Vol. 7, Issue 1, Part B (2025)

D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is set in the 1950s, when American’s spiritual life just like a wasteland despite its victory in World War II. The spiritual world of the hero Holden Caulfield is also full of contradictions and chaos. He is confused and miserable in the corrupt social environment, but he still dreams of becoming a catcher in the rye, which means he want to protect the innocence and purity of children. At present, domestic and foreign scholars’ researches on The Catcher in the Rye are mainly carried out from the perspectives of grown-ups, translation strategies and narrative techniques. This paper will explore the causes of Holden’s tragic destiny from external reasons and internal reasons, which includes Holden’s sense of incompatibility with school, society and family, the transition from child world to adult world and psychological imbalance in adolescence. The purpose of this paper is to find out the real causes of Holden’s tragic destiny, which is helpful to study the growth process of teenagers in the adult world and explore their inner world.