Introduction This year, the world celebrated the 100 th birth of the famous American writer, Jerome Salinger. The anniversary has given rise to the new debate around his work. However, it seems that people have been reading and discussing Salinger’s most prominent book, The Catcher in the Rye , since its first publication in 1951. The book has been especially popular among adolescents as it has managed to depict “the experience of millions of teenagers” (Priest 210). Although young people are encouraged to read this book and interpret it in their own way, it is still crucial that they do not misunderstand it. Thus, this paper, starting with the outline of characters and plot, discusses potential interpretations of The Catcher in the Rye and proposes the opinion of the paper’s author. The Plot of the Book The novel begins with 16-year-old Holden Caulfield recalling how he spent two days in New York before last Christmas. He is dismissed from the school again and after having a conflict with his roommate, decides to leave his sanatorium and go to New York. However, he cannot simply return home because parents believe that Holden is still in his school. This makes him stay at some hotel, but soon, he starts feeling very lonely. He visits nightclubs and calls a prostitute to his room, but it only makes him worse. The next day, he meets his ex-girlfriend and classmate, but they cannot handle Holden’s behavior. After getting drunk, he comes to his family’s house to see his younger sister. During their conversation, he claims that he wants to be “the catcher in the rye,” which prevents small children from falling from the cliff. Holden leaves when he hears parents coming and tries to spend the night at the house of his former teacher. However, Holden interprets some of his teacher’s actions as harassment, and thus, has to spend the night at the railway station. The next day, he plans to run away, but when his sister insists on leaving with him, he takes her to the zoo instead. At the end of the story, Holden says he will start visiting another school in autumn. Holden Caulfield and the Theme of the Book It seems that The Catcher in the Rye solely concentrates on a single character – Holden Caulfield. All other characters serve the purpose of telling Holden’s story and showing his features. As it might be seen from the plot, the tragedy of Holden is that he can live neither with nor without people. In Holden’s view, the whole world is being “phony,” and he denies being a part of it (Nadel 8). As a result, he finds himself absolutely lonely and unable to establish contact with society. According to Yahya and Babaee, the mental condition of Holden can be described as “inconsolable mourning” (1827). This means that he cannot see any future for him in the world he belongs to, as it makes him confused. The famous scene from the book is when Holden sincerely asks the taxi driver where the ducks from the Central Park fly to in winter. This scene aims to show that Holden is embarrassed by the complexity of the world. All feelings of Holden described above lead to his willingness to be “the catcher in the rye.” Holden wants to catch children who are playing by the cliff because he believes that they will soon find themselves in the same st