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Catcher In The Rye Adulthood Analysis

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Growing up and transitioning into adulthood is all about jumping over obstacles that fall in your way. You do not just grow up instantly or mature once you hit a certain age, it is gradual, and may not happen until you are emotionally mature. In the book,“The Catcher in The Rye,” written by J.D. Salinger there is a sixteen-year-old boy named Holden. His views on life are much more abstract than the usual sixteen-year old’s. Holden views the people around him as phony and corrupt, yet has a different belief for young children. He sees children as innocent and careless, and he envies their childlike wonder. In this coming of age novel, Holden’s idealist views about society seem to form a realistic view on life. At first glance, you see Holden as a self-absorbed kid who is struggling with the thought of adulthood. Holden begins his journey after failing his classes at Pencey and getting kicked out. From the first look of things, it seems that …show more content…

After telling his sister Phoebe that he was going to run away and live in a cabin, Phoebe arrived to meet him with a suitcase in her hands, “I’m going with you. Can I? Okay?(206). At that moment, Holden realizes that his sister can’t run away with him and that he shouldn’t run away from her. Since he did not run away from his problems and accepted that he has to get his life together shows increased maturity from the way he was towards the beginning of the book. Holden begins to get worried and scared, but once he watches Phoebe, happy as can be, take a ride on the Carousel. This is when Holden realizes that he needs to stop trying to grow up so fast and that he can still hold onto his innocence, even when he is an adult. In “The Catcher in The Rye,” Holden starts off as an immature boy who's scared to become an adult, towards the end of the book Holden matures and realizes that he needs to slow down and enjoy his childhood while it

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481 Words | 2 Pages

Holden view his sister as genuine and honest, not a “phony” like almost everyone else. When he arrives back in New York, one of his first thoughts is that he would like to call and speak with her. In the end of the novel, when Holden is getting ready to start his new life he decides he cannot leave without saying goodbye. Phoebe is the only character in the book who he actually cares about and sees no flaws in. He holds onto Phoebe so much because unlike everyone else surrounded by him, she still has her

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1082 Words | 5 Pages

While reading the Catcher in the Rye, Holden exhibits depressive acts and focuses on the past. Salinger portrays Holden as a sixteen year old who has the inability to grow up, but is still interested in the adult life, with sexual venture and drinking. While also being focused on holding on to his innocence, and the innocence around

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548 Words | 3 Pages

Growing up is difficult and sometimes frightening to imagine as a child. It is not surprising, then, that throughout the Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger, Holden is unwilling to mature into a man and accept his responsibilities. Yet, he feels the need to save children in order to preserve their innocence. As Holden is introduced to different characters and places, he labels them into categories, distinguishing what he thinks is genuine and from what has changed. Holden’s view on adulthood is one of discomfort because of the way people are merged into acting, making them phonies that are abhorred by him.

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656 Words | 3 Pages

Although others may say that Holden was successful on his journey, saying that he grew up he. Holden showed lots of immaturity throughout the novel and was the biggest phony of all.. Holden’s attitude throughout the novel was very immature and made constant poor decisions. While he was still at Pencey he put in no effort and had the attitude that nothing mattered. As he moves on from Pencey and goes to New York, he shows no care for anything as he blows lots of his money and doesn’t even take care of himself. He doesn’t clean himself up or get any sleep because of his attitude towards life.

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1032 Words | 5 Pages

This connects to the theme of the story, which is that people should not force themselves to grow up when they are not ready yet. Throughout the novel, this theme is emphasized by Holden's love for the innocence of children. Overall, The Catcher in the Rye is an amazing novel to read, and very much deserves its position as a classic of American

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2042 Words | 9 Pages

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the reader follows the narrator Holden Caulfield in the 1950’s. Holden is noticeably different from everyone else. It’s easy to see that he is in a constant struggle, trying his best to be true to himself, and not be what he calls a “phony”. A “phony” is described by Holden to be someone who acts the way they are not. “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies.

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1459 Words | 6 Pages

Holden starts to think about his future and what he wants to do in his life. He has many moments where he is daydreaming about his future and what he wants to be in life. As Holden explains, “ I decided I'd just see old Phoebe and sort of say goodbye to her and all, and give her back her Christmas dough, and then I'd start hitchhiking my way out West… and they'd pay me a salary and all for it, and I'd build me a little cabin somewhere with the dough I made and live there for the rest of my life. I got excited as hell thinking about it. I really did” (198).

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859 Words | 4 Pages

In the Catcher in the Rye, Salinger depicts the immature mentality of typical teenagers through Holden’s childish curiosity. Teens experience

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1020 Words | 5 Pages

The Coming Of Age Many people struggle to grow up and, being adults, but many do grow up. Phoebe and Stradlater teach about coming of age to Holden. They teach him things like not being childish and growing up, and how it 's okay to grow up. In the book Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, Stradlater, and Phoebe help develop the theme of coming of age by teaching Holden that he should himself and not be childish, accordingly how it 's okay to grow up. Holden struggles to grow up so Phoebe and Stradlater teach him some things about maturity and the coming of age.

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858 Words | 4 Pages

These two struggles are what causes Holden to realise his purpose is being a catcher in the rye. His struggle to adulthood is quite evident. Holden states that the adult world is a nasty and horrible place, he thinks that the adult world is very phony, fake, and corrupt. These are words he uses quite often to describe the adult world, proving that he despises the thought of being an adult.

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779 Words | 4 Pages

Furthermore, Holden starts to hate all the adults or loses faith in them, calls them phony. Holden has a second thought of becoming an adult he loses hope in his future and it seems to him nothing in the world matters to him anymore. We can see that throughout the book. He smokes, gets drunk, and does daring acts like getting a prostitute in his room. He also tries to escape all this guilt and grief by wasting time with unnecessary people he calls phony.

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837 Words | 4 Pages

Holden struggles with growing up and facing reality. There are many examples of Holden’s immaturity that are displayed in many forms such as facing responsibilities, his speech, his actions, and etc. Holden’s outlook on adult life is that it is superficial and brimming with phonies, but childhood was all about looking pleasing and innocent. He wants everything to stay the same and for time to stop. As Holden progresses in age, he will discover more about becoming mature in the

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830 Words | 4 Pages

He has trouble growing up and accepting life as it is. Holden thinks adults are "phony" which makes him hate the fact of growing up and staying innocent as much as he can while he is old enough to become an adult. He is frustrated with the world and people which makes him act with anger. His innocent childish dream is to be the Catcher in the Rye, to catch the kids before they become phonies like Holden says about adults. The moment he realizes that he cannot keep kids from falling or in other words, from growing up and becoming adults, he, reaches adulthood, and takes a big step towards it at the end of the novel.

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693 Words | 3 Pages

Holden 's life issue is his need to be, “The Catcher in the Rye”, his life lesson is how he overcomes it. At the end of the novel Holden comes to the understanding that everyone grows up. At the end of the book Holden accepts that he doesn 't need to be little kids protectors and that Phoebe wants to grow up and be an adult. Even though he didn 't grow to his full potential at the end of the novel his progression is made apparent by the quote “Don’t tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (Salinger 214).

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1268 Words | 6 Pages

Holden realizes she is going to grow up and he cannot affect that and he should not either because that would get in the way of her development, and that is not what mature person would do, and he does not therefore he has indeed matured by this point in the novel. Holden learned to accept loss of innocence and grew in maturity throughout the novel. At some point in people's lives everyone matures, and learns to accept that they are going to grow

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