Catcher In The Rye Authenticity Of Adulthood

The Authenticity of Adulthood

The novel The Catcher in The Rye follows the three day adventure of the main character Holden as he travels through New York City on his way home from his boarding school in Argerstown, Pensilvania. Holden, the main character, believes that in the ideal world, everyone is still a bit naive about life. Holden wants to protect children and himself from having to face the harsh realities of life. The author, J.D. Salinger continuously proves that there is no real authenticity in the world of adulthood as it holds no real source of beauty or innocence. Adulthood holds no authenticity for several reasons; there is a complete loss of innocence when a child transitions from childhood to adulthood, adults tend to no

The novel The Catcher in The Rye gains its title from Holden's constant concern of protecting younger children from the loss of their innocence, thus his red hat that symbolizes catching children in the rye and protecting them. Authenticity is the state of being true and genuine to ones self. It is clear that people lose their innocence, creating an inauthentic adulthood because people begin to erase their innocence in exchange with knowledge of the reality that they live in.True knowledge of oneself, others and the circumstances around them all comes with a price. One is able to see this when Holden must face the death of Allie. To Holden, Allie represents truth, while everyone else is phoney. Innocence goes hand in hand with idealism and a certain inability or unwillingness to bear and accept the harsh truth of reality. Another example of how the inauthenticity of adulthood can be intertwined with adults lack of innocence is the fact that Holden feels that adulthood is filled with corruption. J.D. Salinger writes of a scene in The Catcher in The Rye where Holden finds curse words written all over the walls of the school that his little sister Phoebe attends. Holden says, "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”(Salinger 20). This quote shows that Holden fears deeply for the children's innocence in the dearest of ways and that he believes even the slightest of things could affect them and make the dry and inauthentic adults. This also demonstrates the type of corruption Holden is referring to and how he views the adult world in terms of the usage of dry and Un-wanted language that he claims affects a persons innocence. Finally, one