Dialectical Journal For The Catcher In The Rye

Catcher in the Rye is Holden Caulfield’s recounting of the weekend after he gets expelled from the umpteeth time form another private school. His name can be broken down to reveal his struggle to retain his happier childhood memories and innocence, to grow up, and to protect others from the difficulties of life.

His first name, Holden, can be interpreted for how he wants to hold onto better times.“I can't remember exactly what I was doing when I heard his goddam stupid footsteps coming down the corridor… When I really worry about something, I don't just fool around… If you knew Stradlater, you'd have been worried, too… He was unscrupulous...” (Ch. 6, p. 22) With the knowledge of how sexual Stradlater can be, Holden wrangles with his own mind

In the beginning of the story, when Holden goes to see Mr. Spencer before he leaves, Mr. Spencer tells him that, "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules." (Ch. 2, p. 5) Although Holden completely disagrees with Mr. Spencer, this quote remains true to struggle he faces during the rest of the book, especially so when he looks for the ducks in the lagoon, in order to study how they know to leave the lagoon when winter comes. “I thought maybe if there were any around, they might be asleep or something... But I couldn't find any.” (Ch. 20, p. 83) To anyone else, it is obvious a duck would not stay at a semi-frozen lagoon, in the middle the night, because of the sheer cold because that is just a rule of nature. Holden, however, has no clue to what the rules are, as revealed when he suggests that maybe, “some guy came in a truck and took them away to a zoo or something.” (ch. 2, p. 22) To field means to send out a player into a game. But a person can not play a game without knowing the instructions. Holden does not know the rules to life, so he is constantly struggling with questions that most people do not even think about. This is why Holden tries to find out how the ducks know how to leave for the winter. To Holden, the ducks seems instructional-less, yet they still know when to leave, or at least more-so

During the narrative, Holden is irrealistic with what he wants out of life. “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.” (ch. 22 p. 93) A caul, an amniotic membrane, is akin to the catcher in the rye that Hold wants to be in the way they are both meant to protect children. However, if a baby is born with the caul around itself, it can not breathe and will either grow up with a deficiency if the it is not removed in time, or die if it is not removed at all. This is a one-to-one parallel to how Holden does not let the children fall, make mistakes, and learn from them and how that will led to the children to be horrible unprepared for reality when they inevitably grow up. But when Holden is watching Phoebe reach of the golden ring as she rides the carousel, he accepts the reality as a fact. “...I was sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddam horse... 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.” (ch. 25, pg. 113) He realizes that he has to remove the caul, the shield from life, so that children can reach for the golden ring and experience life for what is truly