In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger reminds readers about the process in which children inevitably need to grow up to face the real world. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is presented as a vulnerable, depressed adolescent whose constantly seeking escape, in every form, from the complexities of adulthood approaching. Escape which can be portrayed in the forms of sex, drugs, and alcohol from topics such as death and intimacy in which he is going to have to encounter in order to grow up, which terrifies him to no end. Nevertheless, Holden desires to escape the thought of the adult world by turning his attention to imagining a fantasy world. A fantasy in which the adult world dealt with hypocrites as well as superficial people …show more content…
Holden thinks of the museum as never changing and simple. No matter how old he gets, history never changes. Which is why he can easily find solace in his safe spot, a place where he can always come back to. Besides the fact that the museum is a part of his fantasy world, it is also a place of preservation. The artifacts and exhibits are hidden behind a glass case surrounding and preserving itself from the outside world. Which in a way, preserves its innocence. Similar to how Holden thinks of his childhood, "Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know it's impossible, but it's too bad anyway" (158). Readers can infer how Holden is terrified by the thought of the world around him changing. He's just like all these teens on the verge of growing up, they want to revert to simpler things. With change comes the unpredictable challenges life throws your way. A way to cope with change is to escape reality, which Holden does best. He creates an alternate universe in which the less important things matter most to him. While things like death, he deals with in a nonchalant-like
Another big problem Holden faces throughout his journey in life was how much he struggled to keep his innocence. After Holden was able to get his letter delivered to his sister, Phoebe, asking her to meet him at the Museum of art, he decides to explore the museum while he waits while he looks at all displays he states, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole ... Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you'd be so much older or anything. It wouldn't be that exactly. You'd just be different, that's all. You'd have an overcoat on this time” (Salinger 121). This shows that Holden likes the Natural History museum because, no matter what else changed in his life, it was always the same: it was like a freeze-frame picture of his own childhood, a safe spot he could always come back to. This also depicts that Holden has always found a way around times
Holden losing his virginity is another way for him to grow up, and not being able to lose it is an example of Holden resisting change and growth, While in New York, Holden visits the Natural History Museum and mentions how he wishes everything would stay the same, just like the exhibits in the museum, in which “nobody’d move” and “you could go there a hundred thousand times” and everything would still be the same (pg. 135). Since Ally’s death, Holden does not want anything else in his life to change, so no one else can leave him. Holden's inability to come to terms with Ally's death results in him not wanting to grow up and his being scared of change. In addition to
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.
As Holden observes the elders and adults in his world, he senses a loss of innocence from when they were children. He sees the adult world as “phony”, influencing himself to avoid falling in to the cruelty of the adult world. He wants to catch children before falling in to adulthood before they lose their innocence just as how many children are lost while playing in a rye field. “That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.
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.
Life is seen in a peculiar way through the eyes of teenagers. Often, teens are scared to enter the adult world because it means facing greater challenges that they might not yet be prepared for.The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a perfect example of a book that portrays the adult world through the eyes of a troubled but intelligent teenager. Holden Caulfield, the main character of the book has his own twisted views of the adult world and constantly criticizes it.
In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger a journey is depicted through acceptance, identity, mortality, youth and knowledge. The story is told in flashback by seventeen year old Holden Caulfield who is allocated in a mental hospital. Holden is a depressed teenager who faces his sexuality, death and phonies. All of his concerns are elevated by being kicked out of his Prep School Pencey for failing all of his classes besides one, English. However Holden chooses to run away from reality and drowns himself in liquor and cigarettes, he does not realize that there are other outlets to escape from reality.
Rather, he is saddened by her sitting in his room in her slip. He imagines her buying the dress she has just taken off and realizes that she is a real person and not just a toy to be used for his pleasure. Holden's desire to understand and feel for other people stops him. Holden also admits to being a coward, but the reader realizes he is just a scared boy trying to act like a man in an adult world. Even so, he doesn't flinch in the face of danger when threatened by bullies, such as his roommate Stradlater or the pimp, Maurice. Much more important than his physical courage is the moral tenacity with which he clings to his beliefs in the face of a hostile society. (Lettis, 5)
Holden is overwhelmed by change, and it leads him to prefer things that stay the same or do not change. We see that when Holden goes to the museum that he realizes that the only thing that ever changes is the people. At the museum the exhibits never
Change is inevitable and is a constant phase that Holden cannot conceptualize. Holden's fear of change can be exemplified by the Museum of Natural History. Like the museum, he wants everything to be unchanging and as simple as possible. He talks about the immutable statues by saying, "Certain things they should stay the way they are... I know it's impossible, but it's too bad anyway" (Salinger 122). By admitting his fear of change, Holden also reveals another important aspect of his life: his loss of childhood innocence. The only thing he can talk about without contempt is kids. Allie, his deceased brother, is continuously mentioned in the book, as well as the many interactions Holden has with Phoebe. Although he is continuously deriding others around him, he humbly admits to his sister that the only thing he could envision doing is saving kids, "What I have to do - I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff [...] I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd like to be" (Salinger 173). Holden's love for kids is the only
Holden enjoys that the exhibits stay unchanging, even as the viewer changes. Holden seems filled with nostalgia for his lost youth. He believes that you should be able to preserve some things in glass, like they do at the museum: "Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone" (Salinger 122). It depresses Holden to think that someday the innocence of those around him, his younger sister Phoebe included, will be spoiled by the world, unable to stay preserved and unchanging in small glass
Holden fears any sort of change in his life. He shows this at the Museum of Natural History when he says,”The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was… Nobody'd move. Nobody be different.” The museum appeal to him because it is unchanging. Holden wants everything to be straightforward, simple, and eternally fixed. Holden is overwhelmed by complexity. He doesn’t want anything to be confusing, rather crystal clear and eternally fixed. The reason he fears change is because he is afraid of unforeseeable complication such as Allie’s unpredictable death. He hates conflict for he doesn’t know how to react it. Change is not limited to himself though. Holden doesn’t want children changing, especially his
Holden is unable to accept realities of life because of his negative personality. He claims that many people are phony and that they try to do things to make them look better than they are. Holden also thinks of many things as depressing. “It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them” (p. 123). Holden always finds a down side to a situation. He fails to recognize the good sides of life, and this prevents him from seeing advantages in adulthood that are not present in his life.
The goal that that Holden has to try so hard to fulfil is symbolic of his need to differentiate himself from the "phonies" around him. Holden’s image of people is pretty bad because he believes no one acts how they truly feel. Growing up scares Holden because it leads to adulthood. In his eyes once he hits adulthood, it'll eventually lead into the same phoniness as the rest of the adults. His constant avoidance and dodging of people and situations causes him to become more and more distant from normal society and social stability.
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.