Childhood In The Catcher In The Rye By J. D Salinger

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Childhood is the time of truth innocence. The protagonist, Holden Caulfied, is a reclusive person who cannot bring himself to find elation. He wants to break the confinements of his solitude by talking to someone or at least by making some kind of connection, but he could only discern desolation and loneliness. Dismally, he is repudiated by all the people who he try to talk to and is confronted with rejection and dissent from society. The novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D Salinger, accentuates the obliteration for oneself to be fraternized and associated. The author portrays Holden's early childhood as a period of ignorance and innocence, and depicts how he carries a fear of failing to possess the courage to be candid and different from transitioning to adolescence by fitting himself to society.
Holden's walk to the natural history museum holds strong emotions in him. He begins to reminisce about his past visits when he was young. He ponders on what changes have happened and whether his younger sister, Phoebe, is still the same person she used to be. Holden does not want to go inside the museum; he refuses to discover his new self. This shows that Holden is petrified to embrace his own character and would rather live in denial. He consistently reflects and judges other people, but he is unable to see his own life and express his feelings freely. The museum is a symbol of Holden's childhood growing up, experiences, and his lost of innocence. People change as time goes on whereas the museum remains the same. Holden fears that he cannot preserve his youth the way the museum preserve its values, and he sees it as a place to restore his memories.
Phoebe suggests that Holden’s goal of saving children from falling off th...

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...'s cowardice progressing in his adolescence and seem to exclaim against the intricate of life. Although Holden dislikes adulthood, he ordinarily tries to act and behave at an older age when talking to women. Conceivably, Holden feels he cannot be a successful adult because he abhors adulthood and wants people to empathize him and listen to his story.
Life is a process that riddles with flaws from childhood to the complexities of adulthood. Salinger highlights that the perception of growing up is incessantly unbearable in a society that does not allot solidity and values to the youth. Holden fears of growing up and hates the real world because he is afraid of being alone and ostracize from society. At the very core of all human beings, there is a time that everyone have to accept what life holds for oneself and learn to move on without looking back.

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