Most people moan and groan when they are given the task of reading a famous novel, but I am not like most people. Reading is the closest thing we have to understanding a different way of life or how things were back in time. I have always had an interest in the novel The Catcher in the Rye. I honestly have no idea why, but I’ve always seemed so drawn to the book. Maybe it’s because I wanted to know the significance of the rye or why a baseball catcher was in a field of it. So I finally buckled down and read the self proclaimed cult classic, but what really excites me is that this book did not disappoint and exceeded my expectations.
First thing you need to know about this book, you will not find any sort of catchers in any fields of rye. The name actually comes from the poem “Comin’ Thro’ The Rye” by Robert Burns. The main character, Holden Caulfield misremembers the lines of the poem as “if a body catch a body” when the real poem goes “if a body meet a body.” His interpretation has him having these dreams about catching small children as they are about to fall off a cliff in a field of rye. This dream makes Holden feel like it’s his duty to help keep the innocence of small children pure from adulthood. Throughout the novel Holden wants to keep children from adulthood because he himself is scared for the turn of events that comes with being an adult.
The book itself has become one I feel every teenager should read. Many quotes from the book give the reader a sense of reassurance that they aren’t the only person in this world who feels weird/scared about growing up. My favorite line in the book has to be the last line, “Don’t tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” It came down on me like a ton of bricks. These words were true, and it prepares everyone for the goodbye so many people going say in their lifetime. Holden Caulfield taught me that it’s okay to be uncertain and it’s okay to be scared. Being these two things are what make us humans and cause the blood to run through our veins.
