Maturity is not something that you are born with, it is a learned ability. The difference between kids becoming teens and eventually adults is the level of their maturity. However, some kids have a harder time maturing then others, and some just refuse to do it. In the book, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield is a teenager adventuring through New York City after he got kicked out of Pencey Prep. Throughout those few days in the city Holden has many encounters with different people, a prostitute, girls in a bar, Carl Luce and more showing his level of immaturity each time. By the end of the book Holden made decisions that could be seen as maturing. Even though Holden went through a little maturing, by the …show more content…
end of the book Holden is still an immature teen.
Although Holden proves throughout the book that he is immature, by the end of the book Holden shows some progression in his maturity. After watching Phoebe at the carousel, Holden realized that it was a better decision to stay home and tell his parents the truth about what happened, rather than traveling west, without realizing it Holden was making a mature decision. In the park Holden sat and watched Phoebe ride the carousel. The carousel had a twist to it, by releasing rings the riders could take a risk and dangerously reach out and try and grab rings with the hope of grabbing the golden ring. While sitting and watching Phoebe try to win the golden ring, Holden comes to a realization; you have to let kids fall in order to teach them to get back up. Holden says, "the thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them” (211) Holden is saying that you have to let kids take a risk and fall off in order to teach them; you can’t protect them from …show more content…
everything and eventually they have to grow up. Throughout the book Holden expresses a fear in growing up and maturing into adulthood and even wants to prevent kids from becoming adults, “catcher in the rye”. That is why him saying these things about the golden ring shows that Holden is maturing and realizing becoming an adult is inevitable. Also, in the beginning of the books Holden hints that he was in a mental hospital, getting help, writing this story to reflect on the time he was most troubled. By doing this it shows that Holden had accepted the fact that he was in need of help and willing to change, which show his steps towards maturity. By the end of the book Holden had proved to be starting a journey towards maturity, however throughout the story Holden is still acting like an immature teen. From a very young age we are taught the golden rules, think before you speak and always tell the truth; Holden however seems to neglect these ideas: until the end of the book Holden continues to call people rude names and start immature conversations with people.
From the beginning of the story you can see Holden's immaturity. On the train into the city Holden runs into his friends mother; he begins to lie to her, telling her that he was not kicked out of school, but that he is going home to have surgery on his brain tumor. Eventually he ends up asking if she wanted to have drinks with him at the bar even though he is not old enough. Holden is acting very immature here because he is lying and not telling the truth about what happened, but also he is hitting on a much older women which is very inappropriate of him. Also while in a bar, drinking under age again, Holden starts to dance with three girls and begins calling them names. He describes the girls as “the three witches”, “three real morons” (pg 70) and he constantly refers to girls as ugly, “the two ugly ones’ names were Marty and Laverne.” He is so immature he is using name calling as a defense mechanism when they didn’t really want to dance with him. He continues to talk immaturely with people, when he meets up with Carl. Carl Luce is a college student that is a few years older than Holden and went to school with Holden at Whooton and was his student advisor.. Holden begins asking inappropriate questions about Carl’s
sex life and making Carl feel uncomfortable, “‘No kidding, how’s your sex life?’ I asked him. ‘You still going around with that same babe you used to at Whooton? The one with the terrific-’” (144) Holden continues to make Carl feel very uncomfortable with these questions by continuing to pester him about why he broke up with the last girl and who he is seeing now, and if more mature people have better sex. Even after Carl told him to stop talking about it he continues the conversation. That is not a conversation that a mature person would have with someone that they do not know very well, especially if the other person is as uncomfortable as Carl was. Holden clearly was not thinking about how is actions were making Carl feel and this shows how immature Holden is. Holden clearly calls people immature names and images in immature conversations but Holden also continues to judge people throughout the book. Holden began judging people immediately, in the beginning of the book we met Robert Ackley, a kid going to Pencey with Holden, rooming next door to Holden. When Holden first introduces Holden he describes him as a disgusting, unhygienic boy rather than telling the goods things about him. Holden choices to make our perception of Ackley gross and weird. He describes him like, “he was about six four-with lousy teeth. The whole time he roomed next to me I never once saw him brush his teeth. They always looked mossy and awful, and he damn near made you sick if you saw him in the dining room with his mouth full of mashed potatoes and peas or something. Besides that, he had a lot of pimples … all over his whole face. And not only that, he had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy.” (19) Holden is being very judgemental of Ackley, from the way he eats to smells and his face looks. Throughout the book Holden calls almost everyone he meets or talks to “phonies” when he thinks that they are being fake even when he does not actually know them. Holden is just making a judgement after only getting to know them for a little bit. Anyone who did one thing that Holden did not like was called a “phony.” Also, at the end of the book, Holden continues to judge people, saying that the doctors were phonies and stupid saying they were asking him stupid questions even though they were just trying to get him help and feel better. Holden continues until the end of the book to be immature and juge everyone he meets Holden proves that by the end of the book he has still not fully matured. He may have thought through his decision to run away and realize that children need to reach out and fall off into to get back up. However, he still calls people names like phony until the book and he showed that he had thinking through his thoughts and conversations before speaking to people. In the book Holden expresses his fear of becoming an adult and maybe his refusal to mature his is way of protesting becoming an adult.
Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I started to cry. I’d give anything if I hadn’t, but I did” (p. 103). This occurs when Maurice argues with Holden about money that Holden owes to a prostitute. The situation becomes too much for Holden to handle, and he breaks down like a child. Holden also tries to have immature conversations with people who have become adults. Another example of imma...
The Catcher in the Rye revolves around Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the novel, and his disillusionment. Holden’s disillusionment illustrates that he has a problem accepting such. Aforesaid is based upon multiple factors, most which have brought Holden lasting traumas. A remedy is required for Holden to accept his disillusionment and enable an improvement of his situation. For Holden’s remedy, the consultation of psychologists, and additional specialized health professionals would be the core of an apt remedy for Holden’s psychological and physiological state based upon the numerous causes of such and the everlasting trauma of some of the determinants of aforesaid situation. The origins of Holden’s disillusionment revolved mainly around the death of his younger brother Allie three years ago, of which he still experiences the trauma to this day. His disillusionment is caused by both
Holden’s childhood was far from ideal, with Allie dying, his dysfunctional parents and the revelation that he had some “perverty” stuff happen to him when he was a kid. Due to this, he isn't ready to step into adulthood and leave his childhood behind. This is why Holden is mostly alienated from adults and connects more to the innocence of children like the girl at the park and his sister, Phoebe. However, Holden is disillusioned with both adulthood and childhood. He already knows how it feels to be an adult; drinking alcohol, being independent, living by himself and caring for Phoebe, but isn’t ready to immerse himself in it.
Holden’s apparent desire to be separated from the majority of his family and friends appears to have been triggered by the death of his younger brother Allie. From Allie’s there has been a downward spiral in Holden’s relationships, as he begins to avoid contact with others and isolate himself more. The reason I believe this is because we can see how immense his anger is after Allie’s death, ‘I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist’. The death of Allie has become like an awakening to Holden, and has alerted him how precious childhood innocence is, when Holden comes to this realisation he convinces himself to do everything within his power to protect the innocence of himself and those around him, to protect them from what he sees as a false adult world. Although Holden clearly fails to protect himself, as he falls into all sorts of situations which hardly boasts of innocence and virt... ...
I would like to discuss how Holden’s misinterpretation of the Robert Burns poem, “Coming Through the Rye”, sums up his deepest desires by taking a journey through his troubled adolescence and his journey to self–discovery that results in his breakdown. According to Phoebe, the original line in the poem is “if a body meet a body”. However, Holden’s misinterpretation of “if a body catch a body” removes all sexual connotations from the original poem. Holden is a deeply disturbed adolescent in search of a way to preserve his childhood innocence. His “red hunting cap” is a symbol of his uniqueness and his rejection to conform to society.
Throughout the book Holden admits he doesn't like change. Holden fear of growing up , becoming an adult and thinking of of it disgust him. For example the museum, Holden like it because the exterior of it did not change and says the only thing that would change would be you.In the text Luce says “Same old Caulfield.When are you going to grow up already?”(144). Holden wants things to stay how they are and how his life is. Holden considers adults phonies and he doesn’t want to be consider phony as well. When he describes the museum he says the best part about it is that it never changes, only you do.Holden bonds with his sister taking her to the zoo, museum and the carousel.He wants to Phoebe to experience what he did and to get the memories alive. “What I have to do, I would have to catch everyone if they start to go over the cliff- what I have to do, I mean if they are running and they don't look where they are going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That is all I have to do. I would just be the catcher in the rye”(173). This quote show how by holden is catching them from falling down the cliff which symbolizes stopping them from adulthood. “Thousand of little kids and nobody’s around- nobody big , I mean except me”(173). This quotes implies how young innocent kids won't be exerted by adults
Before this book was written in it's time frame, Holden deals with some struggles that change and impact his life quite a bit. The author portrays Holden's personality through his actions for the audience to understand him. Some of the actions are going back to visit the museum, calling and visiting Phoebe at home, visiting the park, keeping Allie's baseball mitt, wearing the red hunting hat, and asking about the ducks. These examples all play a part in showing that Holden is afraid of change. Holden is starting to grow up and make the transition into an adult, but the audience can tell Holden is struggling. Holden's decisions such as smoking, drinking constantly, buying a prostitute, and staying out late at night show his attempts to face adult life. However, when faced
We see during the novel that Holden wants to be able to protect innocence in the world, however by the end of the story he lets go of that desire. This is a point of growth for Holden. He finds that it is impossible and unnecessary to keep all the innocence in the world. While with Phoebe Holden says, “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye...I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff...That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye” (173). In this moment Holden wants to be able to preserve all the youth and innocence in the world. He doesn’t accept that kids have to grow and change and that they can’t stay innocent forever. Later on in the story when Holden is with Phoebe at a carousel again he thinks, “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the golden ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.” At the end of the novel Holden realizes and comes to terms with the fact that kids grow and lose their innocence. He moves from his want to be the “catcher in the rye” to...
One wakeup call to Holden would be when he refuses to pay the full amount of $10 to the pimp, Maurice for Holden’s time spent with Sonny. There are many ways Holden could of dealt with this situation, he could of paid him the full amount after being told to, he also could of tried to maturely persuade Maurice to letting his debt slide. After refusing to pay, the situation takes a violent turn. Instead of handling that situation like an adult would, Holden decides to say, “I don't owe you five bucks, I said. If you rough me up, I'll yell like hell. I'll wake up everybody in the hotel. The police and all” (102). Holden’s disclosed plan to everte the possible next predicament is to yell. Yell loud so that everyone in the hotel would be able to hear him. This is definitely something you would hear coming out of an 11 year old, but not so much an overconfident teenager fighting with a pimp. It was an extremely childish way of attacking the situation and got him roughed up. On the contrary it served the readers a good example of how naive and stubborn he is to the real world. A change in the way that Holden is acting is when he decides to not go on the carousel with Phoebe, but to sit on the bench and watch. This shows a very distinct line between adolescence and adulthood. On top of that a symbol that
Holden and the Complexity of Adult Life What was wrong with Holden, the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D.Salinger, was his moral revulsion against anything that was ugly, evil, cruel, or what he called "phoney" and his acute responsiveness to beauty and innocence, especially the innocence of the very young, in whom he saw reflected his own lost childhood. There is something wrong or lacking in the novels of despair and frustration of many writers. The sour note of bitterness and the recurring theme of sadism have become almost a convention, never thoroughly explained by the author's dependence on a psychoanalytical interpretation of a major character. The boys who are spoiled or turned into budding homosexuals by their mothers and a loveless home life are as familiar to us today as stalwart and dependable young heroes such as John Wayne were to an earlier generation. We have accepted this interpretation of the restlessness and bewilderment of our young men and boys because no one has anything better to offer.
He begins to own up to his mistakes and starts to build stable relationships with his peers. In a conversation with Phoebe Holden mentions that he wants to be a catcher in the rye, and save children from falling off the cliff. Being a catcher in the rye is a metaphor that represents Holden's dream of saving people and leaving a lasting mark on the world. “ 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. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy”(186). When we enter this point in the book we can really get a feel for how much Holden has matured as he has begun thinking about others and not just focusing on himself. Although Holden has progressed in his track towards maturity he still tends to sway away from maturity. Holden continues to impolitely disagree with others and argue his way to the top in order to achieve what he desires, “Daddy's going to kill you.” Phoebe suggests, then Holden comes right back and states “I don't give a damn if he does” (186). This example shows that Holden still has a fixed mindset on his ideas and doesn't allow for new thoughts to persuade him to change his opinions. This forces us to view him as immature as we do not see a man who is incapable of interchanging ideas with others and therefore unable to interact with his
in all but one of his subjects. He does not like to talk about his
Life is a game that one plays according to the rules” (8). Holden then reflects on this to hims... ... middle of paper ... ... the other children on the carrousel reaching for their gold rings he realizes, “If they fall off, they fall off” (211). This is so significant because Holden becomes conscious of the fact that whatever happens, happens.
He complains about his school, saying that it is just like any other school and uses language that makes him sound very obnoxious. Holden seems to focus on girls quite a bit, just like any other teenage boy. He seems to focus on one girl in particular, a girl named Jane. We soon learn that Holden’s personality is not your average personality. Holden does seem to have some friends but he does not fall into many peer groups with the type of personality he has. Holden isn’t able to read social cues like most teenagers learn to do. For this reason, he seems to play around a lot in the wrong situations. Even his friends have matured enough to recognise that Holden needs to ‘grow up’. Holden’s resistance to emerging adulthood is the cause of many of the problems he is faced with during the
Throughout the novel, Holden is facing a big problem that many teenagers have to face eventually (their coming of age) and the setting that he is in makes his problem worse. His biggest conflict is that he internally doesn’t want to grow up. The 40s/50s was a very turbulent time period. Teenagers during that time liked to venture into adult like behaviors. They smoked, drank, and partied. Holden described how some wild things happened at Pencey Prep, a s...