Holden Caulfield Transition Into Adulthood

Should events from one's childhood keep them from transitioning to adulthood? Holden Caulfield has had many incidents come up in his youth that he wants to keep a hold of. In the novel by J.D. Salinger, the events from his childhood are preventing him from taking the step to the next chapter of his life. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden has many opportunities to transition into adulthood, but he doesn’t because he is obsessed with his childhood and the innocence that comes with it.

To start with, Holden expects to be treated like an adult by the people around him, but always acts like a child. For example, when Holden is on the train talking to Mrs. Morrow, the mother of a student who goes to Pencey with Holden. Everything Holden tells her is a lie. He

admits, “Once I get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like it” (Salinger 58). When most adults are put into a situation they think about what they want to do before they actually do it. When Holden is put into a situation, his first instinct is to lie because he thinks it is the easy way out and a source of entertainment for him, which shows his immaturity. Another example is when Stradlater, Holden's roommate, gets back from his date with Jane, Holdens childhood friend, and won’t answer any of Holdens questions. Holden gets furious and “Tries to sock him right smack in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddam throat open” (Salinger 43). When Holden gets mad he doesn’t stop to think about the best way to handle his anger or the consequences of his actions, he simply does the first thing that comes to his mind. Holden punching Stradlater is impulsive since he was given the opportunity to act like an adult and find a better way to solve the problem. Holden never thinks about what he is doing before he does it, so he tends to make childish decisions.
Continuing on, Holden goes out of his way to protect the innocence of his childhood, and others.

For instance, when Holden is staying at a hotel before going home, he hires a prostitute. He gets nervous and doesn’t have sex with her because, he explains, “If you want to know the truth, I’m a virgin” (Salinger 92). When given the opportunity to do something adult-like, Holden backs out because he would’ve lost the pureness of his childhood. Holden is not ready to sell himself to a girl and lose the thing he has been trying to keep. Another example of Holden protecting the innocence of people’s childhoods is when he is at the museum waiting for Phoebe, his sister, to meet him. While waiting, he describes, “You’d never guess what I saw on the wall. Another ‘Fuck you’” (Salinger 204). When Holden sees that written on the wall, he gets worked-up because the museum represents a part of his early life that he expected to stay the same forever. Not only did the words on the wall change the museum, they also show Holden that kids are losing their innocence too early in their lives. No matter where Holden is or what he is doing, his thoughts are consumed with ways to protect the innocence of people's

childhoods.
Lastly, Holden is obsessed with what he had in his past. For example, Holden has been holding onto his deceased brother, Allie’s, baseball mitt. Holden informs the reader, “I happened to have it with me, in my suitcase, so I got it out” (Salinger 39). To Holden, Allie’s baseball mitt represents Allie. Holden clings to the mitt because he is not ready to cope with Allie’s death and transition into the next phase of his life, a phase that Allie will not be a part of. Another example of Holden’s attachment to his past is when he talks about Jane. Holden recalls, “I used to play checkers with her all the time” (Salinger 31). This shows that Holden is attached to certain memories of his past. As the book continues on, Holden is constantly asking if Jane still keeps her kings in the back row, which shows that Holden is hooked on her and his thoughts are overpowered by her and the friendship that they once had. The things that Holden is obsessed with from his past are keeping him from transitioning to adulthood.
Holden never makes the change from his childhood to adulthood in fear that he will lose everything that he had in his past. Holden is stuck in between his past and future because he is not willing to move on without the things he is trying hard to hold onto. Holden is scared that by making the transformation he will lose everything. At the end of the novel, it is revealed that Holden is placed into a mental institution. One justification for this placement is that being stuck in the middle is not good for one’s mental stability because they do not know where they belong in the world. One can’t stay in their childhood where they are comfortable, but they also are afraid because don’t know their place in adult life.