Catcher In The Rye Innocence Theme

Fifty-five percent of teenagers say they have been emotionally abused by a parent, and eleven percent have suffered physical abuse. The novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is about a seventeen-year-old boy, Holden, who has dealt with a lot of trauma from the death of his younger brother. He has been getting kicked out of every school he has been in because of bad behavior and bad grades. Holden never has felt like he fits in, and tries to figure out himself by traveling to New York City. J.D. Salinger uses many literary elements to show the preservation of innocence and youth, including the setting and Holden's life experiences. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger illustrates the preservation of innocence and youth.

J.D. Salinger

“I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written 'Fuck you' on the wall... I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant” (Salinger 201). Holden was very angry that all the young kids would see this on the walls. He knew they wouldn't understand what it meant, which would cause them to ask what it meant to others. This quote shows that Holden has a strong belief in the preservation of youth, and this showed him how there is so much exposure to young children. At the school he is at, his very young kids don't understand those kinds of words yet, and it reveals to them at such a young age. Holden himself knows he has been affected by that kind of language, and he doesn't want the same thing for others. He wants the kids just like his sister, to turn out better than him, and he is upset when he sees that they are already exposed, just like he was. The next setting I want to talk about is the schools Holden has been in, and how they have affected him. Holden has always had school forced on him, even when he was going through tough times, and never wants to return. "The only thing that scared me was