How Does Holden Grow Up In Catcher In The Rye

Holden is still not convinced that he cannot stay a child forever. Holden shows this in his response to Phoebe's chastisement. "...I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-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" (Salinger 173). The ledge Holden wants the children to stay on is childhood while the pit they will eventually fall into is adulthood. He wants to keep everyone, including himself, from becoming an adult.

The irony of Holden detesting phoniness and adulthood is that he acts so much like an adult with his curiosity and experience with alcohol and sex that he misses his own opposition. Holden hates the responsibility, morality, and accountability of being an adult and embraces childhood. This contradicts everything that he desires and to want to take part in. This causes his own corruption and enables a failure to relate to himself.

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.

Many readers will agree that The Catcher in the Rye is a coming of age, but some may disagree that it is not because of Holden’s personal view of children. The disagreement may have resulted from Holden’s childish acts, such as, being

He doesnt want to accept the reality and prefers to live in his own world where adults arent superficial and hypocritical. He can not come up with anything better to live by than his fantasy of being the catcher in the rye and reflects his innocence in the uncorupted youth, and all he wishes to do is protect that spirit. I see where he comes from though because its hard to accept the real world and have to grow up leaving behind that purness. Its something holden didnt want to loose and protet others who might be in danger of loosing it

From the very beginning of the novel, Holden is seen to be moody, cynical and not the typical protagonist of a coming of age novel. He believes that the adult world is full of phonies and has a certain misconception which results in him alienating himself from society as he struggles through the rocky passage from childhood to adulthood. His angry and disenchanted view of the world does not stop us from sympathising and even relating with him through the story.

Holden compare his imagination to a poem by Robert Burns called “If a body meet a body coming though the rye”. Holden Picturing all these kids playing on a field of rye and Holden is standing near the edge of the cliff to catch them from falling. In fact, Holden said, “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game on the field of rye and all. I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.” In reality, he wants to stop kids from entering into the adult world losing his innocence, which Holden is afraid of because according to him kids are “real” meaning that they will always speak their mind.

Holden wants to be the catcher in the rye and save the children from falling off the cliff. This cliff, however, is the real world, and Holden himself is afraid of it so he wants to protect children from it. This is also demonstrated when Holden visits his sister 's school and sees swears written on the wall. This makes Holden very mad, "It drove me damn near crazy. I thought of how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they 'd wonder what the hell it meant…But I rubbed it out anyway, finally"(201). Holden was able to protect the children for a short while but a few moments later he sees the same thing written on the wall again. Only this time it is scratched in with a knife or something and Holden is unable to rub it away like before and realizes "It 's hopeless, anyway…it 's impossible" (202) he indicates here that growing up and facing certain reality is inevitable. Holden finally realizes that he can 't protect the kids from the real world when he watches Phoebe ride a carrousel at the zoo. "All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring…this thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let

Holden could not really accept the truth about growing up; death for the most part. After already facing his younger brothers Allies death, he is unwilling to see other children grow up, and become closer to their fate. Holden Caulfield is the only character in the novel that is affected by the pain of growing up. Holden resents the thought of growing up and struggles to deal with the fact that it is a process that everyone goes through. Holden shares with us about his thoughts about the natural history; Holden expresses how much he desires the museum. He uses the museum as an example of fear of change. He talks about visiting it as a child. Holden expresses that he does not know how to deal with the upsetting truth of having to grow up and changing his perspectives on life. “Sex is something I just don't understand. I swear to god I don’t”.(PG.56) Holden says this because sex is apart of growing up into the adulthoods world and reaching a growth of maturity, but he is afraid to grow up. Holden feels like he going to be like Ms. Spencer; a phony and a liar. He is stuck between both worlds, adulthood and childhood. He sees the adulthoods world as a phony and a fake, but he also see the childhoods world as a innocent and honest living. He wants to live a simple

The journey between adolescence and adulthood is one of great discovery and introspection. As the blissful innocence of childhood is washed away by the passing of time, a long and confusing period of discovering one’s identity takes center stage. Prior to the process, the adult world seems one of great freedom and opportunity and is treated with a sense of keen enthusiasm. But, only as we become members of this cruel and unjust adult society, does the veneer of privilege corrode away, and the simplicity and innocence of childhood truly appreciated. As such is explored in The Catcher in the Rye, where a young teenager in New York City is faced with the daunting task of transitioning and maturing to an eventual adulthood, one that terrifies him. Holden responds to adulthood with resistance, fear andidealism, before slowly but surely succumbing to its certainty.

Holden does not want to be forced to grow up, but instead tries to act more mature than he actually is. During Holden’s time and still today “teenagers [find] themselves stranded between adult things and childish pleasures.”(Schuessler) For Holden, this feeling of being stuck between childhood and adulthood created anxiety within him. Thus from this anxiety he feels he must act mature, but although trying to act mature he still believes he acts younger that he is. No one around Holden can understand him and the issues he is having with growing up, which makes it even more difficult for Holden himself to understand, so instead of trying to understand he runs away to New York. Holden engages in risky behavior because he believes it makes him mature. All teens engages in risky behavior and “some risk-taking among adolescents is evidence that they are trying out more adultlike roles” (Cloud) In Holden’s case he was not acting more adultlike. He was trying to act more mature, but he did not want to be an adult. Participating in risky behavior because he believed it made him mature is demonstrates how truly immature Holden was. Holden is confused about who he is and makes many immature decisions because he believes that they are mature decisions and he does not care how they affect his future. Some readers can argue that because of Holden’s awareness of the fact that he

When people think of growing up we think of stress, maturity, and freedom, but some of us have a hard time growing up. This was the case for Holden Caulfield, Holden Caulfield is a 16-year-old boy who has a hard time bridging adolescence and adulthood together, thus making him have a hard time finding his own place in society and letting go of the past. Holden Caulfield is one of those people who doesn’t like growing up because of all the problems he’s been going through such as his brother Allie dying, he emotions, and letting go of his past. To begin, Holden grew up with a brother named Allie dies of leukemia when Holden has been just 13 years old which affected what he thought about of growing up. This affected him growing up because Allie was his only little brother that died at a very innocent age, which made Holden thinks that he doesn’t want to grow up.

This symbolizes him holding on to his past, not wanting things to change. As Holden meets with all of his old friends, he claims many of them to have become phonies. All of his friends have grown up, and Holden is left behind, and still acts like a child. "[Holden's] central dilemma is that he wants to retain a child's innocence" (Bloom 22). As everyone around changes he just wants to stay the same, young and sheltered.

Holden has been looking more in depth at the world to try and make sense of it because he can no longer just ask his parents for the answer to life's many mysteries. Holden has to find out for himself what things mean and his loss of innocence is one step toward finding

Holden is so scared to enter adulthood because he is not accustomed to change nor conflict.Every teenager eventually goes through that stage where they do not even know what they are doing anymore because they are about to enter a world they have never experienced before. Although it can be scary, one has to be be prepared for what is gonna be thrown at them Although he sometimes tries to act like an adult it 's obvious he 's not ready for the life that is waiting for him. Although it may seem as if Holden has everything, deep down inside he feels empty. Since Holden is the middle kid, it can symbolize how he is struggling to grow up. He wants everything to stay the same but Holden is going to have to grow up sooner or later. Everyone eventually has to grow up because that is the reality of life. Time is the biggest enemy a person can have because time goes by so fast that we never realize how much has changed throughout the years because we still believe that nothing has changed.It is never easy to grow up because all a person wants to do is just be a kid and not worry about anything. Having no support from anyone can be pretty tough because no one 's there to push you forward. Although Holden didn 't have support from his parents or friends, bad things are not forever. There is no stopping of adulthood. You 're never gonna be alone when something difficult is happening because