Holden Caulfield's Maturity

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield is portrayed as a brave individual. Throughout the novel, Holden struggles to find his way in a world which he feels he doesn’t belong. In order to protect himself, he shows contempt towards others and remains in constant isolation. Holden is brave through the aspect of his uniqueness and individuality. He tries to connect with other individuals, but is prevented as a result of his protective bitterness. Furthermore, Holden struggles with the issues of growing up and dealing with the death of his brother. As he ages, he sees the superficiality, hypocrisy, pretension, and the shallowness of the world around him. In order to combat this, Holden tries to resist

the process of maturity, as he sees childhood as a world of innocence, curiosity, and honesty. As well, Holden shows bravery through his adventures in New York City. Throughout this period, he tries to reconnect with old friends and explore different aspects of the city. With this mind, the character Holden Caulfield is brave through his ability to deal with his present circumstances.

Throughout the novel, Holden struggles with individuality and obedience. He is incapable of finding his way in a world which he feels he doesn’t belong in. In order to combat this, he uses his cynical sense of others and isolated behaviour as a way of self-protection. He sees others as “phonies” as they follow the social norms and conform to others. In comparison to this, he sees himself as unique, through using symbols such as a red hunting hat which stands out in society. Holden doesn’t see himself as the source of his problem, as he holds narcissistic viewpoints of himself. Even though he despises others, he desperately needs human contact and love. His protective bitterness and negative viewpoints of others prevents such actions. For example, he dated Sally Hayes as he was lonely. Though, his need for isolation leads to him insulting her, and therefore driving her away. Furthermore, Holden engages in activities which go against the social norm of others. For example, his lack of interest in school led him to failing four of five of his classes. Following this, he leaves his school and adventures throughout New York City. He participates in events such as going to bars and engaging with a prostitute. This is brave as when Holden was engaged in such activities, he opened himself up to common dangers. In conclusion to this, Holden represents bravery through his contempt of society and going against the social norms of others.

During the novel, Holden struggles through growing up and maturing.

Holden’s central goal is to resist the process of maturity itself. He is quite immature through constantly wanting everything to be easily understandable and eternally fixed. An example of Holden’s maturity would be when he was at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. While looking at the statues of the Eskimos and Indians, he thought of their simplicity. Following this, Holden contemplated a world where everything is simple and understandable. The purpose of adulthood is to understand differences and to contemplate the complexity of the world around us. As Holden grows up, he sees the superficiality, hypocrisy, pretension, and shallowness of the world around him. After this realization, Holden invents a fantasy that adulthood is a world of superficiality and hypocrisy where adults are inevitable phonies, and they cannot see their own phoniness. In comparison to this, Holden sees childhood as a world of innocence, curiosity, and honesty. In his personal fantasy, he sees children running around a field of rye, which represents childhood. A cliff by the field of rye represents adulthood, as the children will have a fatal cliff fall. Holden’s fantasy is becoming the catcher in the rye, or “saving” these children from the inevitable adulthood. In continuation to this, Holden’s youthful search of ducks represents a lack of understanding as the ducks appear and disappear over the season. The ducks represent how some things only vanish temporarily. This connects to Holden’s brother Allie’s death as he lost his brother permanently. The pond represents a transition between childhood and adulthood as the pond is “partly frozen and partly not frozen”. In conclusion to this, Holden’s bravery can be seen through the difficulty of facing adulthood and comprehending the death of his brother,

Allie.

Throughout Holden’s experiences in the novel, he shows a sense of bravery and adventure. To start off, Holden went against the social norm by leaving his school. Instead of focusing on academics, he spends his time trying to understand the outside world and the psychology of adults. Holden shows bravery by adventuring through New York City alone, which is very dangerous. Examples of this would include Holden accepting an offered prostitute. On top of this, he defied the prostitute’s request for more money, which led to his beating. As well, he went to various bars and talked to different peoples. While Holden is in New York City, he goes on a date with Sally Hayes. This shows bravery as Sally Hayes was in a relationship with Holden for a long period of time. Furthermore, Holden gets rather emotional in their meetup, which shows him trying to disconnect himself from his intrapersonal self. The most important example of adventure and bravery in this novel would be Holden going back to visit his sister. This was difficult for Holden as following his brother Allie’s death, his parents didn’t help him cope with the situation. The only way for Holden to cope was for him to keep Allie’s baseball mitt, which showed Allie’s uniqueness and importance in Holden’s life. Allie’s death led to Holden becoming more isolated from reality and less involved socially. Holden going back to his sister represents her importance in his life as he had to face his fear of returning to his house. In continuation, Holden also showed bravery while he was at Pencey Prep School. He does this by fighting Stradlater, as he thought he disrespected Jane Gallagher, who was his love. With this in mind, Holden shows bravery through his adventurous ways and facing his problems directly.