What Is The Theme Of Childhood In Catcher In The Rye

At his age most kids are already sexually active, making them more adult in a way. The reason for this being that they are exposed to many things that younger, and more innocent children are not. With the protection of his virginity comes his innocence. Holden’s innocence is slowly being taken away as the novel goes on. When he goes to New York he is exposed to many things that normal kids are not used to seeing. He sees prostitutes for one thing, people who are the opposite of innocent and clean. Holden also has to be around a lot of phonies who make him realize hat the world isn’t perfect and that people lie and cheat to receive what they want. This is seen with Mr. Ossenburg, who takes advantage of other people while they are mourning their loved ones. He takes their money, which is supposed to go to a grave, but just ends up keeping it and throwing the bodies in a ditch. Holden meets many more phonies, and doesn’t want other children to be exposed to their dishonest nature.

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

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s outlook in life is either the innocence of childhood or the cruelty of adulthood. He believes that the innocence of childhood is very valuable and it should be protected from

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

    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.

Holden’s desires and actions ultimately show how innocence is almost impossible to protect and is temporary. Holden wants to save everybody from maturing because he is afraid of change. All he sees are the bad things adulthood has to offer and is struggling with the hardships he is facing. He misses the innocence of his childhood and doesn’t want anyone else to lose it. Therefore, he tries several times to protect them from the downfall he is facing. Ultimately, his attempts are useless because innocence turns into an illusion as you mature. You can never change back once you become an

Holden uses innocence to describe the kids surrounding him. Phoebe and Allie stand out as examples. “‘I like Allie,’ I said. ‘And I like doing what I’m doing right now. Sitting here with you, and talking and thinking about stuff, and ---’” (Salinger, 171). In Holden’s mind, only children are innocent in this world. Children don’t have sexual desire; they are not fake. However, Allie’s death due to leukaemia destroys his belief in childhood innocence. He thinks that pure kids never die, but his brother’s death goes against his thoughts. To be able to deal with his sadness logically, he always thinks that his brother will come back just like the ducks in Central Park. Holden protects his belief in childhood innocence through the hope that the ducks will eventually return. What’s more, he also mentions he wishes to be the catcher in the rye in his conversation with Phoebe. He imagines children running around in a rye field. He says he would like to catch children before they fall from the end of the cliff. This is symbolism for Holden trying to protect childhood innocence from adulthood

J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye features a complex narrative surrounding a troubled young student, Holden Caulfield. Difficulties he faces throughout the story force Holden to confront his fears of adulthood and maturation and the responsibilities therein through the difficulties he faces throughout the story. Academic controversy surrounds whether Holden learns from these confrontations and adjust accordingly, maturing throughout the story. While initially this seems rather subjective, a thorough analysis of Holden’s actions throughout the story as well as of the symbolism injected by Salinger makes it quite clear that Holden does undergo a significant maturity arc as the story progresses. Holden’s social development and maturation

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.

A common theme in both pieces is that loss of innocence means loss of individuality. Neither Holden nor the Breakfast Club characters want to grow up to be their parents or adults because it means that they will have fit into the stereotypes that they have been assigned. Holden believes that by losing his innocence he will be no different from anyone else, which conflicts with his inner conflict throughout the book- he wants to be different so that he can hold himself to a higher value than everyone else. In order to protect his own innocence, he masquerades concern for others’, for example, “I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn't come off. It's hopeless, anyway. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the ‘Fuck you’ signs in the world. It's impossible” (Salinger 222). A common theme throughout the novel is that innocence should be protected. Holden is able to protect his own innocence by removing the sign and by saving the prostitutes’ innocence when he refuses to sleep with her. In Catcher in the Rye, innocence protects Holden from his reality- if he loses his innocence then he will be exactly like the people he does not want to be, and he wants to protect himself and others that he deems

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 Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a story about growing up. It explores the obstacles we all face during our transition from child to adulthood. The tragedies and triumphs, the breakthroughs and setbacks, the happiness and heartache. As you follow the book's protagonist, Holden, through his journey into adulthood, you learn about his life, but more importantly, you learn about your own. You grow to sympathize with the young rebel, and you begin to see traces of yourself in him.

     Throughout “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden Caufield longs for intimacy with other human beings. One of Holden’s main problems is that he sees childhood as the ideal state of being. He thinks that all adults are phonies.

In the bildungsroman Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger employs the struggle of individuality, inevitable maturation, and the childhood corruption of adulthood to reveal Holden’s alienation from society.

The novel ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D Salinger is a coming-of-age story. It follows the short tale of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year old boy, who throughout his experiences in the novel, changes and becomes more mature and independent. The story essentially has two Holden Caulfields, the one telling the story, and the one that the story is being told about. This essay will look at the differences and similarities between the two Holden’s’.