Analysis Of Quotes From 'Catcher In The Rye'

In chapter 25 of J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, when Holden is at Mr. Antolini’s house, Mr. Antolini gives Holden a quote on a piece of paper for him to quote. The quote was, ‘The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for a one.’ The meaning behind this quote is that a person wanting to die in order to prove something is unreasonable, while wanting to live to prove something makes more of an impact. What the author of this quote is saying makes a lot of sense because when you are dead, there is nothing you can really do for whatever your cause is. If you try to live for a cause, on the other hand, you will actually be able to serve a purpose to the world.

This makes him even more depressed and he attempts to prove her wrong by attempting to name something that he likes. However, he is not able to think of anything. So, Phoebe asks him to name something that he would like to do instead. He tells her that he just wanted to stand at the edge of a cliff while many children played in a field of rye on top of the cliff. When the children got to the edge of the cliff, “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” (173). The bottom of the cliff represents death or the loss of innocence. Holden wants to stop children from being exposed to the “real world” and keep them in the dark for as long as he can in a sort of Peter Pan-esque way. What he does not realize is that he should not waste his life trying to achieve this dream of