“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field or 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 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” (pg.173). Throughout the novel Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, continually tries to protect the innocent. Whether it is his kid sister Phoebe, Jane Gallagher, or the ducks at the pond Holden is always trying to keep the innocent safe.

Holden tries to protect Phoebe because she is his innocent little sister. Holden goes to Phoebes’ school to drop off a note to tell Phoebe where to meet him and while he’s there he sees “Fuck You” scratched into the wall. Holden becomes extremely irritated and tries to rub it off, but it is etched into the wall so he cannot make it go away. Holden said, “It drove me damn near crazy” (pg.201). Holden was upset because he doesn’t want his little sister exposed to bad words like that because she is still really little. Holden is trying to protect Phoebe from the reality of what life is while he still can.

Holden tries to protect Jane Gallagher since she is the innocent girl next door. Holden met Jane over the summer because their houses were next to each other. Jane’s father came out on the porch one rainy day while they were playing checkers and asked her if she knew where his cigarettes where. Jane just sat there playing checkers and ignored him. When her father went inside, “This tear plopped down on the checkerboard” (pg.78). Holden reacted by saying, “I don’t know why, but it bothered hell out of me” (pg.78). After Holden sat next to her to comfort her because he knew that she was upset. Holden had to protect Jane because she was innocent.

Holden often worried about the ducks in the pond because they symbolized innocence. One night Holden went to the pond to see the ducks. “I walked all around the whole damn lake…but I didn’t see a single duck” (pg.154). Holden walked around the pond for a good amount of time while trying to find the ducks, and almost fell in because he consumed himself with finding them. Holden then became worried about where the ducks went. On multiple occasions Holden asked his taxi cab drivers where they thought the ducks went when the pond froze over. Holden would not drop the conversation until they gave him a legitimate answer or told Holden that they didn’t care. Throughout the novel Holden thinks about the ducks. Whenever he is thinking about either Jane or Phoebe the ducks usually appear in his thoughts. The ducks were innocent and Holden was upset because he couldn’t find them to protect them.

Protecting the innocent was one of Holden’s goals. Holden took responsibility for watching over all the characters that he felt were innocent in the novel. It was Holden’s dream to become the catcher in the rye so he could watch over the innocent little children. Throughout the novel Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield attempts to “be the catcher in the rye” (pg.173).