Catcher In The Rye Holden's Journey

Everybody has a moment some point in their life where they feel as if they can not struggle any more. We see this in detail in The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. Holden Caulfield, the main character, is a sixteen year old teenager who has not had the easiest life. The novel focuses on Holden’s journey from getting kicked out of private school in pennsylvania to having a wild weekend in New York City hiding from his parents, told from his room in a mental hospital near hollywood. Although it is told over the course of a couple of days, Holden is sub consciously fighting to keep his life from spiraling out of control. Towards the end of the novel, Holden is in his little sister Phoebe’s room after sneaking into his own apartment, and
Holden is upset because he is such an underachiever. The past few days have been very tough on Holden, he was even beaten up by a pimp after refusing to give a stripper extra five bucks. “Only, this time I thought I was dying,” (103) Holden says after he is mugged by the pimp, Maurice. That experience is one of the most adult things he’s ever dealt with, or anyone can deal with for that matter. Anyone who would have to go through that must have some way to forget about it, and for a few moments Holden can focus on the fantasy in order to clear his head from that scenario. Although Holden is a terribly miserable character, he also hates change. He is seldom remotely happy throughout his journey, but one of the few times is when he is in Museum of Natural History. He goes to the mummy exhibit and it is just as he remembered it, he even describes it as “nice and peaceful.” (205) This is one of the only moments in the novel where Holden is calm. He explains what the problem is with the world, “You may think there is a place that is nice and peaceful, but when you’re not looking somebody’ll sneak up and write ‘Fuck You’ right under your nose.” (204) It seems here as if Holden is finding a way to upset himself. He is at peace for just a brief moment, but then once he starts to actually think, he ruins it, which is what he does with the fantasy. When he is lost and it seems like he is
Holden relates to the fantasy because although he says he wants to catch kids from falling off the cliff, that’s exactly what he needs. He is out of control, which is proven by finding out at the end of the novel that he has been telling this story from his room in the mental hospital. He has been through some traumatizing moments in the past few days, which is the last thing that he needs, and he is becoming desperate to find someone that can rescue him. Phoebe helps Holden a little at the time by stopping him from running away and becoming a deaf-mute. He is so unstable at the time that he does not even realize how ridiculous that is. Phoebe helps him by saying that she would come with him, which snaps him back to reality. Without Phoebe’s help, Holden could have made a terrible choice. Instead of dreaming of running away, Holden can dream about being the catcher in the rye. If he had decided to run away, he might have fallen off of the cliff. Holden uses this fantasy to sub-consciously say that what he really needs is someone to save him, instead of him saving people.
The fantasy of “The Catcher In The Rye” is extremely important. Holden does not have a particularly easy life, but he just makes it a lot harder on himself than it has to be. He wants to stay young, but also has the conflict of trying to be seen as an adult. He can not have both, but that is what he wishes. He wishes that he could be a ladies