Adolescence And Adulthood : The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Holden has matured in many ways throughout the novel. He had grown from an immature child who only cared about himself to a mature adult who wanted to make something of his life. In the beginning of the story we are introduced to

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

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 one of J. D. Salinger's world-famous books about the disgruntled youth. Holden Caulfield is the main character and he is a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Navigating his way through the challenges of growing up, Holden separates the “phony” aspects of society, and the “phonies” themselves. Some of these “phony” people in his life are the headmaster whose friendliness depends on the wealth of the parents, and his roommate who scores with girls using sickly-sweet affection. This book deals with the complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. Holden senses these feelings most of the time and is guilty about many things in

The natural human response to a threatening situation is either fight or flight. In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield’s first instinct when faced with adulthood is flight, not unlike Chris Chambers in Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me. After an intense few days of self-discovery and soul searching, both boys realize that the world of adulthood cannot be escaped, only dealt with head on. The first taste of adulthood comes in the form of an act of betrayal by an authority figure, in both cases, a teacher.

The reader often searches for a glimpse of himself in the characters he is reading about, and this is especially true with the adolescent readers of The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. The author paints a picture of a conflicted youth by emphasizing his idiosyncrasies, and although Caulfield’s traits may seem exaggerated and alien at times, he is a character who is relatable to American youth today. Holden Caulfield has a strong sense of civic duty that is overshadowed only by his suicidal tendencies, is exceedingly sensitive to the evil in the world and prone to angst, yet empathetic to the emotional upheaval other children will experience when entering adulthood.

There is only one experience that unites every single person in the world. Many people in the world can agree that it isn’t always the greatest experience, and many people have an extremely hard time getting through it, but every single adult goes through the act of ‘growing up’. For many, the transition can be very depressing, and confusing. When a child is young becoming an adult seems to be enjoyable and exciting, but it isn’t until that child is forced into the cruel, harsh world where the innocence of childhood can be appreciated and missed. The novel Catcher in the Rye explores how teenagers who are nearing adulthood see the adult world to be incomprehensible. J.D Salinger illustrates the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenge of transitioning into adulthood using Holden Caulfield.

Every human actions meets in nature and they find their own characteristic feature in a good or bad way. Not everyone can say it is a pleasant experiment, but no one can deny that it happened. This single event is ‘growing up’. The transition between childhood innocence and adulthood is long and confusing, often uncovering questions that cannot be answered. During this time the adult world seems inviting and free, but only when we become members of a cruel, society can the happy ignorance of childhood be appreciated and missed. The novel Catcher in the Rye examines how adult life appears complex and incomprehensible to teenagers on the brink of entering it. Through the main protagonist Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger captures the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenge of adapting to an adult society.

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old boy, transitions from childhood to adulthood. The death of Holden’s little brother signifies the beginning his loss of innocence and growth of maturity. As he enters adulthood, Holden views society differently from his peers by characterizing most of his peers and adults he meets as “phonies.” Thus, Holden takes the impossible challenge of preserving the innocence in children because he wants to prevent children from experiencing the corruption in society. The Catcher In The Rye embodies Holden’s struggle to preserve the innocence of children and reveals the inevitability of and the necessity of encountering the harsh realities of life.

The resistance of maturity and adulthood is greatly expressed throughout the novel The Catcher in the Rye. J.D. Salinger describes the events of an adolescent and his inability to escape the difficulties of his past causing a delay in maturity. Both fear and trauma created during past events caused a delay or rejection in maturity. Holden is unable to move on from his past and is constantly trying to live in a memory. This causes him to want to stay with his childhood and resist transitioning into adulthood. Holden’s fear of adulthood causes him isolate himself from society in order to preserve and protect his childhood innocence. Lastly, Holden’s inability step out of his immaturity

Instead of acknowledging that adulthood scares and mystifies him, Holden invents a fantasy that adulthood is a world of superficiality and hypocrisy (“phoniness”), while childhood is a world of innocence, curiosity, and honesty. Nothing reveals his image of these two worlds better than his fantasy about the catcher in the rye: he imagines childhood as an idyllic field of rye in which children romp and play; adulthood, for the children of this world, is equivalent to death—a fatal fall over the edge of a cliff. His created understandings of childhood and adulthood allow Holden to cut himself off from the world by covering himself with a protective armor of cynicism. But as the book progresses, Holden’s experiences, particularly his encounters with Mr. Antolini and Phoebe, reveal the shallowness of his conceptions.

Each adolescent faces their own struggles before reaching the stage of adulthood. In, The Catcher In The Rye, a meaningful novel written by J.D Salinger, Salinger exploits the use of a protagonist, Holden Caulfield, who is extremely difficult to understand, to relay an important message involving adolescents. Salinger uses vague writing to portray Holden as someone who does not fit into society's expectations. Furthermore, after the death of Holden's brother, Allie, Holden goes into a downward spiral of depression and tries to venture into adulthood faster than he should have. The first time the reader interacts with Holden is when he is at, Pencey, a private school in which he is failing all of his classes, except English. As a result, Holden got kicked out of Pencey. To beat the letter, that the school sent home, Holden left Pencey early and headed into New York City. From there Holden spends his days in New York City reminiscing and interacting with some interesting characters. Based on the novel one can say that Salinger's main message in The Catcher In The Rye is to illustrate the struggle of identity crisis, which is a moment of time when a person's individuality is lost, in adolescents. Salinger does this using Holden’s sexual confusion and the use of turning an everyday item into a piece of symbolic literature.

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye presents a look into the mind of Holden Caulfield, a popular literary icon numerous teenagers have rightfully found themselves relating to at some point. While the familiar emotions of Holden were welcoming for me, his anecdotes and witty remarks proved entertaining as well. The story chronicles Holden’s exploration through New York post-expulsion, with his point of view influenced by his growing alienation with the world. He represents that growing sense of unease at growing up and facing a reality that is not always pretty, and, in his case, a need to save children from having to face that reality. I personally admired the fact that he was not just an angry teenager in the world as stereotypes suggest.

As the plot progresses and the character is exposed to the conflict, they have an epiphany that ultimately changes his perspectives and persona.

Life has many harsh realities to offer. One of the earliest realities taught by life is that everyone must grow up. One day, everyone wakes up and realizes they aren’t children anymore. There comes a time when one has to take his/her own responsibility. It’s a time when carelessness is no longer seen as charming, but as deplorable and extremely childish. Like many other teens in the world, Holden Caulfield experiences this rude awakening first hand. JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye features Holden, a staggering and troubled teen that recalls the time of his life when true maturity hit him. The Catcher in the Rye highlights Holden’s journey as he faces difficulty transitioning into the adult world.