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Catcher In The Rye Essay Thesis

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Jessica Casimiro October 30, 2015 English 3/PayLea Short Story Essay Patrick Rothfuss once claimed, “The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.” The novel Catcher in the Rye focuses on Holden Caulfield, an angst-ridden teen conflicted between remaining in a state of prolonged innocence or transitioning into the world of adulthood, thus facing the corruption and phoniness that it correlates with. Through Holden’s dynamic character, J.D Salinger depicts how innocence is slowly lost when exposed to adulthood. Reluctant to the idea of growing up, Holden strives to protect the innocence of himself and the ones’ around him. Holden reminisces about the Natural Museum of History, a place he enjoyed going …show more content…

While visiting Phoebe’s school, he notices profanity written on the wall. Trying to remove them, he comes to the realization that “If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the “f**k you” signs in the world. It's impossible” (Salinger 202). Holden knows a child’s innocence is gone when exposed to such obscenities. He finally accepts that he is not capable of preventing the corruption of others. Holden sees the children on the carousel reach for the gold ring. Even though he is afraid they will fall, he does nothing because “if they want to grab 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” (Salinger 211). Holden realizes that children must take risks and make their own decisions to prepare them for adulthood. He is fully aware that the loss of innocence is part of growing up. One must eventually transition into a world of maturity because childhood innocence cannot be retained forever. In summary, the deprivation of one's purity occurs when they grow up. The loss of childhood innocence is the turning point in an individual's life. Those who find it overwhelming ignore reality so that they can obtain their childish ways. They feel that they are not ready to fulfill the responsibilities and expectations to be an adult. However, one cannot avoid entering adulthood for

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Holden, an adolescent teenager, goes through his awful life in constant question of what childhood actually is. ; he is constantly searching for a way to keep his innocence. Unfortunately, Holden’s socials skills don’t allow him from being honest with himself, much like Nick’s quality of not being able to understand the idea of romantic love. Throughout Salinger’s timeless

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Holden is so passionate about preserving innocence that he literally tries to erase potential corruption from kids’ lives. The swear words that Holden finds on the walls embody the fathomless amount of wickedness that he sees in the world. Despite Holden’s best attempts to protect the elementary school children, he finally comes to terms with how useless his endeavors are. As he strives to guard innocent children from the world’ s evil, Holden comprehends that this desire is in fact

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“If you do something too good, then, after a while, if you don’t watch it, you start showing off. And then your not as good anymore.” (Salinger 140) Holden hates how phony adults are, and how they are all acting a part. He will always take a dislike to his own childhood experiences, but he does everything he can to protect others from experiencing bad moments. Holden never had the childhood he dreamed of, and he holds onto the hope that he can provide innocence for Phoebe.

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Was Holden successful in his Journey This is an essay on whether or not Holden Caulfield is successful on his journey throughout the novel “The Catcher in the Rye” by Jerome David Salinger. This book shows how hard it can be for teenagers that are going from an adolescent to adulthood. Holden, who is sixteen years old, has been kicked out of several schools. Pencey Prep. was the latest.

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Holden and Phoebe fought. Trying to make up for it, Holden took her to the zoo. Holden let Phoebe ride the carousel while he watched. It started to rain as she reached for the golden ring. Holden thought to himself, “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” (Salinger 273-274).

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If the book is read solely on its surface level, it just seems like a book about an annoying teenager who just complains about everything, but the messages it carries are actually profound. For example, near the end of the story Holden is upset by some profane graffiti on the wall at a museum that says “F*** you” (Salinger 224). He is upset by it because he is worried some little kids will see it and wonder what it means, and then be curious enough to find out adn have their innocence stolen. He finds the graffiti multiple times in the museum. The profane graffiti, if looked at beyond the surface level, symbolises the fact that Holden can not do anything to stop little kids from losing their innocence.

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For example when Holden sees all the naughty words on the walls of the elementary school that Phoebe goes to, he wants to try and erase them. This shows how he struggles with allowing young minds to be corrupted by things he feels they shouldn’t be exposed to, like when he says “I thought how Phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant,...” (201). He goes on to say how some dirty kid would tell them, furthering the thought that their young minds would be corrupted. Another example is when Phoebe asks Holden to tell her one thing he really likes and his response is, Allie and sitting there talking with Phoebe. This shows his contentedness with being in the simple and innocent world of his childhood.

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No one wants to grow up. The transitions from innocent childhood, to fearless adolescence, to sudden real and terrifying adulthood is enough to scare anyone. So, because of this, people have a natural desire to want to protect innocence, or perhaps to even stop time and live young and free forever. J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye portrays this dilemma of becoming an adult and the protection of innocence through the story of Holden Caulfield. Holden’s story is essentially that of a teenage boy bumming around New York City for a few days in search of someone to listen to him about his fears of becoming an adult.

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Holden thinks that most everything is about him in a childish sense. When he sees vulgar words written on walls, he believes that they are aimed at him somehow and thinks that the entire adult world doesn’t accept him. The F you written on the wall is a statement made more towards society and not to one specific person, especially Holden. However, he takes this “F you” very personally and lets it affect his behavior. He backs away from the adult life and thinks about the amazing relationships he has when he was a child.

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Adulthood is when we mature into a person that continues to live life in reality as we let our childhood and adolescence become a faint memory. The memories, however, taught us lessons of acceptance as we cannot always shape the future. Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye takes a journey through the rite of passage by experiencing the innocence of youth and the phoniness of adulthood.

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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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In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, there are three specific examples that support the idea that maturation and the loss of innocence are inevitable. They include: Allie’s baseball mitt, the ducks in the Central Park pond, and Holden’s red hunting cap. Allie’s baseball mitt is a symbol of a child’s innocence, and then how it is lost. This is evident through the very basis of why Holden had started talking about Allie to the reader: Allie’s mitt.

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In The Catcher in the Rye, the author J.D. Salinger, introduces the protagonist; Holden Caulfield. Holden feels the sense that he cannot choose between the two worlds. For example, he makes it seem as both of them are complete opposites from each other. In the book, Holden wants to keep his innocence, but he also wants to grow up and toss that innocence away. He still keeps his childhood personality by constantly obsessing over things that shouldn’t matter.

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The ending chapter of the novel Holden finds the loss of innocence he’s been searching for. When Phoebe is riding the carousel and she reaches for the ring, it represents maturing. Phoebe is a symbol for youth and innocence, and she is reaching for maturity. Holden’s struggles during the novel, “The Catcher In The Rye,” he figures out the true loss of innocence lost in becoming an adult and the struggle to be one and Holden struggling to be the catcher in the rye to catch kids from losing adulthood. His relationship struggles are his key factors which makes Holden who he truly

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How Holden matured People go through rough stuff in their lives, such as losing a close sibling. It seems impossible to pull yourself out of the pain and guilt of your loss. It appeared Holden was in the same predicament, but through his experiences in the novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger he learns to grow up. Aside from being very immature, holden refuses to grow up and dislikes people who have grown up.

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