Theme Of The Catcher In The Rye

The theme of the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger is that everyone needs to face reality and grow up along with the painfulness of growing up. Within this theme are other aspects, like immaturity, maturity, youth, innocence, and death. The main character faces all these aspects and struggles with the reality of growing up.

The novel is about a seventeen year old boy named Holden Caulfield. Holden attends, and gets kicked out of, a prep school called Pencey Prep located in Pennsylvania. Before Holden’s parents are informed of his expulsion from the school he leaves several days earlier, wanting to get out of the school, and heads to New York city. The story revolves around his several days in the city. The reader also becomes aware that Holden is telling his story to a therapist at a mental hospital. It’s not known how he got there or whether or not he admitted himself there but Holden does explain that when he was younger his parents wanted to admit him into a hospital after breaking all of the

garage windows. He’s a pleasant kid.

At the beginning of the novel the main character, Holden Caulfield, is a seventeen year old boy who hasn't really grown up and is living in what some may call an imaginary world. He himself even states it earlier in the story, “I was sixteen then, and i’m seventeen now, and sometimes I act like i’m about thirteen years old” (Salinger, 5). At the start Holden is childish and even he is able to realize that about himself, or maybe it’s something that a bunch of adults have told him. The fact that he’s seventeen yet he acts like a kid.Throughout the novel Holden slowly grows up, loses his childlike innocence and replaces it for maturity, whether he likes that or not.

Holden's immaturity is shown through the fact that he’s bad at making decisions. The story starts with Holden visiting his teacher, Mr.Spencer, after he got kicked out of Pencey Prep. “...I was on my way to say goodbye to old Spencer, my history teacher.” (Salinger, 8). They talk about Holden’s disappointingly bad grades. Mr. Spencer tries to give Holden some advice to how life and the adult world works. Mr.Spencer had told Holden that life was a game that one must play according to the rules, to which Holden thought was complete bullshit. He see’s it as, that if you’re on the right side with hot-shots then yes, it is in fact a game. But if you’re on the opposite side then whats a game about it? Holden believe’s he’s on the no hot-shot side so there is no game. But even if there is no game for him everyone else has a “game”. So if he doesn't try while playing the “game” then he won’t get through life too well. Holden needs to understand this to grow up.

After saying his goodbye to Mr.Spencer Holden travels back to his room at Pencey Prep where he has two roommates, Ackley and Stradlater. Stradlater arrives back to their room after watching the Pencey football game. He announces to Holden that he has a date with one of Holden’s old friends Jane Gallagher. “ I got Bud Thaw's girl's roommate now… Hey. I almost forgot. She knows you." (30) After Stradlater tells him who his date is, Holden begins to worry. Jane was his neighbor when they were kids. They’d play chess. One day he was at her house and her drunken stepfather began to yell at her. Holden began to worry about his friend. Did he ever abuse her physically, verbally, or sexually? A child should never be treated in such a way. So when Stradlater says that he’s going on a date with her Holden begins to worry. He knows that Stradlater is quite a sexy bastard, his words. He begins to believe that Stradlater will make a move on her and try to remove the innocence from his old childhood friend.

Stradlater had asked Holden to write an essay for him while he was out. "How 'bout writing a composition for me, for English?” (28) Holden agreed and chose to write about his late younger brother Allie’s baseball glove, in which he wrote poetry on. Allie died because of Leukemia and it seems to affect Holden in negative ways. Holden speaks fondly of Allie and seems upset about the fact that Allie died so young; no child should ever go through that much pain. The death of Allie impacted Holden and showed him the painfulness of growing up; that death is involved and some people don’t get the chance to grow up.

Right before Holden leaves Pencey he gets in a fight with Stradlater over Jane, “... and then I tried to sock him” (43). In this scene Holden makes a childish move. Picking a fight with Stradlater when he could’ve just talked to him, which would’ve been a more mature approach. He avoided the words and went straight to punching Stradlater, missing, and then ending on the floor with a blood covered face and an irritated roommate. Holden decides it’s time to leave Pencey earlier after that.

After leaving, Holden finds himself in a lounge at a crappy hotel, “But you could hear the band playing in the Lavender Room, and so I went in there.” (69) Holden, pretending to be an adult, attempts to get a soda and scotch from the barman. The waiter declines his order, politely stating that he can’t serve minors alcohol. This aggravates Holden and he begs the waiter to add a little rum to a cola. The waiter refuses. You see, Holden enjoys being young until it stops him from drinking and getting drunk and buzzed. When growing up you lose your innocence but you gain opportunities like hangovers. But that isn't too pleasant.

When Holden returns to the main lobby he has a run in with a man who offers him a lay with a prostitute. “Then, all of a sudden, I got in this big mess.” (90) Holden goes on to explain to the reader about how he’s a sex maniac, and yet, he admits to being a virgin. Saying he’s just never gotten around to it. But trust him! He’s a sexual maniac. When Sunny, the female prostitute, arrives he decides he doesn't want to engage in sexual activities but lies, saying he recently had surgery. He says he’d just like to talk about anything, Sunny argues saying she's there to do her job or he pays and she leaves. Maurice, the man who had offered Holden a night with a girl, had told holden that the price was only five, Sunny insists it was ten. Holden ends up only paying her a five and she leaves and returns with Maurice, who also insists it was ten. They argue and then Holden ends up with a punch to the gut and on the floor, once again. When this happens Holden imagines he’s in a movie. An agent who was shot, limping down a stairway, blood dripping down his mouth and against his fingers as he applies pressure to his wounds. He reaches the elevator and when it opens he’s greeted by Maurice. Holden raises a gun to Maurice's terrified face and then he fires. But obviously, that doesn't happen. Holden limps to the bathroom and runs a bath. Holden didn't face this in a mature way, instead he pretended that he barely had a problem and was a big-shot who could kill anyone who would wrong him. He could easily get rid of his problems, but if Holden could grow up and realize that it doesn't work that way it might be easier for him to understand. If he understood that having a random stranger in a crummy hotel, that he’s witnessed some unusual business in, offer him a night with a prostitute is obviously not a good idea, he wouldn't be in this situation.

Holden moves on and finds himself in a record store where he finds a record for his younger sister, Phoebe, “The first record store I went into had a copy of “Little Shirley Beans.” (116). He spots a younger kid, around his sister’s age, tying her skates when he exits the shop. He approaches her and asks her if she’s seen his sister. The kids tells Holden where she is and Holden notices she has trouble tying her skates. He offers to help and she thanks him. Holden seems to really enjoy the friendly company of child rather than adults, kind of like a kid would. He tends to avoid adults along with older children and adult responsibilities. With the Maurice, Stradlater, and Sunny he got into fights with but with this younger kid he makes peaceful conversation. Even going as far as to offer to buy her a hot chocolate. Holden has a quality of youth that he can relate to with children, and he doesn't want to grow up. After his interaction with the girl Holden moves on to wait for a date.

Holden’s date Sally arrives “Finally, old Sally started coming up the stairs.” (124). Towards the end of their date Holden and her are eating dinner at a restaurant. Holden offers her a proposition. Sally and him move up to massachusetts or vermont, somewhere up there, get married and own a cabin. Sally, in this situation, is the only one being reasonable and adultlike. Stating that you can’t just randomly do something like that. You can’t just take money out of a bank and casually move to a different state and get a cabin. There’s planning that has to go into it, adult things. Holden's viewing his idea in a simple childlike matter. No deep thought or any understanding to how life really works.

Later, Holden sneaks into his parents house to visit Phoebe. “ ...I figured I better sneak into home and see her…” (156). Luckily for Holden his parents are out so he doesn't have to worry about seeing them. Holden wakes his younger sister and after a teary reunion, mostly on the youngers part, they have a talk. Phoebe asks Holden if he likes anything in his life. Because all he seems to do is complain, never seeming to be happy. Holden denies her theory and insists that he enjoys plenty of things. Like Allie and talking with Phoebe. Phoebe interferes and states that Allie isn't an option. Allie is dead and Holden has to move on. He can enjoy the memory of Allie but he has to understand that his life can’t revolve around something that doesn't exist anymore and will never change. In a way this shows that Phoebe, Holden’s ten year old sister, is smarter and more mature than he is at seventeen. Phoebe also asks him what he plans on doing with his life, in which he replies with a vision relating to the title of the book, The Catcher in the Rye. He see’s himself at the edge of a cliff in a field of Rye, as children run to the edge he catches them, not allowing them to fall. This could be seen as Holden trying to save the children from jumping off the a metaphorical cliff of innocence and into adulthood.

Finally, at the very end of the book, is when we actually see Holden change.

Not by a whole lot, but he does change. Holden goes to the zoo with Phoebe, “ “Do you want to take a walk down to the zoo?” “(208). There, his younger sister climbs atop a carousel. While on the carousel all the children try to grab for a gold ring, including Phoebe and she almost fell off. This is when Holden gets a smack in the face, and yet he doesn't even seem to realise it himself. He says that he didn't help his sister when she almost fell off because you have to let children grab the gold ring and if they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them. So possibly, Holden has realized that he doesn't need to be the Catcher in the Rye. Children should have to face their challenges themselves and enter adulthood with knowledge of struggles and pain. It might be too late for Holden himself but maybe the younger generation will do adulthood better than

him.