Holden's Escape of Corruption Through Childhood and Innocence in The Catcher in the Rye

I thought of her going in a store and buying it, and nobody in the store knowing she was a prostitute just thought she was a regular girl when she bought it. It made me feel sad as hell, I don’t know why exactly” ( Salinger, 95-96). Holden wanted to look for remaining purity within her despite her choice to work as a prostitute. By her not being vulgar, this showed holden that she still is innocent in some ways. Holden would have felt comfortable if she were fat, old, and wearing a lot of makeup rather than finding a young looking girl at his door.

Literature has always relied on techniques to catch the reader’s attention and format the story, and “the Catcher in the Rye” is no exception. Salinger brought many different writing styles into his novel to make it a bestseller. With his knowledge, Salinger was able to depict the persona of Holden to the reader without directly stating his characteristics. Salinger proves Holden is a lonesome figure who wanted to fit in but struggles to be accepted. The Catcher in the Rye depicts Holden as one who struggles with his sexuality and adulthood and wants to save children from adulthood because of the difficulties that it has brought himself. Salinger greatly expresses Holden through the use of metaphor, imagery, symbolism,

He tells her that would like to be a catcher in the rye because it would mean protecting children. Holden fears change and feels the need to protect his remaining childhood innocence. This is why he repeatedly gets kicked out of schools despite being an intelligent student. He tries to keep himself in the system so he won’t have to face the reality of growing up and being corrupted by becoming an adult. At the same time, Holden does seem like interested in growing up. Throughout the novel, Holden obsesses over sex. He basically demands Carl Luce tell him all about his sex life when they meet and repeatedly tells the reader how lustful he is at times. At one point, he even buys a prostitute but never actually has sex with her. This shows the duality of Holden’s idea of sex. While he brings it up so much it’s obviously he’s interested in it, he also explains that, despite having multiple chances to do it, he’s still a virgin. He seems to identify having sex with being grown up, ultimately regarding it as a dirty act. But still, Holden can’t get his mind off of it. Because of this, his ideals clash with his

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.

Mrs. Antolini, for instance, is forced to do all the chores at home. “Coffee, Gentlemen, finally,” Mrs. Antolini said. She came in carrying this tray with coffee and cakes and stuff on it. “Holden, don’t you even peek at me. I’m a mess”(Salinger 204). Mr.Antolini makes Mrs. Antolini prepare for Holden’s arrival, even though it is his guest and not hers. And on another occasion Holden gets ahold of not one but two prostitutes. He calls one by phone and gets rejected, the second time however he is offered in person by the elevator boy, Maurice. Holden agrees to purchase her for “a throw”. To his surprise she was as young as him. “She was very nervous, for a prostitute. She really was. I think it was because she was young as hell. She was around my age”(Salinger 105). The fact that this book condones prostitution as a social norm is atrocious. It shouldn’t be an option for women to sell their bodies in such a manner and this book makes it seem like a common choice women make. Holden did however make fun of D.B. by saying he was a

In the beginning of the chapters, Salinger makes Holden seem relatable to other teens. “I could feel a terrific lecture coming on. I didn't mind the idea so much, but I didn't feel like being lectured to and smell Vicks Nose Drops and look at old Spencer in his pajamas and bathrobe all at the same time.” (Chapter 2) Many young teenagers can relate to this quotation, since not many people find it amusing listening to an elderly lecture. Later on in the book, his childish personality begins to show more and more as the plot moves. At some points, he would like to connect to the adult world and at other points, he rewinds to the idea of every adult being “phony” or insincere people. One example of this is when Holden meets with Sally Hayes on a date. At first, Holden seemed to believe he is in love with her at first, but he came to the state of annoyance and exasperation when he couldn't connect to the adult world Sally was living in when he asked her to move out of state with her. Holden imagines himself as the “catcher in the rye.” He conceptualizes a field of rye perched high on top of a mountain cliff, full of

Between the bars, prostitutes, and perversities that Holden encounters during his time in New York City, it swiftly becomes clear that the adult world that Holden is forced to live in is a dark, uncaring, vile place. However, the one example of all the horrors of the adult world that stands out the most is the obscene graffiti scrawled on a wall of Phoebe’s school. Continuing the theme of wanting to protect the innocence of children, Holden feels absolutely disgusted with whoever wrote it, describing the person as “some perverty bum” (Salinger, 108). Holden’s fury with the hypothetical offender even grows to the point that he wishes to murder the man. While Holden’s intentions are noble (albeit extreme), they can also be interpreted as misguided. His assumption that a homeless man with perverted intentions broke into the school is unlikely, to say the least. In fact, it’s infinitely more likely that the graffiti was left by a rude child at Phoebe’s school who has unfortunately been exposed to the adult world Holden so despises. However, Holden is completely unable to come to this conclusion. “In his world, children are innocent and adults corrupt. While this keeps everything nice and simple in Holden's mind, it also makes it impossible for him to really understand the process of growing-up” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Holden is so desperate to keep his worldview that all children are innocent that his mind completely shuts out the possibility of children who have learned of the monstrosity of the adult world, not wanting to believe that kids have snuck past him in his role as a proverbial Catcher in the Rye. Furthermore, the appearance of the salacious vandalism occurs near the end of the novel, when Holden is on the verge of a breakdown. The precise moment in the story where

Holden’s disappointingly cold experience with sex and prostitution after he leaves Stradlater and Pencey Prep is a betrayal of his childish dreams of greatness and celebrity. As he enters the elevator of a New York City hotel, the elevator boy asks him if he wants a good time. Holden agrees, as he is “starting to feel pretty sexy and all” (92), being his first official chance to live up to his dreams of sexiness and manliness. His mind even starts to wander to his grand fantasy of “Caulfield and His Magic Violin” (93) in which he is the most adored man in all the world. He never, however, lives up to any of these egotistical illusions. His disappointment comes knocking at the door in the form of a young girl named Sunny. The minute she undresses, Holden feels odd and uncomfortable. He “know[s] that you’re supposed to feel pretty sexy when somebody gets up and pulls their dress over their head” (95), but he just felt embarrassed for her. His ego and dreams come crashing down, as his night is not of good times and achievement, but of a too young girl who is as nervous as he. It was quite depressing for him to realize that the adult world was made up not of the movie-like dreams he had entertained for so long, but of timid, depressing reality.

Holden’s attitude toward sex is contradictory, sometimes he says that he is horny while sometimes he feels the opposite. Holden states, “Sex is something I really don’t understand so hot. You never know where the hell you are.” (Salinger 82). This quote shows that Holden has very ambivalent feelings toward sex. He says that he does not understand it because sometimes he really wants to do it, even if it is with a

Holden Caulfield, a 17 year old boy who is reminiscing a about his 16 year old self’s journey from childhood to adulthood. This in such journeys one tends to make big decisions and loses their innocence, but Holden refuses to. In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye one may only see Holden Caulfield as a rich boy with first world problems that are way too trivial to feel lost about. Throughout the duration of the novel Holden spent it in New York City, where he moped around for a few days. While there he found himself in different situations asking the same questions about change. Holden has immense issues with change, specifically growing up. Like any person growing up requires one to understand the benefits of change and to embraces them,

These instances made Holden have to grow up sooner than he should’ve. To start, when Phoebe, Holden’s little sister, asks what Holden enjoys and would want to do in his future Holden exclaims, “I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be” (Salinger 175). Holden explains the “catcher in the rye,” as catching children that are falling out of their childhood purity, proving his motive to protect children from what he believes is corruption. In addition, when Holden wants to deliver his goodbye note to Phoebe he spots a vulgar statement on her school wall and claims, “I’d smash his head on the stone steps till he was good and goddamn dead and bloody” (201). Without a doubt, Holden has a strong distaste about the children at the school reading it, proving his desire to protect the innocent. Lastly, as Holden waits to meet up with his old friend Sally his thoughts drift to an old museum that he used to go to as a kid, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that

The Catcher in the Rye and The Red Badge of Courage detail the gradual maturation of two immature boys into self-reliant young men. The steady speed at which Salinger's and Crane's language streams enables the reader to see the independent events that lead up to the ultimate rite of passage for both Henry and Holden. Although the pinnacle of maturity Holden reached concerned his pessimistic view of the world and Henry's was a unifying moment of bravery, both boys experienced an epiphany over the course of their respective tales. Holden came to a realization in the timeless peace of an Egyptian tomb that forced him to reevaluate his immature and selfish views. His new attitude was first displayed while he watched Phoebe snatch at the gold

Here, Holden desperately wants to escape the phony, corrupt world, so he proclaims his love to her, and asks her to runaway with him. She tells him that he is crazy and leaves him.

However, he admits that while the couple’s actions are “crumby” (Salinger 81) and crude, he is still aroused and “wouldn’t mind” (Salinger 81) doing it, especially to a girl he is attracted to. While Holden wants to preserve his innocence by not thinking about sex at all, he agrees that he is a “sex maniac” (Salinger 81), and is a fiend about losing his virginity. Holden even goes as far as to make rules for himself. On page 82, he recounts, “I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it-the same night, as a matter of fact” (Salinger). He is slowly losing his innocence, and while he hates to admit it, Holden’s constant thoughts about sexuality is a sign of adulthood. To him, one should only have sex with someone they truly love. Holden is almost proud of himself for having such a morally correct view of sex. This is why he is so riled when he discovers that Stradlater had sex with Jane Gallagher. Holden realized that Jane barely knew Stradlater and felt that he, if anyone, should be dating Jane. His increasing thoughts on sexuality and loss of a conventional or shielded view of sex show that his loss of innocence is apparent.

Throughout the book you can see that he is very inexperienced but dealt with many different types of sexaul behavior. Examples include prostitution and premarital sex. Although Holden believed he was experienced about sex, he didn’t perform any of the sexual act himself. He thought most women were just utterly stupid and verbally mistreated them. Holden only truly had feelings for one girl named Jane Gallagher in which he treated differently.