She asks what he wants to be when he grows up, because she is angry with him since he doesn’t have any ambitions. He replies: “I keep picturing these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all…. 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 have to come out form somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I know it’s crazy, …”
Holden sees the world as very narrow and he can’t stand watching innocent children “falling over the cliff”. It is a metaphor for many problems that young people of those days had to face. Theme:
In that period of time America’s society was based on being right and proper. The children always did whatever their parents wanted them to do. It was a battle between two generations. That’s why young people often lost their illusions about the world and criticized it. Subject-manner:
The main problem is whether young people should chose their own future according to their wishes and experience all the obstacles that would be brought by this decision, or just blindly follow the rules given by the older generation. Main characters:
Holden Caulfield – 16-year-old boy, who has never been really interested in school. Actually he has almost always flunked all his subjects and now he has been kicked out of the school for the third time. He has no ambitions to life. He complains about the world and people around him a lot. He feels nobody (except maybe his little sister Phoebe) understands him and that he doesn’t understand others.
He pretends to be someone else. He acts as if he were “a tough guy”, but in reality he is very sensitive. You can tell just by the things he is talking about. He concerns himself with such details that might be insignificant to others. On the other hand, he finds things that are serious for other people funny, because he sees the irony of it. He seems quite intelligent (even though his vocabulary is limited), but sometimes he acts as if he were younger. He asks needless questions and gives childish arguments. (For example when he asks the taxi driver where the ducks go when the lake freezes over)
He is rebellious but he still obeys some rules of good behavior. He swears a lot; however. Phoebe Caulfield – Holdens younger sister. She is only 10 years old but very mature. She is the only one who understands Holden and wants him to start think about his future life more. She is very cute and only in her company Holden doesn’t feel he has to hide behind the mask of “though guy”.