What Is The Catcher In The Rye Theme Of Loss Of Innocence

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel about a boy named Holden Caufield, whose continual struggle throughout the novel of when to act like an adult or a child provides many situations in which his paradoxical personality, thoughts on innocence, and three major themes come out which in turn help provide many lenses for those two ideas. The three themes of loss of innocence, search for identity, and pursuit of happiness are the three main means in which
J.D. Salinger demonstrates Holdens layered personality.
Throughout the novel Holden gets himself into situations that question his innocence, and the way he handles himself and his demeanor in those scenarios show what he is truly thinking, or possibly the direction he is going. What Holden values

most about small children is their innocence, and that they don’t have to stress and deal with the situations he does. Also, he values that when you are a child and you are innocent are pure, like Phoebe, you haven’t had that one moment in life that will hurt you so bad it will take your innocence away. Holden has had that moment which is his brother Allie’s death. All he wants to do is protect that from happening to others, and even protect himself from making it worse. Or an even more interesting thought; he is in denial of losing his innocence, which is why he struggles in situations that question it. One of Holdens most apparent run ins with his innocence up in the air is when Holden invites Sunny to his room. When she actually gets to his room and is ready to do “it”, Holden says “I’ll pay you and all, but do you mind if we just don’t do it?” (Salinger 96). This shows that Holden is extremely conflicted when it comes to losing his innocence. He invited a prostitute to his hotel room, but then he asked her if they just can’t have sex and talk instead. He doesn't know what he wants. This situation also shows an interesting parallel between Holden’s actions and his name. His name basically means “hold on” and in this scenario that is exactly what he is doing. Holden “holding on” also shows us his paradoxical personality. When Holden is describing to Phoebe what he wants to be when he grows up, he says “I’d have to catch everybody if they start to go over the edge. I mean if they’re running and don’t know where they're going” (Salinger 173).
This shows Holdens paradoxical personality in the sense that he wants to save others innocence yet he struggles to even save his own. This is important because it puts Holden in a situation in which he is stuck. Mr. Antolini tells about Holden’s fall in the same parallel in which Holden wants to save kids that are on that same type of fall. He really wants to save these kids, but it is hard to help somebody with a problem that one is struggling with themselves. As a result, he is clearly paradoxical when it comes to his innocence.
Throughout the novel, Holden is paradoxical in his actions because of his struggle to find his identity. Through psychoanalytical research by Erik Erikson and expanded upon by James Marcia, one can see and apply Holdens situation perfectly. “The balance between identity and confusion lies in making a commitment to an identity” (mentalhelp.net). Holden struggles in between acting like an adult and acting like a child. This shows that Holden is paradoxical in yet another way because he acts two different ways, without even realizing it. This research helps to explain why Holden is so confused about how to act and if he’s making the right decisions. He is left extremely confused. Holden can be quoted acting like a child when he said, “I was 16 then, and I’m 17 now, and sometimes I act like I’m 13” (Salinger 9). A situation which Holden acts like an adult is when he erases the “fuck you’s” from the walls at the schools and thinks about what would happen if Phoebe and all the other kids saw it. These two behaviors from Holden demonstrate how differently he can act at times. This is important because it not only causes Holden a lot of stress, it also makes his search for identity very difficult. As said in the research, his search is faltered by his confusion of his paradoxical behavior. As a result of his hindered search, his struggle to find who he truly is is at a standstill. Once he can figure that out, he will be able to move on in life.
Holden, throughout his journey, wants to be happy, yet in many situations he is too focused or irritated about something else to be truly happy.

While at Allie’s grave, Holden says this. “but twice we were there when it started to rain. It was awful. It rained on his lousy tombstone… It rained all over the place. All the visitors that came started to run like hell to their cars. It bothered the hell out of me” (Salinger 155-156). This shows that while Holden should be focusing on seeing Allie and thinking about all the good memories they had, all he can see are the people running to their cars. This quote demonstrates Holdens pursuit of happiness, or his extreme struggle to be actually happy. Later on though through parallelism, his happiness is actually achieved, or at least the beginning of his redemption. This is when Holden walks to the carousel with Phoebe and she decides to ride on it, but it begins to rain. “Boy, it began to rain like a bastard… all the parents went and stood right under the carousel, but I stuck around on the bench for a while. I felt so damn happy all of a sudden” (Salinger 212-213). This shows that even in the pouring rain getting soaked, Holden is able to be happy and focus on the thing he loves most, Phoebe. This is extremely important because it is direct parallelism from the scene where Holden is at Allies grave and it started to rain. The key differences between the two scenarios is that Holden is with Phoebe, not Allie, and that he is actually able to be happy. As a result, Holden has achieved the pursuit of happiness. Through that, he is able to focus on other aspects of his life, such as the thought of

redemption.
Through Holdens journey and all the different characters and situations he got himself into, one can see themes of loss of innocence, search for identity, and pursuit of happiness. One can also see sublevels of his paradoxical behavior and values of innocence, and also a hint of redemption.