Holden's Immaturity

Holden Caulfield is the protagonist in the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”. In the book Holden hears a quote “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he want to live humbly for one” (Salinger 188) which he embraces as he matures throughout the story. Holden’s opinions of childhood and adulthood change as he grows through experience.

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity. Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood.

When we grow up we’re raised to do our best and to be mature. People know their right from wrongs. Throughout the novel The Catcher in the Rye by, J.D. Salinger the main character goes through a difficult life and time growing up. Growing up too fast is not the answer for everything. The main character Holden Caulfield is a misfit because he is very dramatic, he avoids facing things, and he shows reckless behavior.

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.

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.

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 novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden, goes through many hardships in his journey to self-knowledge. In the beginning, Holden has to deal with being kicked out of school and not having any place to call home. He is also struggling with the unfortunate tragedy of the death of his beloved younger brother Allie. At the same time, Holden is trying to deal with growing up and accepting the adult world. Throughout the novel Salinger addresses the conflicts faced by a young man struggling with the trials and tribulations of growing up while also confronting personal loss and loneliness along the way.

There are certain qualities that define maturity, and they vary from person to person. Throughout the story, Holden Caulfield, the sixteen year old protagonist of “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger is slowly but surely becoming a mature, young boy. He battles through his teenage life because he is caught between two worlds; one of pure bliss and innocence, the other of a mature adult. As he aspires to be “the catcher in the rye”, he wants all children to hold on to their innocence as long as they can because he feels the world is full of “phony” adults. However with the help of some friends and family, he is able to realize that he cannot save all children and that they will eventually have to grow up. Jeannette Walls, the author and main character of the memoir, “A Glass

Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, presented a young, naïve, and intelligent male teenager named Holden Caulfield whose independent lifestyle and philosophical anxieties mirrored that of our nation’s unworldly ways. First off, Holden was a mere 16-year-old at the time. His youthfulness was bounded by a reign of vulnerability and confusion, leaving him with a sense of being out of place in society. “When I finally got down off the radiator and went out to the hat-check room, I was crying and all. I don’t know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (Salinger 153). These subtle traces of teenage angst and disarray shown in Holden’s character provided precise evidence towards the fact that a person’s age was a critical contribution to his/her power to gather wisdom.

The final symptom Holden experiences is his irrational behavior which is displayed several times throughout the novel. "You're a dirty...and you'll be-" (Salinger 103). Holden angrily backfires at Maurice, a man who began attacking Holden, clearly stronger than the teenager, thus only adding fuel to the fire. Holden's careless attitude results in him making ruthless decisions, such as agreeing to have a prostitute such as Sunny or willing to run away with Sally Hayes. "If you have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), you're probably aware of the strong connection between your condition and impulsive behaviors. Most of the time, you do something impulsively as a way of finding relief from a stressful feeling--for example, a painful emotion"

In the novel “the Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield exhibits an unwillingness and a repugnant attitude to the notion of adulthood. The death of Holden’s brother, Allie, is a deeply traumatic and jarring moment in his life. Holden’s Recollection of Allie is not just as “...the most intelligent member of the family,” Allie is also revered by Holden as “the nicest.” Holden refuses to accept the death of his beloved brother and move on, this reluctance to move forward strengthens his hostility towards the inevitable undertaking of adulthood. Moreover, Caulfield’s objection to growing up manifests itself in his schoolwork, or lack thereof. He “[flunks] four subjects” and “[knows] absolutely nothing.” He doesn’t apply himself

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.

The Coming of Age is explicitly conveyed through both Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, which not only enhances and shapes our knowledge of discovery through parallel plots, character’s and setting, but, yet further invite us to experience the process. 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 protagonist teenage Holden Caulfield matures throughout the course of the novel, thus the Coming of Age is extensively examined throughout the novel itself. By the end of the novel, Holden experiences an existential and intrapersonal-discovery through the coming of age and shows signs that he is ready to enter adulthood. 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…” Through Holden’s emotive and compassionate tone along with colloquial language, we are able to capture his brief and heartfelt moment; that he is finally coming to terms with adulthood. Consequently, he is becoming a somewhat protective and mature defender of innocence, especially of children. He also realises that he cannot protect children from seeing the profanity, as he cannot be The Catcher in the Rye for them.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger depicts how the innocence of the young is exploited into the destructive elements of the adult life. In the novel, the author illustrates his point of view through an insecure teenage boy named Holden Caulfield that has an inability to fully connect with the world around him. The author characterizes Holden as being incapable of connecting with the adults and peers around him often calling them “phonies”. Despite the lack of connections with people his own age he is able to make connecting with the young more fluidly.

The Catcher in the Rye is a classic American literature novel written by J.D Salinger. The book The Catcher in the Rye is J.D Salinger's most renown novel that appealed and affected to groups of people through every generation. This novel summarizes a couple days in an abnormal teenagers life named Holden Caulfield. He is seventeen years old, a junior in high school, and he just got expelled from a superior private boarding school, called Pencey Prep because of academic failure. He goes through life thinking that everyone is a “phony”. He only accepts people he likes and it’s a very small portion of the population. Growing up is not an easy task and requires a lot of time and patience, As being a teenager, accepting people is very challenging. Holden is a Picaresque, because most times he encounters another character in the book, he automatically deflects them or does not gain any notable knowledge, as most teenagers would. J.D Salinger shows us that being a teenager is not as easy as everyone thinks it is. Teenagers have a whole range of new emotions and problems that they don’t know how to face and are frustrated with the limitations of pre-adulthood.