Holden's Attitudes Toward Childhood and Adulthood in Salinger's, The Catcher in the Rye

At the beginning of the novel, Holden’s hypocritical attitude towards every flaw and imperfection in the world causes him to struggle against maturity. Being on the line of division between

Holden does not want to be forced to grow up, but instead tries to act more mature than he actually is. During Holden’s time and still today “teenagers [find] themselves stranded between adult things and childish pleasures.”(Schuessler) For Holden, this feeling of being stuck between childhood and adulthood created anxiety within him. Thus from this anxiety he feels he must act mature, but although trying to act mature he still believes he acts younger that he is. No one around Holden can understand him and the issues he is having with growing up, which makes it even more difficult for Holden himself to understand, so instead of trying to understand he runs away to New York. Holden engages in risky behavior because he believes it makes him mature. All teens engages in risky behavior and “some risk-taking among adolescents is evidence that they are trying out more adultlike roles” (Cloud) In Holden’s case he was not acting more adultlike. He was trying to act more mature, but he did not want to be an adult. Participating in risky behavior because he believed it made him mature is demonstrates how truly immature Holden was. Holden is confused about who he is and makes many immature decisions because he believes that they are mature decisions and he does not care how they affect his future. Some readers can argue that because of Holden’s awareness of the fact that he

Holden, the main character of The Catcher in the Rye, demonstrates his difficulty in accepting the change throughout the novel. However, towards the end he shows his maturity and how he’s finally gone through the change. He realizes that it is okay to grow up and become an adult, even if it means letting go of the care-free, no responsibility childhood world. This shows to readers that in life instead of running away from your problems, face

Holden is an adult whether he comes to terms with it or not. He must accept that he has already crossed the thin threshold between childhood and adulthood. It is a sad reality for everyone to come across, and we all have to face its challenges. Holden realizes how he’s changed when he wants to go to the museum before his date with Sally. As he pulls up to the front of the museum he thinks to himself, “all of a sudden I wouldn't have gone inside for a million bucks” (136). He knows that he is a different person since the last time he had gone inside the museum. His innocence was

There are many unexpected changes between childhood and becoming a teenager; one experiences bodily changes, along with the societal changes that occur around them. Hormones and emotions are uncontrollable; this lack of control over one’s body, adds to the stress and scariness associated with the development from being a child into a mature adolescent. The transition between childhood innocence and the brutality of adulthood is long and confusing, often resulting in a loss of self identity. Children always look towards the future with great anticipation; however, many adults reminisce about their childhoods. As a child, the thought is that growing up cannot come soon enough; one cannot appreciate the blissful innocence of childhood until it has passed. The novel The Catcher in the Rye explores the complex and often incomprehensible transition to adulthood through the experiences of the protagonist, Holden Caulfield. J.D. Salinger uses the character of Holden to express the challenges teenagers must overcome to adapt and succeed in an adult society. Holden demonstrates the challenges he is experiencing through this time of development by striving to preserve childhood innocence. He explores this preservation through his younger sister, Phoebe, his idealistic job of being the ‘Catcher in the Rye’, and his inner conflicts with and about the adult world.

Irving Howe, a literary and social critic said, “The knowledge that makes us cherish innocence makes innocence unattainable” (BrainyQuote). The Catcher in the Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger tells of a very important part Holden Caulfield 's life. Holden, a 17 year old from New York, writes about the events that follow him flunking out of Pencey Prep School. Holden is very critical of everyone around him, except the small group of people that he protects with his life. He cherishes the youth children have, and hates the qualities that adults share. He acts very young for his age, but has the responsibilities on his shoulders that an adult would have. Holden is very defensive of other’s innocence and attempts to selfishly protect it from the

He thinks that adulthood is full of superficials and phonies. Nothing about growing up enlightens him. He thinks of childhood and adolescence as this world of innocence, kindness, and honesty. Holden uses the Catcher in the Rye fantasy as an image of childhood versus adulthood. Holden is the Catcher in the Rye who tries to catch the children that are falling off the cliff and the children that fall of the cliff, fall into adulthood.

In this excerpt from J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the loss of innocence after the transition from childhood to adulthood is conveyed through the explanation of his ideal occupation. Talking to Phoebe, Holden pictures himself as a “catcher in the rye,” someone who prevents children playing in a rye field from falling off a cliff: “I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re doing I have to come out from somewhere and catch them” (Salinger, 224). Holden’s image is a metaphor conveying his desire to act as a shield protecting the innocence of childhood from the corrupt nature of adulthood. Throughout the novel, Holden portrays adults as phony, and children as innocent. Here, he expresses a desire to stop children from

In J.D Savlingers book The Catcher in the Rye, the seventeen year old protagonist Holden Caulfield is in a constant battle of who he is, and who he wants to be. The young narrator of this novel is in a hole that seems nearly impossible to get out. Holden is starting to become an adult but is in fear of the adult world and what it contains. He believes that they are just a bunch of phonies and is scared straight of adulthood. He resists as much as he can, but has little choice. Through this journey he is constantly struggling in his walk of life. From class expectation to family, and even himself, Holden is struggling to find answers and fix things that are broken. All of these struggles have one event tied to them and that is the death of his brother Allie. Part of Holden's collapse is due to his inability to accept his brothers death. He is always haunted by the image of his brother lying dead in his tomb. He wants beautiful things to last, and that part of the reason why he despises adulthood. The reality is too much for Holden in his eyes. Holden believes that Childhood and Adulthood are both separate and drastically different. These beliefs is the reason Holden Caulfield doesn't fit into neither adulthood or childhood.

Holden's inability to move past his brothers loss and accept the struggles of life block his transitioning into searching for acceptance. His desire to be with his brother Allie again creates his world to be a wasteland where it contains lack of fulfillment and acceptance of himself. The inability to find acceptance for the faulty world intervenes with Holden’s search for integrity. The way Holden achieves wholeness is only to obtain the status the catcher in the rye. As Holden contemplates his needs for wholeness he tells Phoebe “I know it’s crazy, but that's the only thing I’d really like to be” (Salinger 225). Since providing a barrier for children from the adult world is unobtainable, Holden’s thoughts begin to clutter creating his illness of depression. His quest to find wholeness disappears among the world of corruption because of the sins and loss of integrity in the

When Holden visits Phoebe’s school, he notices someone had written something foul: “Somebody’d written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it” (201). Holden approves of things like cursing, smoking, and drinking, yet if it is towards a kid, Holden acts like a protective parent. He believes that children should be isolated from this part of the world, or at least until they grow up. This brings up a very important symbol in the book which is the Catcher in the Rye, who saves kids from falling off a cliff. Holden aspires to be this figure because he wants to save these kids, from “falling” into adulthood. Holden persistently believes in the concept of innocence, and he will fight hard to make a world that is safe for

One of the major themes in this novel is innocence and how Holden wishes to protect the innocence of especially young children. He believes that growing up means losing your innocence and entering the superficial, unauthentic (or phony, as he likes to call it) world of adults. Incidentally, Holden is caught up in limbo between the world of a child and that of an adult. This causes Holden to doubt his place in the world and leaves him in a depressed state

In the book Tthe Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden encounters a collection of internal struggles, emotional instability along with thoughts of his brother as well as external such as confrontations and rough weather alike [run-on] . Holden is among two distinctive worlds one is his childhood and alternative is his maturity. Without realizing it he is exactly in midst of choosing meaningful decision although he doesn’t know which path is premium. Life is uncommonly acute to this young teen. In countless ways Holden acts younger than his age suggest, however he is changing and becoming

Holden believes that when children grow up to be adults, they lose their innocence. He doesn't want them to experience the adult world because it's bad and disappointment from his perspective. That’s mainly the reason why holden wants to be the catcher in the rye. “I’d rather be the catcher in the rye and all.” he pictures himself in a field of rye full of children and he has to take care of the children so they won't fall over the cliff. The field of rye represent childhood and the cliff represents adulthood. He's the one that want to save all the children but the thing is he can't save them all eventually they fall over the cliff into the adult

Innocence and experience are huge differences in life, both in the modern world, as well as in Holden’s. He considers himself the “catcher in the rye”, trying to sustain the children’s innocence and childhood, and even though this is impossible, he is correct in seeing the big difference, and that children are often innocent, while the adults’ experience is not always a good thing. At the same time, phoniness plays a big role in the difference between adulthood and childhood as well. Children are usually going to act and speak what they feel is right, so it reflects their character, while this is often not the case in adults. Holden considers this “phony”, and he is correct in seeing that difference. However, he doesn’t realize his own phoniness, nor does he realize that children aren’t as honest as he thinks they are, so the gap or difference between childhood and adulthood, while there is a significant difference, isn’t as big as Holden thinks of it. In the end, the transition between childhood and adulthood is something that every single person in the world will, is, or has gone through, and although there are major changes, we have to be able to cope with them and not have to be “saved by a catcher in the rye from falling off a