when dancing with someone Holden is being denied. In the same way Holden’s fencing team vetoes him.“The whole team ostracized me the whole way back on the train”(3).
The next are a handful of songs written about the catcher in the rye. Guns N’ Roses “Catcher in the Rye”, The Bloodhound Gang’s song “Magna***Nada”, the hiphop group Vinnie Pez & Jedi Mind Tricks, New Jersey Ska Band Streetlight Manifesto. I think that Holden’s character really attracts teenage readers and teenagers can relate to his personality. Holden curses just like many teenagers and thinks everyone is phony which is commonly the behavior teenagers