The Catcher in the Rye

When we first hear Holden's favorite quote it was in Chapter 16 when he heard the little child singing "If a body catch a body coming through the rye", the little kid was not side by side with his parents but straggling off in his own way balancing of the sidewalk. The second time it comes up is when Phoebe asks him what he wants to do in life. He tells her he pictures a field of rye with a bunch of children running around playing on a cliff. He said if they would fall off he would catch them and keep them from falling off the cliff. Phoebe later corrects him a says that the quote is "if a body meet a body". When Holden refers to catching the children he means protecting them from adulthood and realizing the truth of this so traditional world. He wants to keep them pure and protected from growing up because he didn't want to grow up. He didn't want them to face his fears, his fears of phonies, flitties, pimplies, and simply the bastards. Everything he thinks that is corrupt or wrong is what he is catching them from.