enough, it is one of the "innocent" children that he is trying to protect who helps him come to terms with this realization. It is Phoebe who challenges his plan to escape out west. As he is telling Phoebe that she can not run away, he discovers that he too can not run away. "You can't ever find a place that is nice and peaceful, because there isn't any."7 The final break-down comes near the end of the book when he is watching Phoebe on the carousel. All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them.8 In the above passage from the novel, Holden hits the final breakdown. Being "the catcher" becomes obviously unrealistic. The gold rings are ironically not gold but really brass-plated iron. The gold rings are symbols of the corrupted world which always "wears" a shiny surface to hide its evil. It is at this point that Holden sees that he can not stop children from growing up and therefore losing their innocence. They will fall if they fall, there is nothing that can be done. Shortly after this point Holden has his nervous breakdown. His breakdown is due to this depressing realization that the world is corrupt and filled with evil. He knows now with a sickening certainty that he is powerless to stop both evil and maturation. As a matter of fact, it is "bad" to do so....
