Innocence in The Catcher in The Rye Essay

When Phoebe asks Holden what he likes, he replies by saying, "I thought it was 'If a body catch a body,'" I said. "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around—nobody big, I mean—except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, 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. That's all I'd do all day. 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. I know it's crazy." (Salinger 173). The top of the cliff symbolizes the innocent child life, but below the cliff symbolizes the adult world of phoniness. Holden wants to catch the children before the run off into the phony adult world. In conclusion, Holden wants to be the “catcher in the rye” as he wants to catch children’s innocence before they fall into the phony adult

Holden thinks children are authentic and in order to stay authentic in a world full of phonies he seeks to preserve his childlike nature. In chapter 13, Holden talks about the concept of his virginity, he says “If you want to know the truth, I’m a virgin. I really am. I’ve had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I never got around to it yet. Something always happens.”(92). Holden admits he’s still a virgin and to many people losing your virginity is a step to adulthood. This is Holden’s way of trying to protect what little he has of his childhood to prevent himself from becoming an adult. That “something always happens”(92) is his own subconscious telling him to stop and to save this moment for someone who he really likes not a prostitute whom he bought. Holden even says earlier ,in the novel, “I don’t like the idea...I think if you don’t really like a girl, you shouldn’t horse around with her at all”(62). The author is trying to show how kids can avoid being an adult in the real world. Although he tries to protect his youth, Holden also likes to pretend his is an adult. He does things like being an avid smoker, constantly wanting to drink, and wanting to hookup with girls. Doing acts like these: ”After a while I sat down in a chair and smoked a couple of cigarettes.”(63), “‘Would any of you girls care to dance?’ I didn’t ask them crudely or anything. Very suave, in fact.”(70), “Boy, I sat at that goddamn bar

Throughout the story Holden emphasizes his love for childhood innocence. In a passage he says “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the golden ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything.” (Salinger 211) This immediately points to his affinity for innocence and not having the limits of being and adult. The

Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I

Holden is talking about protecting the children so they will not experience the cruelty of the adult world. If he catches the children before they fall, he will preserve their innocence and keep them from the cruelties of the adult world. Holden’s only desire and goal in life is to be the catcher in the rye because is the only job that is appealing to him where he can shows his love and protection for childhood innocence, “That’s all I’d do all day. 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” (173).

He may still be a young boy but he is very independent and basically lives on his own for the entirety of the book, but his negative outlook transforms independence into isolation. He is incredibly lonely but also pushes people away when he has a chance to get close to them. Such as his date with Sally Hayes which was going very well until he pushed her away with his harsh words, “You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth” (Ch. 17 pg. 173). Just because Sally wouldn’t run away with him and be independent with him he pushed her away. Holden may think he wants to be free and independent but his negative outlook just feeds his loneliness and

There is only one experience that unites every single person in the world. Many people in the world can agree that it isn’t always the greatest experience, and many people have an extremely hard time getting through it, but every single adult goes through the act of ‘growing up’. For many, the transition can be very depressing, and confusing. When a child is young becoming an adult seems to be enjoyable and exciting, but it isn’t until that child is forced into the cruel, harsh world where the innocence of childhood can be appreciated and missed. The novel Catcher in the Rye explores how teenagers who are nearing adulthood see the adult world to be incomprehensible. J.D Salinger illustrates the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenge of transitioning into adulthood using Holden Caulfield.

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.

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 is very clear that Holden is immature. One of the most obvious times that this is shown is when Holden is talking with Luce. Luce says, “ Same old Caulfield. When are you gonna grow up?” (Salinger 144).

Loss of innocence is one of the major elements of The Catcher in the Rye that make the novel so renowned. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is about an adolescent named Holden who wanders around New York City after being kicked out of a prestigious boarding school in eastern Pennsylvania. While learning more about himself and the adult world, he experiences alcohol, prostitution, and sexuality. Holden struggles with issues such as identity and maturity. Eventually, he realizes what it means to become an adult and accepts that maturity and development is inevitable. Holden suffers from a loss of innocence when

Sometime throughout our lives we eventually lose our innocence, whether it’s to something we saw, heard, or even did. Holden then states in chapter 22 “What i have to do, 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. That’s all i'd do, i'd just be the catcher in the rye and all”. That quote states how Holden feels that he is obligated to protect the innocence of children. For example, a few years ago Holden’s little brother Allie died of leukemia, that incident impacted Holden's life more than ever. As a result of Allies passing, Holden feels he missed out on Allies childhood and reminisces about all the memories they had together. While Holden gets kicked out of Pencey Prep he takes a long journey home and realizes a lot of things throughout the way.

Holden Caulfield plays a timeless character in the sense that his way of life is common for the American teenager, in his time as well as now. Today parents dread the terrible and confusing adolescent years of their child's life. In J.D. Salinger's book, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is in this terrible and confusing point of his life. At this point in his life, as well as in modern teenager's lives, a transition occurs, from child to adult. Holden takes this change particularly rough and develops a typical mentality that prevents him from allowing himself to see or understand his purpose in life.

Have you ever thought about what happens when you grow up? How do we change in the process? Or where our innocence disappears to? The book “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D Salinger, as we read through we start to follow what the main character has to say about it. The catcher in the rye is about a boy named Holden, Holden finds himself stuck between adolescence and adulthood, although throughout the book it shows that he wants to keep it that way. Holden Caulfield is a troubled teenager that deals with death, academic struggles, and his life problems. He gets expelled from Pencey Prep and decides to take a vacation. He goes to New York City were the readers get to know more about him, like how Holden usually goes through a depressing stage. Holden searches for even tiny traces of innocence left from adults to believe that there is still hope. This essay will include three different aspects of innocence from the novel, Holden and how he takes place as the protector of innocence in Catcher in the Rye, children and how they represent innocence in Holden’s eyes, and innocence in Holden himself.

Throughout the novel we can see that Holden is protective of his youthful qualities and he does not want to abandon them when he grows