Honors English 11

 Comin’ thro’ the rye, poor body Comin’ thro’ the rye She draigl’t a’ her petticoatie Comin’ thro’ the rye  Gin a body meet a body Comin’ thro’ the rye Gin a body kiss a body Need a body cry?  Gin a body meet a body Comin’ thro’ the glen Gin a body kiss a body Need the warld ken?  Chorus. O Jenny’s a’ weet, poor body Jenny’s seldom dry She draigl’t a’ her petticoatie Comin’ thro’ the rye

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in the big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going 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.”

 Wants to save children from a “fall” - symbolic  Mr. Antolini mentions a fall when he speaks to Holden in Chapter 24  The fall that Holden worries about is the one from childhood to adulthood – the inevitable loss of innocence  He wants to protect children from the thing that is troubling him so much throughout the novel.

“All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for 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.”

 Holden realizes that you cannot stop children from growing up/losing their innocence.  Phoebe is about the age that Allie was when he died – he never experienced the fall, but Holden knows that she will.  This quotation shows us that Holden has come to terms with reality at some point.

“Then what she did – it damn near killed me – she reached in my coat pocket and took out my red hunting hat and put it on my head.”

 The red hunting hat = a symbol of individuality  By putting it on Holden, Phoebe is seemingly saying that it is okay for him to be who he is.

The Catcher in the Rye Part 2