Catcher In The Rye Research Paper

Is Holden capable of reaching his dream? Everyone has had a dream job since they were small, it might have changed over time but it was always something they loved. In “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger we meet Holden whose dream job is to be a catcher in the rye. Holden states that in his dream job he would “catch everyone if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they’re running and they don’t see where they’re going I have to come out of somewhere and catch them.” (Salinger, 173) Holden would be saving the kids childhoods from going into the world of adulthood. He does not want the kids to go into the adult world because it is full of phonies and responsibilities. Caulfield wants to guide kids into enjoying their childhood and having fun and not rushing into trying to become an adult. Holden himself is scared of becoming an adult because he states “If you weren’t here I’d probably be someplace way the hell off. In the woods or some goddam place” (Salinger, 131) meaning that he is scared of becoming an adult because it is full of responsibility and phonies. By being in the woods he would be far away from all the
An example of a career path that he could take would be a counselor; since they help at-risk kids get back on the right track. Caulfield could actually be a good counselor for a few reasons one being that he could understand what his patients are going through since he went through the same problems as them. A second reason would be that Holden is very cordial when it comes to kids. All throughout the story he helps out children. For instance he helped the two little kids get to the exhibit of the mummies. Another example would be when he helps “tighten [the] girls skate” (Salinger, 119), just because she seemed polite and