Innocence In Catcher In The Rye

Active Reading Notes- Section 6 Chapters 23-26 Chapter 23 Pg 192 Symbolism Holden assumes Mr. Antolini is the only one who does not behave like a “phony.” He respects Mr. Antolini and doesn’t seem to criticize him a lot. When Holden says, “He was the one that finally picked up the boy that jumped out the window I told you about, James Castle.”

And this event was the result of why he now wants to be the “catcher in the rye”, and protect the children's innocence. Concluding, through this extract of the story, Salinger demonstrates how through change in tone and an unexpected event, he can make the reader empathize with Holden

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.

Salinger is said by Mr.Spencer toward Holden in Mr.Spencer's house. Holden stopped by Mr.Spencer's house before he left Pencey and started a conversation with Mr.Spencer. The Conversation soon leads to Mr.Spencer saying, "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules," to Holden when Holden revives the topic of failing Mr.Spencer's class. Mr.Spencer's dialogue irritates Holden. Holden does not consider "Life as a game" and points out only those who are "hot-shots" can consider life as a game where as if "you were on the wrong side" then there is no game to begin with. Holden's response to Mr.Spencer's words can be interpreted as Holden's struggle in life and transitioning to adulthood. Holden is hunting for his future, hinted by the symbolism of his red hunting hat, and that this hunt is very dangerous and should not be considered a game. The quote itself is ironic and can be interpreted as part of the novel's underlying themes, that life is not a game because one error could ruin your whole

The author J.D. Salinger was able to represent the theme: the loss of childhood innocence, by describing the internal as well as the external characteristics of the main protagonist Holden Caulfield. Holden is portrayed as innocent due to his “lousy vocabulary” and also his childish mannerisms. His constant use of the term “boy” is ironic when Holden himself is a boy at heart. While internally Holden Caulfield may appear to be naive; this representation contrasts with his external appearance. Holden is struggling internally to be himself and is clinging on to his innocence, at a time where his body is continuing to become more mature and transitioning out of adolescence. The reader is able to note his struggle because of Holden Caulfield’s

Holden Caulfield is a very, very troubled young boy in a grown up filled world. In J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher In The Rye, 16 year old Holden Caulfield is stuck in a rut. He has been expelled from numerous schools, including his current one, Pencey Prep. Holden has been a troubled kid since the death of his older brother, Allie. Allie has played a big role in Holden’s life, and was completely traumatized by his death. Along with those family struggles relating to Allie’s death, Holden has a hard time accepting his adulthood. He wrestles with mental illness and growing up with all of those “phonies”. Even more so, he struggles with the idea of the person he is going to grow into. The environment of The

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden seeks out Mr. Antolini due to his similarity to D.B., but soon discovers that Mr. Antolini is just like the other adults in his life, thereby reaffirming his cynicism towards adults. The distraught Holden seeks a solace from Mr. Antonili due to the preconceived notion that Mr. Antolini’s opinions would parallel his own, only to be completely mistaken. Moreover, the interaction between Holden and Mr. Antolini is similar to that of Mr. Spencer and Holden’s interaction, showing that Mr. Antolini is just like the other adults in his life. In this notion, one can observe why Holden tries to prevent his loved ones from growing up.

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old boy, transitions from childhood to adulthood. The death of Holden’s little brother signifies the beginning his loss of innocence and growth of maturity. As he enters adulthood, Holden views society differently from his peers by characterizing most of his peers and adults he meets as “phonies.” Thus, Holden takes the impossible challenge of preserving the innocence in children because he wants to prevent children from experiencing the corruption in society. The Catcher In The Rye embodies Holden’s struggle to preserve the innocence of children and reveals the inevitability of and the necessity of encountering the harsh realities of life.

Everyone is innocent and pure during their youth, it is only when they begin to age into adulthood where they become corrupt and unscrupulous. In this coming of age fiction titled The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Salinger shows through the character of Holden Caulfield the jarring life of a depressed teenager trying to find his way. Having the trait of innocence is something everyone has while they are young, but change is inevitable, happening in mental ways rather than physical ways. Holden’s mental need for innocence is displayed when Holden is angered after he sees that, “Somebody’d written ‘Fuck You’ on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy” (221).

This passage proves that Holden is dissatisfied with the boys at his school, he believes they are fake and he does not social well with them. Although Holden doesn’t want to interact much, when he does end up interacting with people, he usually gets the short end of the stick. For instance he invites Ackley, a boy he meets at Pency Prep, along to the movies, but Ackley won't return the favor by letting Holden sleep in his roommate's bed. ‘“I’m not worried about it. Only, I’d hate like hell if Ely came in all of a sudden and found some guy-”’ (Salinger 49). Another instance is when Holden pays Sunny even though they don’t have sex, and ends up getting scammed. At a young age, Holden lost his younger brother, Allie. This had a huge traumatizing effect on him; Holden felt useless because he was unable to help his brother. Holden turns his emotions into anger; stating that he punched out all the windows in the garage. Another time Holden felt unable to help was when his peer, James Castle, was harassed and bullied, leading to James’s suicide. Holden says, “... and there was old James Castle laying right on the stone steps and all. He was dead, and his teeth, and blood, were all over the place, and nobody would even go near him. He had on this turtleneck sweater I'd lent him”’ (Salinger 170). Holden feels that society had

As the story proceeds, we see Holden accept the fact that children will “fall off the cliff” and there’s nothing anyone can do, this represents the struggle of preserving the innocence of children versus letting them experience the way of life on their own. The next day, after seeing his little sister, Phoebe, he decides that he wasn’t going to wait until wednesday to leave for the woods, but he was going to leave that day. Phoebe was at school and he wanted to tell her about this new plan and to say goodbye to her. He walked to her school and wrote a note to give to the principle to give to her, before walking into the school, Holden sits down on the steps “While [he] was sitting down, [he] saw something that drove [him] crazy. Somebody’d written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. It drove [him] damn near crazy” (Salinger 221). Holden discloses that he was so angry with someone writing this absurd word on the wall, that he was ready to bash whoever it was and even kill them. This shows a whole new side of Holden, he behaves irrationally and violent over the cause of someone defiling school property and subjecting children to “jump over the cliff” of innocence and adolescence. Children grow up and lose their innocence at all different ages and there is no way to preserve it in ways like how Holden wants to. Our society manipulates ways of contorting children’s innocence in ways exhibited like this.

Mr. Spencer is another minor character Salinger uses to illustrate Holden’s view of adults. Holden sees Mr. Spencer as someone old and dependent. Mr. Spencer is someone who doesn’t “know his ass from his elbow” (12). This shows Holden’s view of adulthood, an old age where they become dependent on others and become ill and old. Holden doesn’t see adults as smart either, mainly

“Those who improve with age embrace the power of personal growth and personal achievement and begin to replace youth with wisdom, innocence with understanding, and lack of purpose with self-actualization” (Bennent). In J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher In The Rye, a sixteen year old boy named Holden Caulfield has to go through a plethora of different turbulent obstacles that no other normal kid his age would ever have to go through. He has flunked out of five schools, has had to cope with his younger brother Allie’s death and just never ever gets along with anyone. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden has the fear of losing innocence. This is shown through the curse on the wall, the Little Shirley Beans record and finally the incident

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.

J.D Salinger expresses Holden growing up in a vivid image where people can see the clear view of Holden rising upward to be an adult. Throughout the book, Holden ostracizes himself in the society and makes him lonely. The readers can visualize Holden maturing when he realizes that not everybody is his enemy. For instance, when Holden leaves his teacher’s house in fear because the teacher was petting his head; he wondered “if just maybe [he] was wrong about thinking [the teacher] was making a flitty pass at [him]” (194). When he starts wondering if it was his own fault, it exemplifies that Holden is deeply thinking about his acts toward other people. His thinking can also relate to the last sentence “don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” (202). The last sentence is an example of Holden setting his importance on the people around him. But with all the obstacles that he goes through, he realizes that people that are involved in his life are an important factor of his life, and regrets having a live social life. This realization is an example of coming of age because we can truly see Holden’s thinking of what he thinks of a good life is which involves people around him.