Chapter 22

In Chapter 22 of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to be when he's older. Holden's response is: "I keep picturing all 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 going over the cliff." (pg.224) Holden wants to be the "catcher in the rye". He wants to prevent the children from entering the rye, or the adult world. Whenever children enter the adulthood, it is before they are ready. This is similar to the way that the children fall off the cliff. They are falling before they are ready to stop playing the game and Holden has to be there to save them before they are forced to leave childhood behind altogether.