Significance of the boy singing, “If a body catch a body coming through the rye”
In chapter 16, Holden saw the boy as he was walking to the park. The boy, who was around six years of age, was with his mother and father in front of Holden and he could tell that the family had “just came out of some church” (Page 115.) The parents of the children were talking as they were walking alone and did not pay any attention the little boy. Holden describes the kid as ‘swell’ because Holden believes he, like all children, is the essence of innocence and genuineness. The carefree child sings the poem by Robert Burns, ‘If a body catch a body coming through the rye,’ as he walks on the street with cars zooming by. Holden admits that it made him ‘feel better’ and ‘not so depressed any more’ (Page 115.) This shows how Holden admires children’s non-phoniness and it is a continuation of Holden’s desire to retrieve his innocence. The parents represent how the adult society is corrupt and neglectful towards innocence, in other words, phony. The cars represent are an extension of society’s phoniness because they do their best to ‘slow down’ in front of the boy, however, in reality, the cars and drivers really want to go fast and get to their own destination. This passage also influenced his conversation with Phoebe later in the book. Holden claims that he wants to be the ‘catcher’ in the rye of innocent children. In other words, he wants to be the older figure, protecting children’s innocence. However, he didn’t realize that the poem did not actually consist of the word ‘catch’ but instead, it was ‘If a body MEET a body coming through the rye.’ Also, it is the first example where readers can spot a correlation between the title of the book and the story or theme of the book. The boy singing
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ReplyDeleteLike you said, Holden seems to love children who are innocent and pure. On the other hand, he abhors adults' societies since they seem to be 'phony' from his perspective. He draws a clear line between children full of innocence and corrupted adults. The scene where the boy is singing makes this clear. Holden who is usually depressed feels a lot better after hearing his song. What I really like about your post is the idea about the car because I didn't recognize the possible meaning of it. It really makes sense because cars do wait for children for their safety although drivers really want to go fast to get to their own destinations. This strongly relates to the 'phony' society that Holden hates. (124 words)
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of what you are saying, but I disagree with other parts. I believe that the cars passing by actually have no significance to this section. I think that if Salinger wanted to show the cars wanting to move fast, he would say that after the cars passed the boy, they sped up. I think the significance of the boy walking on the side of the road shows the distance between the boy and his parents, and the distance between those that are pure and those that aren’t. Holden likes how he is not near the adults, as he is separated from them, which Holden likes because if he is near the parents, they could spill the beans and talk about sex, which could result in the purity and innocence of the child being disrupted and destroyed. (140 words)
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