Catcher in the Rye: Themes and Human Nature

One theme in Catcher in the Rye is not belonging.  It looks as if no matter where Holden goes, he doesn’t quite fit in, except for when he goes home to visit his sister Phoebe.  He doesn’t apply himself enough to stay at Pencey Prep., failing every class except English, his roommate and him got in a first fight, and Ackley was annoying.  His only real friends were Phoebe and Jane, but he hadn’t seen her for a while.  During his entire story of what happened in New York City, he did not meet anyone that he could have an actual conversation with without it ending badly, save the nuns. 

            Another common theme in this book is depression.  Holden is just about always depressed about something.  It is kind of annoying after a while when it seems like about every other line is “That kills me” (Salinger 85), “It made me even more depressed” (Salinger 91) , or “It made me feel sad” (Salinger 9).  Most of the time it is not even caused by remembering a tragic event or the like, but rather by simple things such as watching a movie, packing, watching people eat toast and drink coffee for breakfast, and so on.  His depression seems irrational, but people, especially teenagers can have stages in their life when they feel really down and may not even know why. 

            The next theme is protecting.  Ever since Holden hears a kid singing “if a body catch a body catch a body coming through the rye” (Salinger 62), the actual song went “if a body meet a body...” but he did not know that then, he becomes obsessed with the idea that his purpose in life is to keep kids from losing their innocence.  When Holden went to visit Phoebe’s school and saw “Fuc* you” (Salinger 108) written on the walls, he tried to erase as many of them as he could because he wanted to protect his little sister.  Regarding the incident he said, “It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them--all cockeyed, naturally--what it meant, and how they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever'd written it.” (Salinger 108)  He also keeps wondering how the ducks at the park are protected from the harsh winter conditions.  Unfortunately, he never finds out. 

            Salinger understands that sometimes we do things that are very uncharacteristic of ourselves, especially when depressed.  He also understands that growing up and dealing with the real world can be a hard task.  Sometimes we may want to run back to our safety zone, which for Holden was his childhood, but that does not mean that we should give up trying.  Finally, Salinger showed that everyone is crazy somehow.  Holden told the reader about how everyone else was crazy and by reading his story it is apparent that he is crazy as well.  

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.