Innocence Change At The End In Catcher In The Rye

Holden Caulfield, the narrator and the main character of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, is a young adult, who, at first seems to simply describes his four day adventure in New York City after bring expelled from his forth school. However, at the same time he narrates more; through his many experiences, which he describes in the book, we can see the themes of the work. The theme that definitely stands out is the loss of innocence. Holden portrays himself as an individual, who does not want to grow up and change. From the beginning, it is obvious that Holden does not like anyone, except children. To Holden, the world around him, the adult world and all of its members, is phony. In other words, the innocent world of children is

Catcher in the Rye allows people to understand childhood and the innocence with it. But, no matter how much you try, everyone has to grow up. Holden doesn’t accept this reality and refuses to growing up, even comparing it to

The novel Catcher in the Rye presents a very strong interpretation of “The Loss of Innocence”. The protagonist, Holden Caulfield, has trouble throughout the story with growing up. In turn he tries to help his sister Phoebe by letting her thoroughly live her childhood. To cope with the many problems that he goes through, he uses sex and alcohol to get himself through getting kicked out of Pencey Prep. There is much evidence in the book that Holden faces problems with loss of innocence. Many parts of the novel show this theme and express Holden’s struggles in growing up accordingly.

While talking with Phoebe about a poem by Robert Burns, Holden explains, “I keep picturing all these little kids playing…And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff…I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (Salinger 173). Holden shows signs of being a hero many times, including this time. Holden does not want the children to hurt themselves if they fall off the cliff, so he will be there in order to catch them once they fall. Instead of injuring themselves, Holden rather hurt himself in order to save them. Furthermore, by being “The Catcher in the Rye,” Holden is able to protect children, especially Phoebe, from the realities of the outside world. At this age, Holden doesn’t want them to learn about violence, phoniness, and other aspects of adulthood that is superfluous. He fears that if they start to learn some of these characteristics of adulthood, they will lose their innocence as a child; but, he wants to maintain their adolescence and

The main reason as to why he attempts this is because he himself is struggling with growing up yet he isn’t that much a child anymore. Although protecting children is his main goal, Holden tries to protect Mrs. Morrow by lying to her about her son, Ernie, in attempt to keep her from knowing about his cruelty, “they stay a rat their whole life” (57). Holden soon reveals that he wants to be a catcher in the rye while talking to his sister, Phoebe in chapter 22. When revealing his dream, Holden’s intentions are to stand at the edge of a cliff and catch the children to prevent them from falling over. Also, Holden tries to get rid of the “fuck you’s” he found at the school and art museum to prevent the children from seeing them and being exposed to the world’s cruelty. Finally, when watching Phoebe on the carousel attempting to reach the golden ring, despite how worried he was, Holden let Phoebe try and get a grasp of the ring regardless of the fact that she may fall off. “If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them”

Holden is just a young man, but he is going through a very cruel and unforgiving world that will change him forever. He overcomes many obstacles and barley gets out of it with his sanity still in tact. Holden is a different kind of person and he is just not wired like everybody else. He is represented as an outsider that is clearly different. Holden can change in his views quickly and they can stay that way for quite a long time. Holden in the beginning is very very innocent, and doesn’t exactly know how bad of a place the world is and know how bad people can become. Holden is also very immature and doesn’t understand what he is doing wrong in being immature. Holden has many emotions and views that he does not exactly know how to deal with, or when to deal with. He has certain views that are very hypocritical and immature. He thinks that he wants to do something, that in the end he would only regret, and he never does do these things, but the fact that he thinks about it clearly shows off his immaturity. Holden fails to grow up, and that hurts him throughout the novel multiple times causing, ultimately his path to be very different than he expected. In J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caufield, is fails to evolve maturely throughout the whole novel, regarding women, thinking out his actions, and killing.

Throughout the book, Catcher in the Rye, Holden faces the opportunity to learn that with age people don't lose all innocence. In fact innocence filters around just like a carousel. But instead of learning what there is to learned Holden’s faulty thinking seems to keep him mad and keep him blind.

Catcher in the Rye deals with a lot of topics that many adolescents go through as they’re growing up. Ever since Holden’s brother died nothing has been the same for him. His world was turned upside down. After getting kicked out of his boarding school, he has to struggle through many problems in the book. As he’s wandering around New York he deals with innocence, his fear of change, and depression. Even though the story takes place in a few days, Holden ends up learning a lot about himself in the end.

Holden connects to and feels a kinship towards kids. When Holden tells Phoebe, his younger sister, about why he wanted to be The Catcher in the Rye. Holden says, “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.” (173) it shows how important it is to Holden to keep innocence. He does not want other children to lose like he did he doesn't want them to endure the pain of being an adult and “falling off the cliff” to soon they should have their childhood.

After sneaking into his home to see his sister Phoebe, he reflects on what his future might be, stating an unrealistic example in which his job would be to catch the children who play in a field of rye from falling off a cliff. Holden states, “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 173). Holden’s only desire, to be the Catcher in the Rye, represents that he wants to save the children from growing up, or falling of the cliff, towards adulthood, which is illustrated as death. He is stuck on the the precipices edge between the rye field and the cliff’s bottom, remaining in a place that almost exactly embodies the limbo he is facing. Holden, as the Catcher in the Rye, is caught between levels of maturity, unsure of whether or not he should, in a way, take the

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.

The Catcher in the Rye was aimed at an adolescent audience who would relate to Holden’s problems and the overall themes in the book, such as protecting innocence, authentic versus artificial, and death. Salinger’s purpose was to tell a coming-of-age story and show how Holden rejected his responsibilities due to his anxieties about becoming an adult. The title of the novel, “The Catcher in the Rye” refers to Holden’s dream job; standing in a field of rye and protecting children from falling off of the cliff. Symbolically, Holden wants to protect other children from adulthood and keep them from losing their innocence. Holden’s struggle with becoming an adult is also due to his conflict between what is authentic and what is artificial. Holden

His involution with the ducks,The museum, Central Park,The catcher in the rye, and his survival in the cessation, all contribute to his conversion to becoming an adult.Holden tells his Story from an institution and explicates how he surmounted this arduousness and understands why.Innocence will always be disoriented,but can never be forgotten.It is fine to feel dissatisfied with adulthood and too gratified with childhood to be stuck in two worlds;However,deal with it differently than Holden did and learn from his

Significance of Title: The significance of the title is easily found within the book. It is most obvious when Holden is having a conversation with his sister, Phoebe, and he tells her what he wants to do, which is to become a catcher in the rye. By this he means that in order to protect innocent children from falling over a cliff into the corruptness of the adult or “phony” world, he must catch them and save them from this stained fate. This idea that he has is crazy, and until this conversation, he did not realize the ridiculousness of his “plan.” It is not until later in the book does he realize that this ambition that he has chased for so long is impossible to reach and that it’s inevitable to protect the youth from being introduced to impurity from society.

The title of the novel, “The Catcher in the Rye” plays a significant role throughout the book as it has a substantial connection to Holden’s story. This title greatly allows for the main character, Holden Caulfield, to express his feelings towards life and towards human nature. Holden can see that the world he now lives in as it is becoming filled with corrupted people and minds. He believes the children are ruined by the ribald behavior of the older generations around them and as he shows the reader in the novel, these thoughts allow for holden to realize his true purpose in life, which would be to help save the children from this vindictive world. Holden also needs to save himself from this conflict as he is also caught between the innocence of youth and the unscrupulous behavior of adulthood. Holden’s struggle with this conflict is why he yearns to become a "Catcher in the Rye."