Chapter 25 (towards the end)
"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."

This occurs while Holden is watching Phoebe ride the carousel in Central Park and fears Phoebe will fall off her house while reaching for a gold ring which gives the winner a free ride. Through this quotation, Holden reaches an epiphany. He realizes he in unable to become the idyllic "Catcher in the rye" and will never be able to live in his dream Utopian world where children never reach the "phonieness" of adulthood. Holden has acknowledged that children must grow up and move on, showing he has progressed emotionally throughout the story.

This also serves as the climax of the novel.

Chapter 25 deals with the emotional climax of the novel and dramatic collapse Holden Caulfield suffers. J. D. Salinger draws upon Holden's isolation from society within this passage through emphasis on the loss of innocence within what Holden now appears to see as a ruthless and cruel adult-dominated world.

Perhaps the strongest theme in The Catcher in the Rye is the main character Holden Caulfield's fascination and even obsession with the ideal of true innocence; a higher innocence from the superficiality and hypocrisy that he views as a plague on American society. Conjoined with this ideal comes a wariness of adults and an alienation from his peers.

Holden Caulfield, unable to accept the dishonesty of impending adulthood but powerless to avoid relinquishing his grip on the innocence of youth, travels through a crisis of identity within the three December days over which J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is set.

In conclusion, The Catcher in the Rye is a story of a boy falling from innocence to enter adulthood.  An example of J.D. Salinger using symbolism to show Holden's Holding on to his childhood is in his name, Holden(Hold On).  This is referring to Holden not wanting to enter society and all it's phonies.  Today, when somebody holds on to their innocence they are often considered outcasts; and in the persons mind everyone who considers him this, is a phony, like how Holden saw everyone.