the 'Fuck you' signs in the world. It's impossible." (202/262) Although this is probably Holden's psychological low point in the novel, his whole intent here is to protect little children and save them from harm. In so doing, he acts out the vision he has of himself, that he has earlier described to Phoebe: "'...I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all... 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... That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all." (173/224) Holden envisions himself as an eternally reliable savior, and it is impossible not to see him, therefore, as a Christ figure, Salinger's symbolism does not present Holden as a sacrificial victim (like James Castle or Iliusha); he is consequently very similar to Kolia at the symbolic level. There are a number of significant references to Jesus and Christianity in The Catcher in the Rye , perhaps enough to qualify religion, in Salinger's interpretation, to be the central theme of the novel. This theme is supported even in small details, which, through repetition, become symbolic. For instance, the word Christmas, which one naturally expects to come up in a novel set in December, nevertheless occurs over two dozen times. At that level of repetition we are justified in concluding that the real motif here points