Most helpful readers' notes 18 total 'the song comin’ thro’ the rye asks if it is wrong for two people to have a romantic encounter out in the fields, away from the public eye, even if they don’t plan to have a commitment to one another.' i thought the 'rye' referred to in robert burns' poem was the river rye, hence the lines: 'jenny's a wet poor body, jenny's seldom dry'. In this regard it is about two people who meet at a river with no crossing, which will cause people to question why one of them is wet and what they have been doing. 20 out of 56 people found this helpful i have found one very important quotation from this novel to have been left out on this page. It is very useful for many papers and is a very important quotation! originally a school assignment. Since not many people know about the titles significance i decided i would post this to enlighten anyone that cares.

The catcher in the rye is salinger’s greatest work, a tale of growing up in a shallow world obsessed with the superficial. Wherever he looks holden caulfield sees corruption, vulgarity, and superficiality in adults. It is only in children he sees traits he admires such as innocence kindness and the ability to be true to themselves. It is in regard to these things that we see the importance of the title the catcher in the rye. Holden believes children’s innocence is ruined by adults, and states that he wants to help them maintain their innocence. The only thing holden can see himself being is a catcher in the rye, someone that assists children in maintaining their innocence from the dangers of adulthood the first clue we have to the meaning of the novels title is in chapter 16, were holden listens to a child singing to himself if a body catch a body coming through the rye, page 115. He was walking in the street, instead of on the sidewalk, but right next to the curb.

He was making out like he was walking a very straight line, the way kids do, and the whole time he kept singing and humming. To holden this child represents innocence and youth unspoiled by adult immorality. He thinks the line is if a body catch a body comin’ through the rye, but the actual lyric is if a body meet a body, coming through the rye. According to wikipidea the song comin’ thro’ the rye asks if it is wrong for two people to have a romantic encounter out in the fields, away from the public eye, even if they don’t plan to have a commitment to one another.

Holden 039 s not so sure about sex in general, since he thinks that to get sexy with a girl is to degrade her. Casual sex is then his only option, but he 039 s not so comfortable with that, either as proven by his encounter with the prostitute. The ironic thing is, this song makes holden think the opposite of what is being asked. It inspires him to be the catcher in the rye and prevent children from entering into the cruel and ugly adult world including knowledge of sex. He says: i keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody 039 s around nobody big, i mean except me.

What i have to do, i have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff i mean if they 039 re running and they don 039 t look where they 039 re going i have to come out from somewhere and catch them. A child in a field of rye would not be able to see where it is going and fall off a cliff. This cliff is symbolic for a progression into the adult world that surrounds holden. What is destroying holden, is that he realizes that he cannot eliminate the adult world’s corruption, and he cant prevent children from growing up. The novel ends with holden realizing he must shift his good intentions to something he can affect. Holden is stuck in the middle of these worlds, he is not playing in the rye, but he is also full of contempt for the adult world.

Holden is torn between the desire on the one hand to grow up and on the other hand to try and regain his childhood innocence. He sees adulthood as unenviable, characterized by vulgarity perversity and betrayal, so holden tries to evade it by dreaming of escaping society and living in the woods, or even killing himself. In chapter twenty five, when holden allows phoebe to risk herself by reaching for the gold ring, a symbol that confused me, it turns out carousels used to have a gold ring you could reach for and if you got it you got a free ride. Through phoebe, he begins to accept that life contains both happiness and sorrow, and realizes risks must be taken if you want to grow: 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.

In the end, holden gives phoebe his red hunting hat to symbolize he no longer needs to be the catcher and is happy for the first time in the novel. He realizes though that he cannot change the world, and redefines his purpose to something more approachable. He now understands that maybe falling isn 039 t that bad after all, and that one must take risks to grow, thereby affirming his own transition to maturity. Catcher in the rye and dead poets society essay sometimes in literature, two different forms of writing tell two different stories with lots of similarities through characters.

The book the catcher and the rye by j.d salinger and the movie the dead poets society directed by peter weir is a perfect example of two different literary works that share similarities through characters. The dead poet society follows half a school year of 5 main characters at welton academy each with a different connection to holden caulfield the main character from the catcher in the rye. These 6 main characters are neil perry, the smart one, richard cameron, the sycophant, todd anderson, who is exceeding shy, knox overstreet, the romantic, and charlie dalton, the rebel. Holden experience all of these characteristics at some point or another during the catcher in the rye.

The catcher in the rye has been an instant classic since it was first published. It has been on the new york times best seller list along with being among the most banned books in the u.s. But truly these are not good reasons to ban a book a book that is so enjoyed by many readers and the reality of the protagonist. It is never good to hear profound language but the book is just showing how the teenage world actually is in many cases. Most teenagers are going threw a lot at that time in their lives, not always to the extreme like holdren, but hard times none the less.

In addition, the catcher and the rye also shows how difficult it can be to grow up and make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Even though some objections about the book may arise due to the harsh language and sexuality, the catcher in the rye should not be censored, along with other novels that display beneficial messages such as the hardships of growing up. Naturally at the high school level more mature content should be taught then in middle school. High school students are typically already exposed to many things in daily life and are preparing for adulthood.

Handling and discussing some difficult material is helpful in this natural development. Books containing curse words, sexual, and homosexual material should not be in the literature or lessons of middle school students. Holden caulfield recounts the days following his expulsion from pencey prep, a private school.

After a fight with his roommate, stradlater, holden leaves school two days early to explore new york before returning home, interacting with teachers, prostitutes, nuns, an old girlfriend, and his sister along the way. Salinger's classic the catcher in the rye illustrates a teenager's dramatic struggle against death and growing up. Holden tells his own story in his own words as if speaking aloud, and it is holden's voice on the page, rather than the plot of the catcher in the rye. Although the catcher in the rye seems like the unedited thoughts and feelings of an actual teenager, it is nothing of the kind. Salinger was in his twenties and thirties when he wrote the novel, which began as a short story and grew, over many years, into a book length work of fiction. The novel's main thematic conflict pits the innocence and authenticity of childhood, as represented by holden's sister phoebe, against the phoniness, as holden sees it, of most adults mr. Neither a child nor a grownup, holden resists maturation, a process he sees as characterized by loss rather than growth.

Eng 001 Midterm Past Papers

A literary symbol is something, often an object, that stands for a significant concept or series of ideas. Some of the most important symbols in the catcher in the rye are outlined in the following sections. The school's motto is equally repulsive to holden: since 18 we have been molding boys into splendid, clear thinking young men. Holden can think of perhaps two boys who fit that description, and they probably came to pencey that way. For holden, a more typical example of the pencey preppie is his roommate, ward stradlater, a boorish womanizer who gets by on superficial good looks and fake charm. Holden is being expelled for poor academic performance, but stradlater wants to cheat by having holden do his english theme for him since holden does write well.