Essay On The Catcher In The Rye

"Catcher in the Rye" written by J.D. Salinger, is a novel in which the author creates much irony in the way he presents the loss of innocence or the fall from innocence in his main character, Holden Caulfield. While Holden clearly believes in protecting the innocence of children in society, he himself cannot seem to hang onto his own innocence. Throughout the novel Holden shows his love and protection for childhood innocence, the irony that he in fact himself may be losing his own childhood innocence mainly due to the responsibilities which he has taken on, and also shows that he may be more innocent than the reader first thinks as his simplified view of a complex world is much like an innocent child would see.

The novel "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger is very interesting novel in which the main character, Holden, intrigues the reader with his unpredictable actions and upfront judgments of his surroundings. Holden alienates himself to try and help protect him from the outside world and conserve his innocence. He constantly proves this to reader many in times in the novel by, telling characters he feels different, wearing clothing that makes him stand out even though it may make him look stupid, and failing to come through in relationships with characters in the story.

In The Catcher in The Rye, by J.D, the main character, Holden, can be seen as a troubled teenager growing up in a less than perfect society. Throughout the novel Holden struggles with the fact that many young and innocent kids will grow up and see the world from a different perspective. He naturally becomes worried for all future generations who will one day grow, as he did, and loose their innocence. The fixation of youth and innocence can be seen in the title of the book, as well as throughout the novel.

Throughout the story Holden emphasizes his love for childhood innocence. In a passage he says “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.” (Salinger 211) This immediately points to his affinity for innocence and not having the limits of being and adult. The

Many readers will agree that The Catcher in the Rye is a coming of age, but some may disagree that it is not because of Holden’s personal view of children. The disagreement may have resulted from Holden’s childish acts, such as, being

Teenage years are difficult. Time tells this story of struggle again and again. The Catcher in the Rye is a classic novel showing the struggles a teenager goes through while transitioning into adulthood. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is a judgmental and temperamental boy who struggles to see the positivity in life. Throughout the story, Holden searches to find himself, as he feels forced to grow up. He holds onto aspects of his childhood and isolates himself so much that it is even harder for him to transition. J.D. Salinger uses the red hunting hat, the museum and cigarettes as important symbols in the story to convey the themes of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, loneliness, and isolation.

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J.D. Salinger. It is narrated by Holden Caulfield, a cynical teenager who recently got expelled from his fourth school. Though Holden is the narrator and main character of the story, the focus of Salinger’s tale is not on Caulfield, but of the world in which we live. The Catcher in the Rye is an insatiable account of the realities we face daily seen through the eyes of a bright young man whose visions of the world are painfully truthful, if not a bit jaded. Salinger’s book is a must-read because its relatable symbolism draws on the reader’s emotions and can easily keep the attention of anyone.

A major theme of the novel "Catcher in the Rye" is the expression of Loss of Innocence. This is theme is shown through out the novel numerous times. One example of the theme is when Holden stated, "I thought how Phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how they woner what the hell it meant."(Salinger 201). This quote represents Holden's desire to protect children. Holden is frustrated by his inability to act and to keep little kids fro losing their innocence. It is very difficult to prevent young people from all the terrible things that they can face while growing up. As soon as children go to school and become part of the society they start to learn and see things that they have never seen before, and because they are still young they

Holden Caufield emphasizes on the loss of innocence in children. He feels that once they lose their innocence, they will soon turn into phonies like everyone else. The loss of innocence is very common in the development in human existence. It is caused by many factors. Past a certain age, children are either forced or led unintentionally into a pathway of corruption. A child is also known to lose their innocence by desires, fantasies, and attention. But once they lose their innocence, they tend to desire to go back and pretend to be young again. In the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden discusses the importance of innocence in children's lives. He feels that once a child loses his/her innocence, he/she will soon be leaded to a

Holden uses innocence to describe the kids surrounding him. Phoebe and Allie stand out as examples. “‘I like Allie,’ I said. ‘And I like doing what I’m doing right now. Sitting here with you, and talking and thinking about stuff, and ---’” (Salinger, 171). In Holden’s mind, only children are innocent in this world. Children don’t have sexual desire; they are not fake. However, Allie’s death due to leukaemia destroys his belief in childhood innocence. He thinks that pure kids never die, but his brother’s death goes against his thoughts. To be able to deal with his sadness logically, he always thinks that his brother will come back just like the ducks in Central Park. Holden protects his belief in childhood innocence through the hope that the ducks will eventually return. What’s more, he also mentions he wishes to be the catcher in the rye in his conversation with Phoebe. He imagines children running around in a rye field. He says he would like to catch children before they fall from the end of the cliff. This is symbolism for Holden trying to protect childhood innocence from adulthood

From this, children become a symbol of purity and innocence. Thus, in Holden’s explanation of wanting to be a “catcher in the rye”, children are a symbolism of innocence and purity. He wants to save the innocent and pure from their

By looking at the book “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, we can see that the primary message was the preservation of innocence. There are many ways this is represented in the story. The thing that most readers do not realize is that the story is that you have to go in depth in-order to get a better understanding of why Holden wants to preserve innocence. This is important because you get a better understanding of how he does not want other kids to turn out like himself.

Furthermore, the theme of this novel relies strongly on character development. The three themes of the novel: the painfulness of growing up, alienation as a form of self defence and the phoniness of adulthood are all based on the main character, Holden. Throughout the novel, Holden seems to isolate himself from the world. As he says to Mr Spencer, he feels 'trapped ' on ' the other side of life ', and he constantly attempts to fit in as well as protecting himself from maturity.

“I swear to God I’m crazy. I admit it.” It is very easy to automatically assume that Holden Caulfield is crazy. It’s even a logical assumption since Caulfield himself admits to being crazy twice throughout the course of the book. However, calling Holden Caulfield crazy is almost the same as calling the majority of the human race crazy also. Holden Caulfield is just an adolescent trying to prevent himself from turning into what he despises the most, a phony. Most of Caulfield’s actions and thoughts are the same as of many people, the difference being that Holden acts upon those thoughts and has them down in writing.

“If a body meet a body, coming through the rye.” This is a quote by Robert Burns and it talks about how being an adult and having casual sex is okay. The Catcher in the Rye by J.d Salinger is a novel about the life of a troubled boy by the name of Holden Caulfield. There is one trait that brings every person together and that is growing up. [JT1] Some people do not grow up and become lost in their own thoughts and innocence. Holden’s innocence gets the best of him when he misheard the lyrics to a song about sex. Holden substitutes the word meet to carry, because he takes it as a different meaning in his own mind. Holden wants to spend his life catching the kids that are about to fall off the cliff in the rye, because when they fall off the cliff they fall out of their innocence. This innocence is their knowledge on sex and growing up. The road to growing up from a child to an adult is scary, anxious, and challenging.