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Recommended: Change and Stress Management

Changing was not part of Holden’s plan. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger follows the life of teenage Holden Caulfield after he escapes from boarding school a few days following his expulsion. Holden goes to New York City to spend a few days by himself before returning home. He stays in a hotel, visits bars and calls up old friends, all while dealing with a burning inner conflict that’s causing him to lose sight of himself. Through a thorough analysis of symbols presented in The Catcher in the Rye, it is apparent that Holden is struggling to keep up with his views on protecting childhood innocence, phoniness and change. He can’t come to terms with these changes in behaviour, and so Holden does everything he can- including drinking- to escape his reality. Holden’s inner crisis and fear of himself changing is shown through the symbols representing his obsession with protecting childhood innocence, his intense hatred of phonies and his aggressive attempts to resist change.
Innocence, according to Holden Caulfield, is sacred. He is so obsessed about protecting children from corruption that is tear’s him apart. The swear words written on the school walls represent the corruption that children face everywhere they go. These swear words make Holden unbelievably angry, for he thinks that they expose school children to adult themes that they should not know at such a young age. He is also infatuated with the idea of being a ‘catcher in the rye’, as mentioned when talking to his sister Phoebe.
Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to d...

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...big change in his life. Allie’s death started the problems that escalated into Holden’s burning inner crisis. Since then, Holden has moved schools many times, causing change after change. With everything else going on, he couldn’t deal with all of it, hence adding fuel to his inner crisis.
Holden is changing. It is obvious and inevitable. Though he is obsessed with protecting childhood innocence, not being phony and keeping everything the same, he is constantly contradicting himself and doing the opposite. No matter how hard Holden tries, he cannot seem to keep his ideas straight, and be who he want’s to be. These issues are all coming together and causing an inner crisis that Holden cannot deal with. The symbols presented in The Catcher in the Rye represent Holden changing, and resisting the change to the point where an inner crisis is formed, tearing him apart.

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