Expelled from his fourth school, Holden goes on a journey back home, in Manhattan, where he wanted to be all along but was too afraid. Holden was only able to communicate to his late brother, Allie, and his younger sister, Phoebe. He urges to not only protect children but himself from the innocence of childhood into adulthood. J.D. Salinger’s book The Catcher of in the Rye shows a teenage boy going through fear, signs of depression, and his concerns about adulthood.
Holden Caulfield, sixteen years old, goes through a crisis identity. Caulfield won 't accept the fact that his childhood will eventually slip away into adulthood.”Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules”-Mr.Spencer (Salinger 8). He fears that the world is against him, like he is the victim. We’ve learned that Holden puts up a wall, to protect himself from the real world. He fears growing up will be uncomfortable, and would avoid any adult situations. Before he goes on his date with Sally Hayes, Holden goes to the Museum of Natural History where he used to visit on school trips.“The best thing, though,
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Sixteen going on Seventeen, Holden is not ready for adulthood, he is too fastened into his childhood. Catching young children, particularly, his younger sister phoebe from falling into a more mature society from their innocence and knowledge of sex. “... I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all” (Salinger 173).
Knowing that he has to become an adult anyways, he accepts that fact that, you can 't protect the children forever. They are going to have to acknowledge adulthood on themselves eventually. Symptoms of depression or issues that Holden experiences are what teenagers around the world go through