What does the title The Catcher in the Rye mean? Why is it signifigant?

Question

All help needed!!! Thank you!!!

Answer 1

It comes from an altered version of the song, Coming through the Rye.

" ... Holden finally decides to surreptitiously return home to see his younger sister Phoebe. During a short conversation with her Holden reveals the meaning of the novel's title: The "Catcher in the Rye" idea is based on a misreading of a line in the song "Comin' Thro' the Rye," [2] by Robert Burns, which Holden heard a young boy singing. The young boy instead substituted "When a body meet a body, comin' thro' the rye" for "When a body catch a body, comin' thro' the rye."

Holden imagines children playing a game in a field of rye near a cliff, and it is his role to protect the children by catching anyone who comes too near to the edge. Such a job, he says, would make him truly happy. Holden tells Phoebe he has always wanted to be a Catcher in the Rye (symbolically, a rescuer of children). Holden tells her his plan to run away, to live far away from everybody, and Phoebe offers him her Christmas money. Holden flees the house when his parents arrive home."

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_catcher...

Answer 2

It's explained in the text. Briefly, it comes from Holden 's mis-hearing of the old folksong "If a body meets a body comin' through the rye.." Holden thinks the lyric is "If a body catch a body", and imagines a whole bunch of little kids running through a rye field, unable to see a cliff ahead, and somebody is there to catch them before they're lost or hurt. The "catcher in the rye" is what Holden imagines himself to be in his dreams--he's trying to save the lost or frightened ones from perils they can't see---perhaps he's one of the kids he's trying to save as well.
He'd like to be a good guy, to be the hero of his own life---yet there's always the danger that somehow he won't be able to catch and save anyone, that his life and mission will go all wrong. In this he's mirroring the doubts and anxieties of teenagers all over...