How Does Holden Mature

Holden thinks children are authentic and in order to stay authentic in a world full of phonies he seeks to preserve his childlike nature. In chapter 13, Holden talks about the concept of his virginity, he says “If you want to know the truth, I’m a virgin. I really am. I’ve had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I never got around to it yet. Something always happens.”(92). Holden admits he’s still a virgin and to many people losing your virginity is a step to adulthood. This is Holden’s way of trying to protect what little he has of his childhood to prevent himself from becoming an adult. That “something always happens”(92) is his own subconscious telling him to stop and to save this moment for someone who he really likes not a prostitute whom he bought. Holden even says earlier ,in the novel, “I don’t like the idea...I think if you don’t really like a girl, you shouldn’t horse around with her at all”(62). The author is trying to show how kids can avoid being an adult in the real world. Although he tries to protect his youth, Holden also likes to pretend his is an adult. He does things like being an avid smoker, constantly wanting to drink, and wanting to hookup with girls. Doing acts like these: ”After a while I sat down in a chair and smoked a couple of cigarettes.”(63), “‘Would any of you girls care to dance?’ I didn’t ask them crudely or anything. Very suave, in fact.”(70), “Boy, I sat at that goddamn bar

The author J.D. Salinger was able to represent the theme: the loss of childhood innocence, by describing the internal as well as the external characteristics of the main protagonist Holden Caulfield. Holden is portrayed as innocent due to his “lousy vocabulary” and also his childish mannerisms. His constant use of the term “boy” is ironic when Holden himself is a boy at heart. While internally Holden Caulfield may appear to be naive; this representation contrasts with his external appearance. Holden is struggling internally to be himself and is clinging on to his innocence, at a time where his body is continuing to become more mature and transitioning out of adolescence. The reader is able to note his struggle because of Holden Caulfield’s

At his age most kids are already sexually active, making them more adult in a way. The reason for this being that they are exposed to many things that younger, and more innocent children are not. With the protection of his virginity comes his innocence. Holden’s innocence is slowly being taken away as the novel goes on. When he goes to New York he is exposed to many things that normal kids are not used to seeing. He sees prostitutes for one thing, people who are the opposite of innocent and clean. Holden also has to be around a lot of phonies who make him realize hat the world isn’t perfect and that people lie and cheat to receive what they want. This is seen with Mr. Ossenburg, who takes advantage of other people while they are mourning their loved ones. He takes their money, which is supposed to go to a grave, but just ends up keeping it and throwing the bodies in a ditch. Holden meets many more phonies, and doesn’t want other children to be exposed to their dishonest nature.

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

Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I

Holden does not want adolescents to become adults because he believes that adults are corrupt and he wants to protect them from this corruptness. This is seen when Holden tries to erase the swearing words on the walls of an elementary school that Phoebe attends. Holden angrily tells us, “… I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written 'Fuck you' on the wall... I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant…” (201). Holden was angered because this proves that the innocent world of children has already been corrupted by the profanities of the adult world. In addition, profanity in such places like an elementary school distresses him because he associates it with Phoebe, little kids, and innocence. Thus, their innocence is tainted by these profanity words on the walls. He does not feel comfortable allowing small children to be

Teenagers lives their life differently. However, when the time of being a adolescent arrives, they all have the same confusion and mindsets. J. D. Salinger’s novel, “The Catcher in the Rye”, is about a seventeen year old boy named Holden Caulfield, who lives his life with complexes and problems of his owns. Holden lives his life according to his favor and commit unreasonable actions. Holden has a difficult time trying to understand what being a teenager is. Holden Caulfield is a typical teenager because he expresses the problems of being a teenager.

    Holden is a very dramatic character. Holden took this girl Sally out on a date. They were having a very good time. He took her to an ice skating ring. After a while Holden started to complain about his life and says something disturbing. He stated, “here’s my idea. I know this guy down Greenwich Village that we can borrow his car for a couple of weeks. We could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, and all around there see. I have about one hundred and eighty dollars in the bank. I can take it out when the bank opens. Well stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out. I could get a job or somewhere and we can live somewhere with a brook and, and later on, we can get married or something.” He is only 16 years old saying he wants to run

It takes many experiences in order for an immature child to become a responsible, well-rounded adult. In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger’s main character Holden Caulfield matures throughout the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Holden is a juvenile young man. However, through his experiences, Holden is able to learn, and is finally able to become somewhat mature by the end of the novel. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s story represents a coming of age for all young adults.

As a neurotic person, Holden exhibits Self-Hatred for himself through his tendency to deal with problems through childish impulses. Self-Hatred occurs when one attempts to cope with their existential anxiety by allowing it to manifest into mental illnesses. Holden shows this when he allows his innocence to make adult decisions. For example, he hires a prostitute and plans to have sex with her, which is something that signifies the loss of innocence and transitions into adulthood. When she arrives, he changes his mind and asks “‘Don’t you feel like talking for a while?’” (Salinger 95). This shows that Holden is unable to make adult decisions, and instead, relies on his childish impulses. Holden’s childish impulses also lead to violent outcomes, such as with

As the story proceeds, we see Holden accept the fact that children will “fall off the cliff” and there’s nothing anyone can do, this represents the struggle of preserving the innocence of children versus letting them experience the way of life on their own. The next day, after seeing his little sister, Phoebe, he decides that he wasn’t going to wait until wednesday to leave for the woods, but he was going to leave that day. Phoebe was at school and he wanted to tell her about this new plan and to say goodbye to her. He walked to her school and wrote a note to give to the principle to give to her, before walking into the school, Holden sits down on the steps “While [he] was sitting down, [he] saw something that drove [him] crazy. Somebody’d written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. It drove [him] damn near crazy” (Salinger 221). Holden discloses that he was so angry with someone writing this absurd word on the wall, that he was ready to bash whoever it was and even kill them. This shows a whole new side of Holden, he behaves irrationally and violent over the cause of someone defiling school property and subjecting children to “jump over the cliff” of innocence and adolescence. Children grow up and lose their innocence at all different ages and there is no way to preserve it in ways like how Holden wants to. Our society manipulates ways of contorting children’s innocence in ways exhibited like this.

As he leaves Phoebe’s school, Holden “saw something that drove [him] crazy. Somebody’d written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall… [he] kept wanting to kill whoever’d written it. [he] figured it was some perverty bum that’d sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something and then wrote it on the wall… [He] was afraid some teacher would catch [him] rubbing it off and would think [he]’d written it. But [he] rubbed it out anyway, finally” (260-261). Holden’s resentment explodes when he observes foul language on a school wall because he worries about the harmful effects of bad language on Phoebe and other kids. The word “Fuck you” directly contrasts the school’s purpose, because the school is meant to educate the young children with positive values and morals; however, the profanity written on the wall contaminates the purity of students, inviting them to the corrupted part of the world. Although Holden is afraid that he will be blamed for vandalizing public buildings, he still wipes out the foul language, a rather heroic achievement for the protagonist who has been worried about participating in any justice-seeking activities. Holden’s braveness has a potential to develop into the eagerness to terminate society’s negativities and safeguard the youngsters away from the harms of

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a story about growing up. It explores the obstacles we all face during our transition from child to adulthood. The tragedies and triumphs, the breakthroughs and setbacks, the happiness and heartache. As you follow the book's protagonist, Holden, through his journey into adulthood, you learn about his life, but more importantly, you learn about your own. You grow to sympathize with the young rebel, and you begin to see traces of yourself in him.

tries to act like an adult, but is unable to accept the fact he is

As Holden was walking up the stairs he sees “ fuck-you ” written on the wall and rubs it off with his hand. Then, later as he is going down a different staircase he sees the same phrase on the wall, but this time scratched in with a knife so he can’t efface it. At that moment, he thought that there would be millions of signs just like that one in the world. There was no way he could eradicate all of them. Even in the peace of the Egyptian tomb room at the museum there is a“fuck-you”written in crayon. At this point, he is hopeless and realizes that his dreams are unattainable.