To begin, Holden’s fantasy about getting away from the city shows how insecure he is with the world around him. The quote, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you,” helps explain some of Holden’s reasoning for wanting to live out in the west. He loves the museum because there is never any confusion, change, or conflict within it. Holden wanting to move out west is like him stepping into a museum, learning where everything is and then getting use to it staying there. There would be no confusion or continuing change that Holden would have to adapt. Holden both wanting to be a deaf-mute and to pump gas will help isolate himself from everyday worries. No worries about failing out of school, no social interaction with phony people except for on paper, and no everyday pressures placed on a person. Nothing will be different, Holden will be working at the gas station while the world will forget about him. Holden wants to live a simple life where society can not cause rapid changes that can cause confusion and conflict among people.
Another point made in Holden’s fantasy is that he would like to be a deaf-mute and marry a beautiful deaf-mute woman. In Holden’s eyes, being a deaf-mute means dealing with people on paper. When talking to a person, eye contact is usually made, but when writing on paper no eye contact needs to be made. Also, when writing on paper no one can tell whether a person is being sarcastic or lying. This for Holden is truly the perfect way for dealing with people. He can get away from all the phoniness of people, and he figures once the get tired of writing on paper they are bound to leave him alone. The reasoning for his thinking is best explained through the quote after Mr. Spencer, Holden’s history teacher, claims that life is a game. The quote, “Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, alright-I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game,” shows us that Holden associates himself with being on the other side of the game, where he feels rejected by society because of who he is. At the time when Holden is experiencing a possible nervous breakdown, he wants to be on the other side of the game, but in a different way. He wants to be different from the hot-shots, in the sense that society will show sympathy for him and leave him alone. Being a deaf-mute would fulfill this principle. Being a deaf-mute might help Holden get away from phoniness and fake people, but he knows that in some shape or form there will always be a phony person lurking the streets.
An additional reason Holden wants to act out on his fantasy of living on the outskirts of the woods has to do with him wanting to become the catcher in the rye. If Holden were to have kids with his wife, he would seclude them from society, buy them several books, and teach them how to read and write. This is a fine example of why Holden would live to be the catcher of the rye in some sense. The quote, “I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all,” helps show us that Holden wants to be a protector to those who have not been corrupted by society. Holden would rather teach his children than let them go to school because even in school children are corrupted. This was shown when Holden discovered several cuss words all over Phoebe’s school. Holden wants to protect children’s spirits and their pure minds. Holden knows what corruption is like since he had experienced it throughout his lifetime. Having his parents not playing a big role in his life, and being able to explore the streets of New York at his age, he knows what is out there, and does not want any child to go through what he went through. This reason alone would make Holden’s fantasy worth living out even if it meant giving up so much.
Holden uses his dreams and fantasies as an output for anger most of the time, but there is always a underlying purpose within the fantasies. Holden running away could change his life for the better. He could run away for the corruption of society, whether it is a cross-dressing man or young prostitute and her pimp trying to make some extra money. He could also live his life like a game, being rejected by society, but at the same time receiving its sympathy and escaping the phony people of the world. There would be no more secret slobs like Stradlater to put up with, or drunk teachers trying to express their love for their students in the wrong way and at the wrong time. Holden could also fight to protect children from the evil and immorality of society, keeping their minds and hearts pure. He could fight to keep Jane from being corrupted by suave boys only looking for sex, and little children learning what cuss words mean at a young age. No matter what the situation is, Holden Caulfield may have been a teenager who thought he had no place in society, but his heart and mind were always in the right place, whether it be in reality or in his fantasy world.
