Is Holden Caulfield in an insane asylum?
Is Holden Caulfield in an insane asylum? Holden (despite the confusion of the Harcourt Brace executive) is not crazy; he tells his story from a sanatorium (where he has gone because of a fear that he has t.b.), not a mental hospital. What does Catcher in the Rye mean to Holden? The title of The Catcher in the Rye is a reference to "Comin' Thro the Rye," a Robert Burns poem and a symbol for the main character's longing to preserve the innocence of childhood. "If a body catch a body coming through the rye." Holden describes the scene (and...