"If a body catches a body…" Holden Caulfield's monologue in The Catcher in the Rye is an examination of one boy's struggle of entering into adulthood. He is a classic screw up with no goals, just as Stradlater, his roommate at Percey, states; "you don't do one damn thing the way you'resupposed to" (Salinger 41). It is really Holden's avoidance of having to grow up and his fears related to it. It is because of Holden's …showed first 75 words of 1269 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1269 total…they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them (211)." At the end of the novel we see Holden go through a symbolic death and resurrection. Over the entire novel is a good study in the rites of passage of an American youth from adolescence into adulthood (Lundquist 61). Work Cited Lundquist, James. J. D. Salinger. Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. New York: 1979 Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown & Co. Boston: 1951