Catcher In The Rye Childhood Essay

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

Another obvious sign of Holden’s obvious immaturity is his obsession with mature things including sex and alcohol. If Holden was truly more mature than his age, which was TWELVE at the time, then he would have recognized these things as aspects of everyday life. While Holden repeatedly exclaims how he is older than his age and wants to be a man, he truly only like the idea of it. A very mature and adult-like thing to do is travel alone and explore by yourself. Holden did this, in his own city. When Holden was with Sunny, she was ready to have sex with him, and Holden changed his mind at the last second and blamed it on her age and mannerisms. Truly, Holden only like the idea of being an adult and drinking, smoking, and having sex. It is common amongst kids to idolize and revere adult life and what comes with it. Holden considered himself and adult, which is ironic because of his idolization of adult culture he is only seen as more immature and child-like.

Holden does not only suffer from being kicked out of school and anticipation of his parent’s reactions or even punishment, but also his inner feelings on depression as well as maturing. He is shown to be a dreamer and as someone who runs away from struggles (a resolution).

Holden has experienced clusters of severe trauma throughout his entire life. His brother Allie died of Leukemia a few years ago and Holden was so upset that he punched all of the windows out in his garage that night. Neither Holden, nor his family have yet to deal with the loss of Allie, which clearly affected Holden very much. Also Holden was a witness to James Castle’s suicide at a private school that he once attended. James Castle had been bullied and could no longer handle the situation, so he resorted to suicide by hurling himself out of a building window and falling to his death. Although Holden was not incredibly close with James Castle, he was still affected deeply by the sight of the incident.

This leads to a loss of innocence as the child begins maturing individually and creating their own unique worldview. J.D. Salinger Highlights this in Catcher in the Rye through Holden Caulfield, and then reveals the huge remorse which this character faces for isolating himself. Near the end of the novel Salinger reveals that Holden “sort of [misses] everybody [he] told about…” (Salinger) his life and with whom he interacted. This demonstrates that Holden did have some meaningful connections in his life at one time, but eventually lost them because of his isolation, which caused a large amount of regret and loss of his innocence. This is most evident as Holden states that he even “missed that… Maurice...” who was a pimp that solicited Holden earlier in the book. That scene, in which Holden hired a prostitute, was the penultimate indicator that Holden was isolating himself. Even though he is a teenager, Holden traveled to a city alone to perform mature tasks in order to prove that maturity to himself. These grown up activities ultimately lead to Holden’s dissatisfaction with adulthood. By the end of this novel, Holden is stuck reminiscing about his past and yearning to go back his childhood. Because of his isolation and desire to be mature, Holden essentially lost all of his innocence and fully transformed from a child to an adult. Similarly many children lose their innocence as a result of their own changing views of the world. Seamus Heaney outlines this in “Blackberry Picking” where he states that, “each year [he] hoped [his blackberries would] keep” but “ knew they would not.” (Heaney) This is an important reminder that time is the ultimate thief of childhood. Despite a lack of outside influences, Heaney compares his childhood to blackberries to convey that eventually, both would rot. In time, he knew that nothing completely pure in his

However, having sex is something that is considered adultlike which takes Holden one step closer to becoming independent, but he backs out and goes back to his juvenile ways. To build upon this idea, Holden also shows a glimpse of the path of helplessness when he replies “no” to retain his innocence and avoids his existential anxiety. Furthermore, Holden starts daydreaming and thinking about his idealized future. He thinks, “I got excited as hell thinking about it. I really did. I knew the part about pretending I was a deaf-mute really decided to go out West and all” (Salinger, 199). As seen before, Holden is running away from his problems like a child and displays symptoms of helplessness because of his existential anxiety. Instead of facing the problem head on, Holden acts as if he is unable to cope with reality and live up to his ideal self. Ultimately, Holden shows childish impulses and immaturity, which sets him on the path of self hate.

The Cather in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is the story of a troubled young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden meanders through New York for two days contemplating his place in the world and what his future will look like. The duration of Holden’s stay in the city is filled with depression and loneliness, but also small glimpses of hope and happiness. Through the use of repetition and the use of anecdote, Salinger spins a cautionary tale which all adolescents should heed.

In the morning, it felt like a regular day. Lyla woke up to complete silence. She rolled out of bed, sliding her feet into her slippers and picked up the clothes that she’d picked out yesterday to wear today at school. She opened her bedroom door and walked down the narrow hallway to the bathroom, stopping at her sister’s room.

A way Holden that separated himself from was by insulting adults and never making friends with teens because he viewed innocence as sacred. Throughout the book, he struggles with the idea of growing up because he views an adult’s world as cruel and fake. Holden fights against time because of his view of the adult world and fear of death. The death of Allie and his classmate showed him that he too will disappear one day and everything will change. In order to reject growing up, Holden surrounds himself with people who embody innocence, such as Phoebe and Jane Gallagher. His goal in life is to protect the innocence of children by being “the catcher in the rye” because his innocence was taken away at a young age and no one protected him due to the death of Allie. Although Holden’s innocence was taken from him, he continually searches for it by epitomizing childish behavior such as obsessing over where the ducks go in the winter. The day after Allie died, Holden broke every window in his garbage and his hand in doing his, this act is representative of his innocence also breaking and not being able to ever be fully fixed. Holden also witnessed the suicide of his classmate which provoke his already damaged emotional state. The viewing of these two deaths made Holden realize that innocent children and he couldn’t figure out why.

Teenage years are the tough ones! About 20 percent of teens will experience depression before they fully reach adulthood. As stress is coming from every angle, teens give themselves a hard time. When undergone puberty teens encounter many obstacles, that transition from child to adult is overwhelming. In J.D Salinger’s The Cather in the Rye Holden reflects the difficulties of growing up through his encounters with the other characters.

“I slept in the garage the night he died and I broke all the goddamn windows with my fist , just for the hell of it. I even tried to break the all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer but my hand was already broken and everything by that time and I couldn't do it”.(39) We can evaluate form this quote that, Holden’s little brother Allie passed away when he was little. He passed away of Cancer in specific Leukemia . Holden as a child probably didn't understand why he left out of nowhere which made him act this way, of breaking windows and acting vulnerable.

In the book The Catcher in the Rye we believe that Holden is right that childhood and adulthood are as separate as he says they are. In adulthood you have many more responsibilities, your actions actually matter, and your respect plays a much greater role. In childhood, your actions don't really matter it's not like there is an actual effect on anyone because of them. You also don't really have many responsibilities when you are a child, your parents pretty much do everything for you. In The Catcher in the Rye Holden is more of a child than an adult because of the choices he chooses to make throughout the book.

Holden says “i mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going i have to come out from somewhere and catch them”, he would be the catcher in the rye protecting the kids from growing up , this thought of painfulness of growing up. Holden doesn't realize by becoming the catcher in the rye he is accepting the role of growing up.In the novel holden starts to grow up without knowing it he sees a world full of phony people and decides he wants no part in it.

AN: SHOUT OUT TO ; my friend Christin on Twitter ( christinalonzo1) for helping me with the ideas for this story and pushing me to stick with one idea! LOL! I swear I was tweeting her almost daily talking about how I was brain dead of ideas.

Life is a series of moments that defines us. These moments can be happy or they could be filled with disappointments. Overall, life is about growing up. Adulthood is about becoming a successful individual with the talent people receives. On other circumstances, people give up and that is why they become depressed and lonely.Tough situations happen everyday and some problems can't be forgotten. There are people who support you or let you down throughout your lifetime. Sometimes you need people to help you by guiding your paths and telling you the truth even if it does hurt you. Humans leave scars and scratches behind when they walk out on you. What has been done will never be forgotten. The Catcher in the Rye is about an individual that has