Elusion Of Adulthood

Elusion of Adulthood
The novel of Cather in The Rye portrays the protagonist Holden Caulfield’s internal conflictions in dealing with the loss of his innocence in facing towards the ideals of adulthood. Subsequently, the loss of his younger brother Allie impinged Holden’s future actions in attempts of preserving the memory of his brother along with his innocence. Holden creates mental illusion as to how or why the idea of elusion in adulthood is best. As his own way in dealing with his long list of afflictions, Holden responds with irrational actions of immaturity and hostility. Holden then creates this untouchable barrier that prevents people from getting close to him. A single incident that tore down Holden’s façade of being young minded was one with Maurice.
Holden from the start of Catcher in the Rye deems people of society to be pretentious, referring to them as ‘phonies.’ His lack of trust and belief towards adults causes him to want to save children from becoming adult themselves. As Phoebe and Holden were conversing as what they’d like to be one day, Holden points out “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”; he enthusiastically states out that he’ll be the one to save them from what he considers to be the death of their childhood (Salinger 54). The cliff symbolizes the jump from adolescence to adulthood. The determined diction shows off Holden’s genuine desire to help out kids from ever growing up. Holden holds himself to the idea that facing adulthood is a terrible fate and should be avoided w...

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...that the flashback had on him, which affected him in a similar way to Allie’s death.
Onset of Allie’s death Holden evades the path of adulthood and struggles to preserve his childhood by eluding any actions that may identify him as an adult. He then states the idea that adulthood revolves around the idea of” phoniness.’’ Holden tries to escape reality by doing adult things: smoking, drinking, renting hotels, and ordering a prostitute; in which is ironic to what he has been trying to do since he left his school. Later on the novel, Holden manages to mature with several encounters with Phoebe. When Phoebe had gone to ride the carousel, he stood back and watches as reality began to sink in. This was the first time Holden’s outlook towards everything truly began to shift. Holden realizes that adulthood is set right before him and he has no other options but to grasp it.