Bad Decisions In The Catcher In The Rye

Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden makes very bad decisions. He is struggling with many things, and he has lots of complications in his life. Holden is growing up alone, his parents at home, far away. From boarding school to boarding school, he has nobody to support him. Throughout his teenage years, he has nobody to tell him how to handle the changes that are happening. On top of all this, he is sad. His wonderful childhood is gone, and so is his brother. His brother died a while back, and Holden has no idea how to cope with this. To deal with his sadness, Holden makes choices which prevent him from growing up.
Every time his parents send him to a new school, Holden finds a way to get kicked out. He makes all the wrong choices - he decides not to study, not to try to attend class, not to care at all if he succeeds in life or not. “...I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself...” (Salinger, 6). If he continues on this path, he won’t ever grow up. His teachers continue to be supportive of him because they know he has the potential. We can see this when he does Stradlater’s homework. He is smart, he just doesn’t show it. If he can show it, he will have less of a struggle

He wants to socialize with other people, yet he doesn’t want to look like he is trying too hard. This, in turn, pushes people away, and they no longer want to talk to him. To grow up, he needs a supportive group of family and friends around him who have gone through or are going through the process of becoming an adult just like he is. Holden needs that, but he pushes everyone he tries to talk to away. Take Sally, for example. (Insert Quote). He really wanted to talk to her, but he thought he was trying too hard, so he began pushing her away her. Of course, she took this as an offense, which anyone would - and left him alone. Just getting people to not leave him, that will lessen his struggle to grow