WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE TITLE?
There are several meanings that can possibly be derived at the end of the book about what exactly the title means, and how it relates to Holden. The title, to me, seems to be about Holden himself, and his view of the world.
First off there is the obvious. Holden himself says he would like to be “The Catcher in the Rye”, a line from a song he seems to like. What Holden claims the catcher in the Rye as is more or less a guy/person who stands in a “rye” at “the edge of some crazy cliff”, and all he does is catch kids if they start to not look where they are going, and fall off. That would be his job, and that would be all he did all day. Now, initially, this just kind-of seems like a really stupid idea, something only a crazy idiot like Holden could think up. But really, the paragraph in which Holden talks about the Catcher, the rye, and the kids, perhaps has more symbolism in it than the entire first half of the entire book.
There are a couple of ways that I can interpret Holden’s desire to be the Catcher in the Rye which more or less go together. First there is my “growing-up” theory. Holden very much wants to be “Mr. Catcher” because he sees “going over the cliff” as growing up, and he doesn’t want the kids to grow up. There is much evidence, in my opinion to support this idea. First off, Holden always likes kids. To him, a kid is never Phony, and really cannot be capable of being Phony. This is obvious by Holden’s constant comments about how much he likes certain kids. Phoebe, Allie, and many others, such as “the kid on the bench.” Holden first hears the title whistled by a kid walking down the street.Allie is perfect to Holden, perhaps it is because Allie will always be a kid. Since he is dead, he can never become Phony, he will always be perfect. Perhaps he sees the catcher keeping the kids from growing up, while still remaining alive. Holden doesn’t want people to grow up, and he hates death, but the only way not to grow up is to die, so perhaps the catcher is Holden’s solution to this un-solvable problem.
My second idea, which kinda flows with the first, is that Holden doesn’t want kids to take the wrong step in life, to fall into the “big fall” that Holden seems to think that he, has. Perhaps Holden sees falling off the Cliff as making the wrong decision, taking the wrong turn in life, one that will hurt them forever. Holden, since he knows what he has become, wants to turn them back the way the came, and make them stay on the path to perhaps “non-phoniness.” He thinks if they go into the “big fall” they will lose their innocence, which very much leads back to the children thing, as a child is generally regarded as innocent, while a adult is not, as he has seen “below the cliff” and he knows what evil, and ugliness is there.
I also think the catcher may be Holden’s idea of a real Hero. The Catcher seems to take no praise for what he does, he just saves people all day long, dutifully doing his job, never asking for anything, as he knows he is doing the right thing. Also the catcher seems to be a rather obscure figure, one who stays out of the spotlight, as Holden much would like to do, as seen by his constant desire to go live out in the woods. In fact, Holden doesn’t specify if anyone knows the catcher. Holden envisions the catcher, not as someone like the grave selling hero who donated money to the school, but the only true type of Hero.
It also seems the Title, well really more the name of the song, shows Holden’s wishful, but false and impossible view for what the world should be like. I say this because just like Holden’s vision of the catcher is impossible, and wrong, so is his interpretation of the title of the song, of which he derives his idea, which is really “if a body meet a body coming through the rye, not “if a body catch a body coming through the rye.” Just as Holden misinterprets the lyrics of the song, he also misinterprets life. And just as Holden would rather have lyrics to the song to be “if a body catch a body coming through the rye.” He would rather have life the way he envisions it. The entire catcher thing is just a mistake, an illusion and so is Holden’s view of the world. Holden seems to think there must be a un-phony person out there, but no-mater how hard you may want to believe this, there is always at least a little bit of phony in people, kid or grown up. And sometimes you just gotta take the phony, and sometimes the phony is even good. Such as polite phony. That’s Lobsters take on the Title in the Rye.