How Does Holden Lose His Innocence

The only enemy innocence will ever encounter is time. J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye demonstrates this with the story of a young seventeen year old boy in the 1950’s. Holden Caulfield a worrisome teenage boy struggles with the thought of evolving into an actual adult. After having been exiled from yet another school for the lack of dedication to his studies, Holden decides to leave before his expulsion and take time to really think about life before going home and facing his parents to give them the disappointing news. While traveling back home to New York, from Agerstown Pennsylvania, Holden seems to find himself in several predicaments where he faces the troubles of feeling “lonesome”, “worried”, (Salinger 40) and many other filth like emotions. Toward the end of his visit, Holden seems to have come to the conclusion that if he leaves out of New York forever, his problems will be solved; however, after meeting with his younger sister Phoebe in New York, he realizes that he has to continue saving her and other children from losing their innocence. The world takes a child’s innocence so easily and Holden wants to make sure each child can live a complete childhood without all the negativity and disgust that people bring into it. Phoebe is a young girl in elementary school that doesn’t take deep thought into many things. Her youth is what Holden wants to conserve in her and all children. After having time for himself and getting to realize what his true take in life is, he becomes conscious of the fact that throughout one's journey in life, society and nature itself cause innocence to die out.

Salinger uses characterization to enhance the reader’s mind about Holden Caulfield’s story. Holden is portrayed as a young, “worried” (Salinger 40), repetitive, and cautious boy. At the beginning of the novel when Salinger