Every day, society forces children to lose their childhood innocence and conform to the social norms, or phoniness, of the adult world. Holden, the main character in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, fears this exchanging of childhood innocence for phoniness. Once Holden is expelled from his school, he leaves to gallivant around the city, trying to evade his parents and their reprimands. Around the city, Holden travels to multiple bars and fills his life with meaningless substances. He constantly circumvents purposeful conversations and people, so he can elude adult responsibility and maturity. Although Holden facades a nonchalant exterior, he is actually concerned about his future and adulthood. Holden covertly tries to seek help through …show more content…
When Holden travels to the Museum of Natural History, he often reminisces of his childhood, and how “everything [in the museum] always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move” (Salinger 135). As Holden’s childhood slips away, Holden is comforted by the knowledge that nothing changes in the museum. He relishes that his innocence can remain preserved in the past and untouchable from the tainted adult world. Holden envies the museum’s ability “to stick [certain things] in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone” (Salinger 136). If his life remains within an isolated glass case, Holden can freeze his pain and hinder his adulthood. The Museum of Natural History acts as a haven from Holden’s afflictions and represents his comfort and familiarity associated with his childhood. Although, as Holden matures, he comprehends that “[y]ou can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any” (Salinger 224). Holden acknowledges that, if the Museum of Natural History modifies, he must transform too. Nothing is permanent because everything must …show more content…
Holden obsession of “where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over” derives from his concerns about transitioning into adulthood (Salinger 16). Holden’s adulthood is imminent, and, like the winter for the ducks, he cannot impede his development. Although he attempts to hinder his adulthood, he must ultimately comply with losing his youthful innocence. Holden is also concerned about whether “somebody come[s] around in a truck or something and take[s] [the ducks] away, or [if] they fly away by themselves” (Salinger 91). As Holden matures into an adult, he requires aid throughout the growing process, comparable to the ducks having someone to take them away. Through asking about the transportation of the ducks, Holden is inquiring as to whether he should confront his pain of growing up by himself, or if he can have someone’s support to lessen his
Holden Caulfield, portrayed in the J.D. Salinger novel Catcher in the Rye as an adolescent struggling to find his own identity, possesses many characteristics that easily link him to the typical teenager living today. The fact that the book was written many years ago clearly exemplifies the timeless nature of this work. Holden's actions are those that any teenager can clearly relate with. The desire for independence, the sexually related encounters, and the questioning of ones religion are issues that almost all teens have had or will have to deal with in their adolescent years. The novel and its main character's experiences can easily be related to and will forever link Holden with every member of society, because everyone in the world was or will be a teen sometime in their life.
Have you ever pondered about when growing up, where does our childlike innocence go and what happens to us to go through this process? It involves abandoning previous memories that are close to our hearts. As we can see in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, we listen to what the main character; Holden Caulfield has to say about it. Holden is an average teenager dealing with academic and life problems. He remains untouched over his expulsion from Pencey Prep; rather, he takes the opportunity to take a “vacation.” As he ventures off companionless in New York City, we are able to observe many things about him. We see that Holden habitually states that he is depressed and undoubtedly, wants to preserve the innocence of others.
For Holden, safety is everything staying the same and never changing, as he is emotionally stuck in the past and unable to cope with the future. Holden develops a special connection with the Museum of Natural History for this reason, because “you could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole... “Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you” (Salinger 121). Holden likes the museum because everything there never has to worry about death like he does. It never has to end, while the trauma caused by the death of his brother Allie tells Holden that he does. His obsession with escaping death is shown in his interrogation of a taxi driver about what happens to the ducks when the pond freezes over. It is also why he nearly cries while watching Phoebe “going around and around” on the carousel, as no matter how many times she goes around she is still his little sister (Salinger 213). Holden uses his hunting cap as a psychological shield to protect him from death. This is proven by the fact that he only wears the cap when confronted by something that reminds him of Allie or his own mortality. While Holden’s cap can temporarily relieve him of his troubles, it can’t help others. This is why
Holden twice inquired about the “disappearing” ducks in Central Park. When the pond is frozen in the winter, where would the ducks go? This symbolizes that Holden is curious about his own mortality which was affected him by his brother’s death. So he came here to look for answers, but he didn’t find any duck. “I nearly fell in, but I couldn’t find any…Boy, I was still shivering like a bastard… I thought I probably get pneumonia and die.” (154)
Growing up and becoming mature can be an intimidating experience; it is difficult to let go of one’s childhood and embrace the adult world. For some people, this transition from youthfulness to maturity can be much more difficult than for others. These people often try to hold on to their childhood as long as they can. Unfortunately, life is not so simple. One cannot spend their entire life running from the responsibilities and hardships of adulthood because they will eventually have to accept the fact that they have a role in society that they must fulfill as a responsible, mature individual. The novel “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger follows the endeavours of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old teenage boy who faces a point in his life where he must make the transition from childhood to adulthood. In an attempt to retain his own childhood, he begins hoping to stop other young children from growing up and losing their innocence as well. As indicated by the title, “The Catcher in the Rye” is a book that explores a theme involving the preservation of innocence, especially of children. It is a story about a boy who is far too hesitant to grow up, and feels the need to ensure that no one else around him has to grow up either. His own fear of maturity and growing up is what leads to Holden’s desire to become a “catcher in the rye” so he can save innocent children from becoming part of the “phoniness” of the adult world.
In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is a young man who seeks the acceptance of others. Utilizing the themes of isolation and the innocence in youth, J.D. Salinger illustrates how Holden yearns for an individual to speak to and how he wishes to preserve the innocence in children. Holden’s dream role is to be “the catcher in the rye” for minors and shield their eyes from the prospect of growing up as well as witnessing the true horrors of living as an adult. However, Holden also longs for a peer he can communicate to due to the fact that he lives in such a confined circle. Salinger demonstrates Holden Caulfield’s desire to be accepted in his novel The Catcher in the Rye through the examples of Holden and the first cab driver
Salinger’s the Catcher in the Rye, writes the above quote in reference to the Museum of Natural History that he used to visit as a child. Here, Holden describes that he enjoyed the museum because it never changes, which can be directly related to his fear of adulthood and losing his childhood innocence. In this passage, Holden references how the people who visit the museum always seem to change, maybe not physically, but mentally and emotionally. Specifically, he’s talking about the transition into adulthood. As reference in St. Vincent Millay’s quote, this transition does not have a specific start or end time; adulthood comes when the world sees fit. The Museum of Natural History serves simultaneously as a preservation of Holden’s childhood innocence and a reminder that Holden is no longer the innocent child of his
Holden Caulfield is a teenager filled with many irregular thoughts and ideas for his age. He is dissimilar in the way that his actions and reactions to different situations happen to be so controversial that it is difficult to relate to him. However, he just happens to be the protagonist of our novel. The Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger, revolves around the mysterious world Holden sees. He is introduced in a mental ward, and he begins to tell his story. After Holden was done with his story, it becomes clear that he was looking for something. His actions towards his acquaintances justified that his desired “something” was one of the strongest human drives everyone has: love and acceptance in this world. On the other hand, a fence was blocking him from reaching his goal. His separation from
One strong recurring symbol are the ducks in central park. Holden constantly questions their actions, “I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over,” (16). These ducks represent disappearance, specifically of people, a concept that Holden wrestles with due to the sudden death of his brother. He doesn’t understand why people (and the ducks) vanish from his world, or where they go, and he wonders if they will ever come back to him, especially when thinking about Allie. Comparatively, most juveniles will face some sort of disappearance as they age, as people usually fade in and out of their lives. This is simply the way the world works, and most teens are not mature enough to accept it. Instead, the concept perturbs them. Also, the idea of change takes many symbols in Catcher. One of which is the Museum of Natural History, a beloved spot for Holden, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was,” (135). The museum is the one thing in Holden’s life that never really changes, and Holden despises change. Analogously, there is no time more inconsistent than adolescence. This is the bulk of confusion that a teenager faces, disoriented by their changing bodies and drastically changing view of society. On top of this, the way they are viewed by the world changes; they are
When Holden arrives at Penn Station, he takes a cab to the Edmont Hotel. During the ride, Holden asks the driver if he knows “where the ducks go when [the] [lake] gets all frozen” (60). Holden's concern about the safety of the ducks as they transition from the comfortable waters into the hazardous wintery conditions reveal his dilemma about where he will go when he leaves the comfort of childhood. The ducks parallel his existence. With this seasonal change, Holden feels stressed and scared. Desperate for an answer, Holden questions the driver repeatedly on this childish subject. As the pond freezes, Holden correlates this to his uncomfortable transition into adulthood where he fears the unknown. Without the reassurance from other people, Holden does not want to leave his "comfortable lake" of childhood and experience the inescapable life of an
Societal standards and viewpoints can be seen as corruptive and imposing; they have lead people to refrain from translating their thoughts into their actions and instead provoked them to assert themselves fakely for their own benefit. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the novel The Catcher in the Rye, has labeled this inconsistency in people as “phoniness,” and classifies almost every adult that he meets as a phony. In contrast, he is drawn to the innocence and genuinity of children, and he believes that they are the only people who are devoid of phoniness because they have not yet been affected by the adult world and its fraudulence. He believes that the change from childhood to adulthood is fatal, as he compares the transition from one
Oftentimes individuals have difficulty separating themselves from their childhood and accepting the reality of maturation. In J.D Salinger's The Catcher in The Rye, Holden develops the desire to protect innocence due to his fear of maturation, leading to an awareness of his inability to do so. Holden Caulfield is a young teenage boy who has been through numerous rough encounters with himself and others , in which have led him to a mental hospital. Holden is sharing these moments with a psychiatrist where he stays. Caufield is not fond of change, and wishes everything could always just stay at its original state. His younger sister Phoebe is his ideal, pure innocent child, in which he adores. Lastly, Jane, is another girl in which Holden
J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye explores the life of a dramatic teenager, Holden, who struggles with the death of his younger brother at a young age and the realities of growing up. Holden’s main conflict throughout the novel is understanding and dealing with the authenticity and innocence of childhood versus the phoniness and impurities of growing up. This conflict often manifests itself in the form of a personality disorder and Holden’s need to be a protector of innocence. Holden’s borderline personality disorder and his tendency to associate with young, innocent people instead of with corrupted adults stems from the trauma of the loss of his brother and the neglect of his family during that difficult time.
The motifs of phoniness and perversion are themes common to Catcher in the Rye and contribute a major factor to the development of Holden’s character. Separately, these motifs appear to be mindless talk of the common sixteen year old male. Combined however, the themes introduce a crucial element to Holden’s background, and offer insight into what made him who he
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.