The title The Catcher in the Rye seems strange until the reader reaches the scene that explains it. It holds the emotional key to the entire novel.
Burns' verse
Holden hears a child humming a verse and commits it to memory, switched. The original verse is by the Scottish poet Robert Burns, Comin' Thro' the Rye, and talks about meeting someone in the rye. Holden remembers "if a body catch a body", catching someone, rather than finding them. The exchange is not innocent: it reveals what he wants.
The catcher's fantasy
When his sister Phoebe asks him what he would like to be in life, Holden describes a scene:
I imagine little boys playing in a big field of rye. Thousands of children, and no one around, no adults, except me. And I stand on the edge of a crazy cliff. What I have to do is catch everyone who is going to fall into the abyss.
He wants to be the catcher in the rye: the one who stands on the edge and stops the children from falling.
What does this mean
The cliff is the passage from childhood to the adult world, which Holden sees as false and corrupt. Catching children is preventing them from growing up, from losing their innocence, from becoming phonies. The desire is moving and impossible: no one can stop time. And it is inseparable from mourning brother Allie, the child Holden couldn't save.
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See recommended readingsFrequently asked questions
Where does the title Catcher in the Rye come from?
From a line by Scottish poet Robert Burns, Comin' Thro' the Rye, which Holden remembers wrong. He imagines catching children in the rye, instead of meeting someone, and from this exchange the title image is born.
What is the catcher costume?
Holden imagines thousands of children playing in a field of rye on the edge of a cliff. His only desire would be to stay there and catch anyone who ran too close to the edge before they fell. Being the catcher means wanting to protect innocence.
What does the title symbolize?
Holden's refusal to let the children (and himself) fall into the adult world, which he sees as false and corrupt. It is a desire that is impossible to stop growth, linked to mourning for a dead brother.
Continue: The Catcher in the Rye: summary and analysis · Who is Holden Caulfield · The ducks in Central Park
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