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The catcher in the rye loss of childhood innocence
The catcher in the rye loss of innocence introduction
Holden caulfield character study
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In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s vision of nature of childhood and adulthood are not as separate as Holden believes them to be. Holden tries to battle through the pressures of adulthood while staying in his childish frame of mind. He feels that if he acts childish, he can go back to that. He also feels the need to be an adult and do his own thing. Holden is at war with himself trying to see what he really is- a child or an adult. Although, Holden thinks he is being an adult by drinking and smoking, he is actually becoming more childish. Holden’s goal is to resist the process of maturing. He fears change and because of this, he comes up with two different personalities; one for childhood and one for adulthood. He feels more safe in one than …show more content…
Throughout the whole book, Holden talks about how everyone he knows is a big phony. He views adulthood as the same as death. In the book he says, “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed.” (Pg 104). It not only shows that Holden views adulthood as death, but shows that it scares him. The two worlds of childhood and adulthood are not as separate as Holden thinks they are. He cuts himself off from the rest of the world by judging others around him, mostly adults. In the book it says, “ What I liked about her, she didn’t give you a lot of horse manure about what a great guy her father was. She probably knew what a phony slob he was.” (Pg 3). The book starts off with him judging an adult that he barely knows. Holden is physically an adult, but in his mind, he is only a child. He can relate to a child better than he can with an …show more content…
He is continuously saying he is lonely or depressed because no one is ever around. Everytime he goes to call someone, he does not feel like calling anymore. For example, he attempts to call Jane a lot throughout the story, but does not do it because he is never in the mood for it. He gets so close to doing it and then a switch flips in his mind and he does not have the patience anymore. He also asks about the ducks in central park. He cannot stop thinking about it, so he asks the cab driver. The ducks reflect the stage of growing up which Holden fails to grasp. He wants things to stay the same for him and everything around him. Holden relates to a child on certain things like patience and his choice of words. He tends to repeat certain things. Things that he wants to remind himself about. He is almost afraid to forget what he is saying. Also, the way he talks to people when he is in an argument has the traits of a child. He says, “I told him to go wash his own moron face- which was a pretty childish thing to say, but I was mad as hell.” (Pg 45). He admits that it was childish after he says it instead of thinking about what he was about to
phonies and all he hates. By being in the stage where he is, he manages to avoid change, control his world with his own hands, yet. creates a paradox between what he is, and what he wants to be. Possibly the main reason why Holden doesn’t want to become an adult. is his perception of ”phoniness” and hypocrisy surrounding adult.
Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I started to cry. I’d give anything if I hadn’t, but I did” (p. 103). This occurs when Maurice argues with Holden about money that Holden owes to a prostitute. The situation becomes too much for Holden to handle, and he breaks down like a child. Holden also tries to have immature conversations with people who have become adults. Another example of imma...
Part of the irony in Holden’s story is that physically, he looks mature, but mentally, he is still very much a child: “I act quite young for my age, sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I’m seventeen now … I’m six foot two and a half and I have gray hair ” (9). There is no middle ground, adolescence, for Holden. He can only be an adult, physically, or a child, mentally. Holden’s history teacher, Mr. Spencer, tries to appeal to him by using a metaphor: “Life is a game, boy.
Holden’s childhood was far from ideal, with Allie dying, his dysfunctional parents and the revelation that he had some “perverty” stuff happen to him when he was a kid. Due to this, he isn't ready to step into adulthood and leave his childhood behind. This is why Holden is mostly alienated from adults and connects more to the innocence of children like the girl at the park and his sister, Phoebe. However, Holden is disillusioned with both adulthood and childhood. He already knows how it feels to be an adult; drinking alcohol, being independent, living by himself and caring for Phoebe, but isn’t ready to immerse himself in it.
Holden says "What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all." (page TBD) This quote goes well with Holden resisting to grow up. Holden says this when he's standing over the ledge and looking down on the children. Holden believes that it is important to maintain a child's innocence and we see this throughout the book. Constantly Holden is helping children and making sure they are doing well and are okay. We see this a lot when Holden talks about his sister Phoebe. Holden does not want to grow up and he proves that when he says that adults are phony and then Holden will look at a child and he will think that he wants to save that child from growing up because he doesn't want that kid to become a phony like the rest of the adults. In the song When We Were Young by Adele she says You look like a movie/You sound like a song/My God, this reminds me/Of when we were young/Let me photograph you in this
Childhood is an unusually hard thing to rid yourself of when it is time for you to pass into the intensified life of adults. Personally, I have yet to overcome that challenge. The Catcher in the Rye is a well developed story about a high school boy, Holden Caulfield, who is stuck between the stages of adolescence and adulthood, and is trying to discover his identity. All his life, Holden Caulfield has refused to grow up, and as the book progresses, he is on the fine line of leaving innocence and adolescence behind and passing into adulthood, but what gives him the needed shove into the realm of adulthood was getting over his brother, Allie’s death. To Holden, Allie is the main definition of innocence. Eventually Holden comes to the decision to be the catcher in the rye. After this decision he tries to follow through with his plan and ultimately decides that he can’t keep anyone from growing up. This seems to be his breaking point in the book where he finally overcomes all his negative emotions towards Allie’s death and accepts it for what it is, knowing that he has to move on.
James Bryan notes that Holden is “is poised between two worlds, one he cannot return to and one he fears to enter”. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden embodies the limbo between childhood and adulthood by trying to maintain both “worlds”. For example throughout the novel Holden behaves like an adult but still behaves like a child and tries to preserve his innocence and the innocence of children. He also embodies both worlds by often contradicting himself, which shows the limbo of both worlds.
Holden cannot accept the loss of innocence as a step into the growing up process. The ones that he loves most, are those who are younger to him, they are innocent, and untouched by society’s truths. Holden says, “…I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big. I mean – except me.
The Catcher in the Rye is a very short coming of age story and the main character Holden Caulfield is trying to discover his identity while still emerging into adulthood. Holden describes himself as “the catcher in the rye” to catch the children falling off a cliff. The cliff represents adulthood and Holden wants the kids to keep their innocence. I believe this shows in Holden’s love for his little sister, Phoebe. His brother, who passed away from leukemia, never got the chance to grow up. I don’t think Holden is necessarily happy with the death of his brother, but perhaps happy he didn’t have to see the troubles of adulthood and adolescence. Throughout the novel, Holden comes off as a bit of a pessimist who needs to grow up. He comes off as not as kind as he actually is. In the small things he does, he shows how kind and humane he really is.
To begin with, Holden’s love for the innocence and purity of childhood makes him very hesitant to transition into an adult life. Generally, he finds children to be straightforward, easygoing, and simply pure in every way. This is because they always say what they mean, and never try to set a false façade for...
In the Catcher in the Rye, there are many ways Holden shows reader that he is immature. Holden is afraid of the responsibility that comes with being adulthood. He acts childish and the and asks immature questions to
Throughout the novel, Holden is facing a big problem that many teenagers have to face eventually (their coming of age) and the setting that he is in makes his problem worse. His biggest conflict is that he internally doesn’t want to grow up. The 40s/50s was a very turbulent time period. Teenagers during that time liked to venture into adult like behaviors. They smoked, drank, and partied. Holden described how some wild things happened at Pencey Prep, a s...
We see during the novel that Holden wants to be able to protect innocence in the world, however by the end of the story he lets go of that desire. This is a point of growth for Holden. He finds that it is impossible and unnecessary to keep all the innocence in the world. While with Phoebe Holden says, “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye...I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff...That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye” (173). In this moment Holden wants to be able to preserve all the youth and innocence in the world. He doesn’t accept that kids have to grow and change and that they can’t stay innocent forever. Later on in the story when Holden is with Phoebe at a carousel again he thinks, “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the golden 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.” At the end of the novel Holden realizes and comes to terms with the fact that kids grow and lose their innocence. He moves from his want to be the “catcher in the rye” to...
The experiences Holden goes through during his coming of age stage in his life help him to see that growing up is essential towards his journey, and he must realize that he can’t control anyone else’s path in terms of coming
Holden and the Complexity of Adult Life What was wrong with Holden, the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D.Salinger, was his moral revulsion against anything that was ugly, evil, cruel, or what he called "phoney" and his acute responsiveness to beauty and innocence, especially the innocence of the very young, in whom he saw reflected his own lost childhood. There is something wrong or lacking in the novels of despair and frustration of many writers. The sour note of bitterness and the recurring theme of sadism have become almost a convention, never thoroughly explained by the author's dependence on a psychoanalytical interpretation of a major character. The boys who are spoiled or turned into budding homosexuals by their mothers and a loveless home life are as familiar to us today as stalwart and dependable young heroes such as John Wayne were to an earlier generation. We have accepted this interpretation of the restlessness and bewilderment of our young men and boys because no one has anything better to offer.