How Does Holden Caulfield Change Throughout The Catcher In The Rye

“Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.” - Holden Caulfield.
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye portrays the story of a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield, growing up in the decadent world of New York. Holden fears adulthood. He is afraid of abandoning his youthful qualities as he steps into the mature world, in which he perceives as full of superficiality and hypocrisy, or “phoniness.” When in fact, he is oversimplifying adulthood with his cynical, black-and-white views. His judgement serves as a form of protection, allowing him to self-isolate from reality. He chooses to avoid his inner troubles about change and responsibility instead

of seeking out truth through confrontation (Salinger).
Throughout the novel, Holden sees the protection of innocence as an essential virtue, especially in children. Chapter 22 has one of Salinger’s greatest quotes that gives us a glimpse into Holden’s perspective on children growing up. In the quote, Holden refers to himself as “the catcher in the rye”, wanting to save “thousands of little kids” from running off the edge of a cliff. He wants to catch them before they “fall” into the corruption of the adult world. It is also evident that Holden himself is desperate to avoid maturity, when he explains that there is “nobody big” around except for him. He doesn’t want any adults around since he himself dreads growing up (Salinger).
To avoid adulthood, Holden pushes away responsibility. He has already flunked out of several boarding schools (as he explains in chapter 1) and continues to live in denial, refusing to take responsibility of his life and fix his mistakes. After failing school, he runs off to New York and squanders his money on hotel rooms, bars, and cabs, completely disregarding the potential consequences of his careless actions. There is also a lack of responsibility when confronting his parents, as shown on page 52, when he decides not to call Phoebe, afraid his parents would be the one to answer the phone. The reason he escapes to New York in the first place is to hide from them (Salinger).
He also avoids the responsibility to communicate with those who want to help him. For instance, in chapter 1-2, his history teacher, Mr. Spencer, tries to have a talk with Holden about flunking out of school. Holden is not too fond of the man, describing him as a character with never-ending lectures and blunt words, constantly chiding Holden for knowing “absolutely nothing” about the material. Yet, Mr. Spencer’s actions are seemingly focused on the well-being of the boy. It is Holden who seems to be portraying Spencer negatively because he doesn’t want to take his advice (Salinger).
In the same fashion, Holden avoids confrontation with his childhood friend, Jane Gallagher. Several times, he considers calling her or going “down to say hi”, but each time he cuts the idea off with, “I wasn’t in the mood,” as shown on page 63. On the other hand, he is able to easily communicate with Phoebe, who also cares for him. The difference is that Phoebe is just a child who loves him unconditionally, whereas other relationships always have potential conflict or change. For this reason, a real-life, mature relationship overwhelms and confuses Holden (Salinger).
Similarly to emotional intimacy, Holden also shies away from physical intimacy. He confesses that sex is something he “doesn’t really understand too hot” (chapter 9). He sees sex as something inherently shameful, in his mind it is dirty and thus degrading to the women (chapter 9), but he also acknowledges his own sexual desire. He admits: "It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes." (chapter 9) Considering that sex is closely related to adulthood, he may also feel torn by his biological urges. Willing or not, he is physically transitioning into an adult. However, every time he has a chance to have sex, he tries to resist his sexuality by choosing to abstain. Specifically, when he lies to the prostitute, Sunny, so that he can avoid having sex with her or when he backs down from meeting Faith Cavendish, a girl who “doesn’t mind doing it.” These are all examples of Holden withstanding changes (Salinger).
No longer wanting to cope with the harsh reality in which he finds himself in, Holden even considers literally escaping.

He unsuccessfully attempts to convince his date, Sally Hayes, to run away with him to a remote place in the wilderness (chapter 17). This shows that Holden is reaching another level of desperation, in which he is starting to lose his mental stability. In chapter 25, Holden reaches the climax of his struggles, and is about to breakdown. Feeling completely emotionally drained, he decides once again to run away. After the supposed sexual incident with Mr. Antolini in chapter 24, Holden doesn’t know what to think of Antolini’s ambiguous motives. As a person who only sees in black and white, making oversimplified judgements of everything, Holden feels as though his reality is suddenly warped. This incident represents the last straw, causing him to lose the little stability he had left. He feels that he can no longer deal with the world around him, and the only seemingly logical choice is to literally run away

(Salinger).
By now, it should be clear that Holden protects himself through isolation.

In chapter 22 when Phoebe accuses him of hating everything and challenges him to name one thing that he likes, he is silent for a while as his thoughts oddly drift to a boy he once knew at Elkton Hills, James Castle. After refusing to take back his insult toward a boy named Phil, Castle is tormented by Phil and the other boys until he suddenly jumps out of a window and kills himself. This incident left a deep impression on Holden. Subconsciously, Castle’s act may have appeared heroic, as a fight against the “phoniness” of the world. This idea corresponds with what Mr. Antolini tells Holden in chapter 24: “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” Holden may be appealed to the idea of fighting against “phoniness” and dying “nobly” through his self isolation and avoidance of the adult world

(Salinger).
However, the actions that Holden is currently taking, may have worse repercussions. In chapter 24, Mr. Antolini hints at a potential “fall” that Holden may experience. This “fall” is different from the one that Holden envisions, in which children are transitioning into adults. This is the fall he will must face if he refuses to grow up. Holden is progressing in a downward mental spiral, and he gradually feels that he is losing touch with his environment due to his largely self-imposed isolation. This is proven in chapter 26 when Holden stands on the curb of the sidewalk and is afraid that he can’t make it to the other side. Terrified, he begs his dead brother, Allie, not to let him disappear (Salinger).
At this point in time, Holden needs human interaction. The main reason he might be hostile towards change is because of the loss of interaction of two central people in his life: Allie, his younger brother who died of Leukemia, and D.B., his older brother who ran off to Hollywood to become a screenwriter. And, certainly, the cruel world has not treated Holden kindly. So why should he be accepting? Holden’s cynical view of the world is at least partially accurate. He experiences getting wrongfully beat up by a pimp, and the only adult who pays attention to him in the entire novel ends up possibly having ulterior motives. It’s not difficult to understand why he just wants to stop time (Salinger).
Nevertheless, at the end of the novel is when Holden finally overcomes his fear of change. Throughout the book, Holden always started conversations with, “listen.” For example, he tells Ackley: “‘Listen,’ I said, ‘do you feel like playing a little Canasta?’” He also introduces a question to the taxi driver: “‘Hey, listen,’ I said. ‘You know those ducks in the lagoon….’” And once again when talking to his acquaintance, Luce: “‘Listen, hey, Luce. You’re one of these intellectual guys. I need your advice. I’m in a terrific--’” Despite starting countless sentences with “listen” no one truly does, Luce even cuts him off, not bothering to even listen to the end of the sentence. But as the novel concludes, Holden says to Phoebe, “Listen, do you want to go for a walk?” And for once, Holden is finally listened to. As he watches Phoebe move around and around on the merry-go-round, he starts to bawl because he’s “so damn happy.” This is the moment in which Holden overcomes his fear of change. His happiness is a sign that he is finally coming out of his shell of isolation. Phoebe was able to give him the human connection that he had been longing for (Green, Salinger).
In conclusion, Holden idealizes childhood and oversimplifies adulthood as a way to justify not wanting to grow up, when he actually avoids adulthood because he’s afraid of the complexities, unpredictabilities, and responsibilities that come along with it. As someone who sees matters as black or white he doesn’t want to confront the complications and ambiguity of the real-world. But unfortunately, the one thing that’s definite in life is that change will always be there. Due to his self-alienation, he desperately needed intimacy, yet that same protective wall of pessimism was what prevented him from looking for such intimacy. Phoebe finally breaks through that wall at the end of the novel and gives him the strength he needs to heal and confront reality.