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For him death is just the fluctuation of time. The thought of Allie haunts him in the rainy cemetery. When Holden thinks that he will die soon or disappear soon, he speaks to the dead Allie. It is constantly presented in Holden's younger brother Allie’s spirit.

What is important for him is her purity and innocence which he wants to save.ĭeath is another significant theme in the novel. However, he suspects she might be the subject of sex by stepfather or by Ward. They often hold hands, but Holden says that he never had sex with her. He never sees in her a maturing woman and a growing girl. He always takes Jane as the girl whom he used to play games during childhood.

The people he loves and cares most represent innocence. Holden hates the adult world where all are corrupted and the virtues are lost. Here catching the children means saving their innocence for Holden. He idealizes himself catching the children who would come to play in the rye field from falling from the cliff. He is basically influenced by a song 'if a body catch a body coming through the rye'. He wants to protect the virtue of goodness of kids. The innocence of children and their world of understanding is the major concern for the protagonist Holden.

That said, Holden's older fans can still find kids young enough to be their grandchildren to share their enthusiasm.Innocence is one of the major themes of the novel The Catcher in the Rye. "That generation is leaving, and there's got to be something that has been written since that speaks as eloquently to teenagers as 'Catcher in the Rye' once did," he said.

Overall, though, she said the book "didn't really speak to me" even though it's supposed to be about "that teenage thing of not fitting in."Ĭorin Warden, who teaches at a Toronto high school, thinks "Catcher" will fade from reading lists as the boomers who grew up with it retire. "I just remember being a nervous 14-year-old in my first high school English class, startled by my teacher reading curse words out loud," she said. Rachel Mattos, a senior at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, says the book retains its shock value. (Among other things, Holden describes himself as a "sex maniac" and is upset about graffiti that contains obscenities.) "If people hadn't been so up in arms over the language and content, it wouldn't have become the cult classic that has caused high school students to have to read it over the last several decades," she said.