Catcher in the Rye Emotions

In this book, the Catcher in the Rye, I thought that at first Holden changed very little. I thought the whole point of the book is that he is a young man stuck in his adolescence, refusing to grow up and become an adult like he should be. But this quote at the near end of the book proves otherwise: "The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything."

According to this quote, it is a complete reversal of Holden's attempt to protect innocence in the world. What's the title? Earlier in this book, he said he dreams of being the catcher in the rye which basically meant that he wants to prevent children from falling off the "cliff" meaning their innocence.

Holden is on the edge of the cliff. He is on that cusp, entering adulthood himself. In this book there have been many instances where he falls a lot. For example: He slips on ice in chapter 2, he stumbles over a suitcase while answering the door for Sunny in around chapter 14, he is falling all over the ice with Sally Hayes. Also when he was drunk and he was slipping.

Holden realizes kids have to fall and you can't try to stop them. Then, he can sit in the rain and be so happy he starts to cry. It's like a reverse of Holden's description of rain on Allie's grave in chapter 20. All the adults take shelter from the rain, but Allie's grave can't obviously, and that depresses Holden. Well, now everyone takes shelter from the rain, but Holden stays put and finally accepts everything about his life.