How Does Holden Caulfield Change Throughout The Catcher In The Rye

“Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.” - Holden Caulfield.
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye portrays the story of a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield, growing up in the decadent world of New York. Holden fears adulthood. He is afraid of abandoning his youthful qualities as he steps into the mature world, in which he perceives as full of superficiality and hypocrisy, or “phoniness.” When in fact, he is oversimplifying adulthood with his cynical, black-and-white views. His judgement serves as a form of protection, allowing him to self-isolate from reality. He chooses to avoid his inner troubles about change and responsibility instead

He unsuccessfully attempts to convince his date, Sally Hayes, to run away with him to a remote place in the wilderness (chapter 17). This shows that Holden is reaching another level of desperation, in which he is starting to lose his mental stability. In chapter 25, Holden reaches the climax of his struggles, and is about to breakdown. Feeling completely emotionally drained, he decides once again to run away. After the supposed sexual incident with Mr. Antolini in chapter 24, Holden doesn’t know what to think of Antolini’s ambiguous motives. As a person who only sees in black and white, making oversimplified judgements of everything, Holden feels as though his reality is suddenly warped. This incident represents the last straw, causing him to lose the little stability he had left. He feels that he can no longer deal with the world around him, and the only seemingly logical choice is to literally run away

In chapter 22 when Phoebe accuses him of hating everything and challenges him to name one thing that he likes, he is silent for a while as his thoughts oddly drift to a boy he once knew at Elkton Hills, James Castle. After refusing to take back his insult toward a boy named Phil, Castle is tormented by Phil and the other boys until he suddenly jumps out of a window and kills himself. This incident left a deep impression on Holden. Subconsciously, Castle’s act may have appeared heroic, as a fight against the “phoniness” of the world. This idea corresponds with what Mr. Antolini tells Holden in chapter 24: “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” Holden may be appealed to the idea of fighting against “phoniness” and dying “nobly” through his self isolation and avoidance of the adult world