Teenaged Youth In William Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye

Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D Salinger is a classic novel that is not only controversial but contains relatable characters such as Holden Caulfield. Holden is a 16 year old boy who has gone through so much pain and hurt throughout his life that he has given up in school and during the novel you start to see that he has given up at life itself as well. Holden struggles with depression, unhealthy drinking habits and with failing out of school. These three struggles are very relatable to teenagers these days. In the following paragraphs I will show you the connection between teenagers these days and Holden and the the similarities that make him such a relatable character. Holden is an ideal and universal representation of teenagers.

Holden Caulfield is the protagonist in the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”. In the book Holden hears a quote “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he want to live humbly for one” (Salinger 188) which he embraces as he matures throughout the story. Holden’s opinions of childhood and adulthood change as he grows through experience.

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity. Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood.

Teenagers lives their life differently. However, when the time of being a adolescent arrives, they all have the same confusion and mindsets. J. D. Salinger’s novel, “The Catcher in the Rye”, is about a seventeen year old boy named Holden Caulfield, who lives his life with complexes and problems of his owns. Holden lives his life according to his favor and commit unreasonable actions. Holden has a difficult time trying to understand what being a teenager is. Holden Caulfield is a typical teenager because he expresses the problems of being a teenager.

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.

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.

    Holden Caulfield sees childhood as the ideal state of being. He thinks adulthood is filled with corrupt people. The only way anyone can win in the adult world is if the cards are stacked in his favor. The characters in The Catcher in the Rye play a diverse set of roles in the war between childhood and adulthood.

Adolescence is often a confusing time where people still have elements of childhood, but they are beginning to enter the world of adults. People end up stuck between two points in life and feel that they can not quite fit into either. In J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye, sixteen year old Holden Caulfield experiences the contradicting feelings of being a teenager while he is alone in New York City. He masquerades as an adult and his experiences represent various aspects of being an adult. He tries to act grown-up and engage in adult life, but at the same time he resists it and tries to hold onto the way things are. Salinger explores the image of adulthood using symbols. Symbols of adulthood hold for Holden a certain longing and resentment as he struggles with the turmoil of adolescence.

Every human actions meets in nature and they find their own characteristic feature in a good or bad way. Not everyone can say it is a pleasant experiment, but no one can deny that it happened. This single event is ‘growing up’. The transition between childhood innocence and adulthood is long and confusing, often uncovering questions that cannot be answered. During this time the adult world seems inviting and free, but only when we become members of a cruel, society can the happy ignorance of childhood be appreciated and missed. The novel Catcher in the Rye examines how adult life appears complex and incomprehensible to teenagers on the brink of entering it. Through the main protagonist Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger captures the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenge of adapting to an adult society.

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.

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.

Adolescence is stressful and confusing to say the least, and is a time in one’s life where one begins to discover who they are and what they want as they transition into the adult world. In J.D. Salinger’s classic American novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden, is a downhearted teenage boy used by Salinger in order to portray universal themes to the reader including isolation, loss of innocence, and the phoniness of the adult world. Through Salinger’s use of symbolism, the reader is able to ponder Holden and his struggles as he embarks into adulthood in order to come to a deeper understanding of the themes Salinger’s symbols represent.

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye presents a look into the mind of Holden Caulfield, a popular literary icon numerous teenagers have rightfully found themselves relating to at some point. While the familiar emotions of Holden were welcoming for me, his anecdotes and witty remarks proved entertaining as well. The story chronicles Holden’s exploration through New York post-expulsion, with his point of view influenced by his growing alienation with the world. He represents that growing sense of unease at growing up and facing a reality that is not always pretty, and, in his case, a need to save children from having to face that reality. I personally admired the fact that he was not just an angry teenager in the world as stereotypes suggest.

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.

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye has been pronounced a literary classic for its atypical portrayal of adolescence, to effectively convey the protagonist’s alienation and confusion. The introduction of The Catcher in the Rye is underpinned by disorder and confusion through a stream-of-consciousness narration, which digresses from one subject to another. Consequently, Holden’s multitudinous thoughts and feelings appear to lack a cohesive pattern. Additionally, Holden’s prevalent ascription of other students as “phony” (Salinger, p.3) alludes to his alienation and isolation as a form of self-protection; he rejects those he does not understand. Furthermore, the vocabulary encapsulates typical adolescence dialect of the 1940s, and resultantly, alienates contemporary reader. This is typified through Holden’s use of colloquial speech, in particular, his exclamation “that killed me” (Salinger, p.42) to express his amusement. Therefore, the introduction of Holden’s disjointed monologue in The Catcher in the Rye foreshadows Salinger’s unique interpretation of adolescence.