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Use Of Metaphors In 'Catcher In The Rye'

1077 Words5 Pages

Sofia Wyszynski
Block 4 Yu Honors

Holden Caulfield, a troubled American teenager in the post-WWII era has a bone to pick with society. Why is it that people are taught to ignore the war, repress their memories and act as though nothing ever happened? This is where Holden’s struggles first arose. Through the classic novel, ”Catcher in the Rye”, the author J.D Salinger expresses Holden’s obstacles and frustration with the society-conforming people around him through large overarching metaphors: the most prevalent of which-Holden Caulfield’s need for guidance in a society where he struggles to conform to the rules.

Ever since Holden’s brother Allie died from cancer, Holden, very needy and dependent on other people, turned to his parents for …show more content…

He is constantly told to keep his emotions in, but hits a point where he can’t do it anymore. His hatred for the world arose as a child, through his rough childhood. Towards the end of the story, Holden has the lyrics of “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye” stuck in his head and tells his sister Phoebe about it. "You know that song 'If a body catch a body comin' through the rye'?” (Chapter 22). However, Holden has the lyrics wrong. The song says meet a body instead of catch a body. This brings us back to the fact that Holden need to be held; he needs to be caught if he falls. No matter what he does, it relates back to his need for a mentor, someone to guide him. He proceeds to tell Phoebe that he pictures children blindly running off a cliff into a rye below where he must catch them. “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. I know it's crazy." (Chapter 22) Holden feels obliged to catch the children who are in danger of losing their innocence in the game of life, where inevitably everyone becomes impure, even if they don’t realize it. This is why the children don’t realize that they are falling. Holden, a boy used by the world wants to save all the children he possibly can from suffering his unfortunate fate. Through this unrealistic fantasy he has where he’s the children’s “Catcher”, he expresses his own insecurities and needs to be “caught”. Holden’s afraid of the children losing their purity and innocence when they are exposed to the

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