Causes Of Failure In Catcher In The Rye

Everyone grows up at some point in their life, but the timeframe in which this happens is different for all. Maturing as a person takes a lot of patience as well as failure. But it is from those failures that one can mature correctly. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the tragic hero’s journey is spurred by his defiance of adulthood, and the yearning to stay naive forever, however, in his quest to defy adulthood, he loses his childhood innocence.
The protagonist Holden right away described as immature and irresponsible. His last day at Pencey he forgets the fencing team’s foils. Being the team manager his negligence makes him solely responsible, but shrugging off the blame, he counters saying, “It wasn’t all my fault.

He was driven to become unstable. Throughout the novel he gets increasingly wacky with the continued corruption of his innocence. The final revelation that he could not save himself or others caused him to snap. All of the depression, loneliness, and frustration bottled inside burst, causing an emotional breakdown, “I was damn near bawling...I don’t know why” (Salinger 213). The difficulty about being a tragic hero, however, is that Holden will never overcome his fault. So when he says in the end, “This one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if I’m going to apply myself when I go back to school next September. It’s such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean how do you know what you’re going to do till you do it?” (Salinger 213). Holden’s uncertainty about the future means he will continue his cycle of self defeating behavior until he either learns to accept adulthood, or dies rejecting it, like in Mr. Antolini

Catcher and the Rye is a truly tragic story because “the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing--his sense of personal dignity” (Miller). Holden is willing to die for his own noble cause of defying adulthood, however foolish it seems to everyone else.
Originally the novel was for adults, but teenagers connected to the story as well because of Holden’s resistance to adulthood. It teaches both groups that people develop at a different time. Parents should not be forcing their kids to grow up, get a job, and move out; and kids need to understand growing up is a part of life. Sometimes it is easy to feel like you are alone, but everyone goes through periods of frustration pertaining to who they