Catcher In The Rye Adulthood Analysis

There is a certain process that every human being on the planet has in common. Not everyone can say it is a pleasing experience, but nobody can deny that it happened to them. ‘Growing up’ happens to everyone one whether they like it or not. The transition between childhood innocence and adulthood is long and confusing, which often reveals questions that can never be answered. The novel Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger explores how the adult life has its complexities and can be very puzzling to teenagers starting that phase in their lives. The main character Holden Caulfield realizes the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenges of adapting to an adult society. The catcher in the rye shows the inevitable loss of innocence

that we must all undergo.
Holden Caulfield is first introduced as a typical, normal teenager. He complains about his school, and the language Holden portrays makes him sound obnoxious and impolite. Holden also seems to think about girls often, especially Jane, yet another common trait of a teenage boy. However, it soon becomes evident that Holden’s personality does not meet the average ‘norm’ for the teenager stereotype. Holden isn’t able to read social cues like most teenagers learn to do. Holden acts without any thought and concern as to how his behaviour affects the people around him. There are many circumstances that are indications that Holden is a “different” young man who cannot envision that he must act in the same way as everyone else. Holden prefers to retreat into his own imaginary view of the world, tending to avoid getting caught up in the complex world around him and keep to himself.
“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—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.” (173)

Proving Holden’s innocence is still very bold, he is evidently worried and not emotionally prepared to grow up and finish his transition from being a child to an adult. Plainly, Holden feels the need to prevent children from transitioning into adulthood giving the reader an insight into his own mind. Unfortunately, due to the inevitability of growing up, innocence must be lost hence all children being deemed innocent when adults are not.

Innocence is usually associated with youth and ignorance. The loss of someones innocence is associated with the evils of the world. To Holden, growing up is beyond complex and it turns everyone into prudes. Holden tends to have two major obsessions; morality and the “filth” of the world. Both of these labels definitely prove Holden’s loss of innocence for the duration of the novel. In many ways, growing up and having the exposure to “filth” is a sort of silent death in itself. In other words, a death of

innocence.
“That’s the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking.——I think, even, if I ever die, and they stick me in a cemetery, and I have a tombstone and all, it'll say, ”Holden Caulfield" on it, and then what year I was born and what year I died.—— I'm positive, in fact.” (25.39)
Holden finds that all innocence is lost when aging occurs. Many young people look forward to the perks of adulthood; wealth, power, love, but always tend to overlook the fact that, ‘acting maturely’ plays a large role. Metaphorically, this quotation is describing how Holden has a vast loss of innocence in the novel along with the fact that mortality is related as well.