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In JD Salingers' Catcher in the Rye, a troubled teenager named Holden
Caufield struggles with the fact that everyone has to grow up. The book gets its
title from Holden's constant concern with the loss of innocence. He did not want
children to grow up because he felt that adults are corrupt. This is seen when
Holden tries to erase naughty words from the walls of an elementary school where
his younger sister Phoebe attended. While I was sitting down, I saw something
that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written 'Fuck you' on the wall. It drove me damn
near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and
how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would
tell them- all cockeyed, naturally- what it meant, and how they'd all think
about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to
kill whoever'd written it. I figured it was some perverty bum that'd sneaked in
the school late at night to take a leak or something and then wrote it on the
wall. I kept picturing myself catching him at it, and how I'd smash his head on
the stone steps till hew as good and goddam dead and bloody. (201)
His deep
concern with impeccability caused him to create stereotypes of a hooligan that
would try to corrupt the children of an elementary school. Holden believed that
children were innocent because they viewed the world and society without any
bias. When Phoebe asked him to name something that he would like to be when he
grew up, the only thing he would have liked to be was a catcher in the rye. He
invented an illusion for himself of a strange fantasy. He stated that he would
like to follow a poem by Robert Burns: If a body catch a body comin' through the
rye. He kept picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field
of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around- nobody big, I
mean- except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have
to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if
they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from
somewhere and catch them. ThatĄ|s all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in
the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to
be. (173) Holden wants to stop children from falling into losing their innocence
and becoming an adult, and he takes pleasure in the attempted thwarting of
maturation. In the beginning of Catcher in the Rye, his initial character is one
of a child. Throughout the book, he takes steps and the forces of change take a
toll on his childish ways. In the end, he seems to be changed into a man. Holden
is definitely extremely immature in the beginning of the book.
He characterizes
almost every person he meets as a phony. He feels that he is surrounded by
hypocrites in a school filled with fakery. Principal Thurmer, the principal of
Holden's high school, Pencey, was the leader of the whole charade. During a
teacher/parent day, Principal Thurmer would only say hello to the wealthy
parents of students. He would not associate himself with those that were not
financially stable, because he was a phony. Holden also maintains a lack of
responsibility throughout the whole book. He was the equipment manager of the
fencing team at Pencey, but he lost the equipment on the subway. He also failed
out of two schools for lack of effort and absences from classes. Holden also had
a daydream about two children who never grew up, whore main in a perfect world
forever. This daydream is a result of his younger brother Allie's death. Allie
represents the unchangeable youth of which Holden must let go if he ever expects
to maintain sanity. Holden has a fixation on childhood, which shows itself in
many forms. His glorification of children, inordinate admiration of Phoebe,
idealization of his dead younger brother, and the joy he gets from reminiscing
about his own childhood all contribute to his obsession with innocence and
youth. Throughout the middle of the book, forces of change unfold on Holden.
While waiting for an old friend of his, he had the sudden urge to go into a
museum that he had visited while still a child in school in order to bring back
memories of his childhood.
However, when he finally reached the museum, he
decided not to. Then a funny thing happened. When I got to the museum, all of a
sudden I wouldn't have gone inside for a million bucks. It just didn't appeal to
me... (122) This shows that Holden is becoming an adult. He did not want to
enter the museum because he realized that he was too old to take part in such an
activity. When he takes Phoebe to a carousel later in the book, he decided not
to ride on it, or even stand on it during a rain storm, because he felt too old
to get on. Holden also had another one of his childish fantasies for his future.
He wanted to go and be a deaf mute somewhere in the west, so he wouldn't have to
deal with all the phonies and hypocrites of every day life. Phoebe told him that
she wanted to go along with him, but he denies her of this because of his
growing responsibility and metamorphosis as an adult. He told her, I'm not going
away anywhere. I changed my mind. (207) At the end of the book, Holden seems to
be much more mature.
His key step was when he did not ride with Phoebe on the
carrousel. Holden only watched his sister ride along. In the center of the
carousel, there was a gold ring. The children riding on the carousel would reach
for the gold ring in order to win a prize. All the kids kept trying to grab for
the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she'd fall off
the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids
is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not
say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything
to them.(211) This carousel symbolizes life, and the constant journey of
childhood into adulthood. Children would sometimes fall when striving to reach
the gold ring in the center of life, or their complete success or adulthood.
Holden would have yelled out to the children that it was dangerous to try to
achieve this goal, but he realized in this anagnoresis that the children should
go along the path of life by themselves. Throughout the book, Holden tried to
save all children from growing up and losing their innocence. When he realized
that he could not achieve this goal, he had a nervous breakdown and could not
deal with it. However, it is an inevitable fact that everyone has to grow up.
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