Examples Of Holden's Journey Into Adulthood In Catcher In The Rye

Samuel Park
Block 8
English 2A
Holden’s Journey into the Adult World

Teenagers are known for their unpredictability, need for a companion, and habits of taking risks. In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the main protagonist named Holden Caulfield is struggling to transfer from an adolescent into an adult. He faces many obstacles on his search for the bridge connecting childhood to adulthood, and his struggles almost collapses his emotional state. First, his brother Allie dies, and then Holden gets kicked out of Pencey Prep. Through analyzing Holden’s conflict of accepting reality, it is revealed that he is having trouble finding his transition into adulthood. Although Holden has a lot of trouble finding his transition into

Holden tends to characterizes his peers and adults in a negative manner. Holden describes one time where he dislikes everyone around him. “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming in the goddam window… They had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life… It drives me crazy. It makes me so depressed I go crazy” (34). Holden describes everyone at his school as a phony because of how seriously they take education, while Holden is slacking off and failing four out his five classes. He dislikes teachers, students, peers, and adults, including Mr. Haas. This shows how much Holden wants to avoid his development into adulthood. Even Holden’s dream job is to catch children who are starting to fall off a cliff. He says there will be “all these little kids playing some game on this big field of rye and… I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff… I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff… That’s all I’d do all day” (173). All he wants is to do, is to catch kids and have a job with no responsibilities. This can be a metaphor when kids turn into an adult. Holden does not like adults and their responsibilities so Holden wants to the innocent kids from falling into the “real,” cruel world. Holden wants to catch and prevent the kids

For so long, Holden believed that he was affected nobody. He also thought that he was hidden and nobody knew who he was. This idea is strengthened when Holden says, “ I think the only time I ever even had a conversation with [James Castle] was that time he asked me if he could borrow this turtleneck sweater I had. I damn near dropped dead when he asked me, i was so surprised and all” (171). Holden didn’t realize that people recognized him and knew who he was. This surprised him a lot, but what shocked him even more was that James Castle knew that Holden owned a turtleneck sweater. Because Holden does not know that others recognize who he is, Holden is afraid to disappear, and this fear of disappearance, is an unearthly and impossible idea. Because Holden thinks he is invisible and no one cares for him, he decides to leave his home forever to work at a farm with a friend’s grandpa. Not wanting to just disappear, he wants to meet Phoebe and tell her about his choice to run away. He meets Phoebe at the Natural History Museum. At the History Museum, Holden realizes something that would change his life. Phoebe tells Holden, “I’m going with you… I’m not going back to school… So shut up” (206). He told Phoebe this, so he wouldn’t just disappear out of Phoebe’s life, but this caused Phoebe to want to leave home with Holden. Holden said no to this idea. This caused Phoebe to be angry at Holden.