In the last few chapters of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden sneaks back home and wakes up Phoebe, his younger sister, to talk with her. During this conversation, we see that Phoebe gets very emotional after finding out her brother was kicked out of school again and says that he doesn't enjoy anything in life. Holden struggles to name a single thing he likes besides Allie and talking with Phoebe. Eventually, Holden claims that he would want to be some kind of "catcher in the rye" after misquoting a line from a Robert Hurts poem. Holden imagines that there are a bunch of kids playing in a rye field near a cliff, and his job is to make sure that he catches all these kids before they fall off. Although Holden lies a lot, I don't think he is just making stuff up here as not only do we know that Holden cares deeply about his sister, this is also pretty close to the "climax" of the novel and him lying here would make no sense. Either way, I think most people would agree with me here that Holden is being genuine about his dream job.
Something that our class did not quite get into in our class discussions was the symbolism/meaning behind Holden's "dream job," and that feels like one of the most important parts of the book to me because its like an "aha" moment in the book when you finally see the title of the book inside a chapter. Seeing that this book is a coming-of-age novel, we can use this as a perspective to analyze Holden's dream job. Holden catching these kids running around in the rye field before they fall off seems to be symbolizing how Holden wants to protect kids from losing their childhood innocence and purity the way he lost it. Holden doesn't want to grow up, and this is evident in how Holden is not applying himself in school and how Holden really doesn't like adults. In his own words, the adult world is "full of phonies." In addition, Holden is seen admiring both Allie and Phoebe for their innocence and purity. Finally, Holden says in the museum scene to Phoebe that “Certain things, they should stay the way they are.” If he could, I'm sure Holden would be very happy to have everything stay the way it currently is forever. To him, he would rather freeze a perfect moment then live life to experience new things.
At some point in our lives, I'm sure that each of us have looked back in our life and think to ourselves, "I wish things could stay like that forever" or "I wish I could relive this moment again." In this way, we can all empathize with Holden not wanting to grow up. However, it is also true that all of us have made great memories past that time in our life that we really enjoyed, and I think what's special about life is that we get so many opportunities to make great memories. The real question to ask perhaps, is, are the uncertainties in life greater than the opportunities presented? Perhaps for Holden, the uncertainties outweighed the potential opportunities and that's why he doesn't want to grow up. There will definitely be times in our life when we don't feel like continuing and, like Holden, we just want to freeze our life at a perfect moment. However, when you look back at each great memory you made, don't forget that they were only possible because life didn't freeze at a single moment.
- Henry Guan
