Holden Caulfield Innocence

Innocence and Adults
The coming of age story, Catcher in the Rye by S. D. Salinger illustrates three long depressing days in a teenager’s life. At the beginning of the novel, Holden Caulfield is expelled from the boarding school named, “Pencey Prep” and lives alone in New York for three days. During this time he becomes drunk, gets beat-up, and becomes depressed and mentally unstable. He tries to have meaningful conversations with people that include prostitutes and nuns. He constantly thinks about his younger sister, Phoebe, and eventually at the end of the novel he visits her. In the novel Catcher in the Rye Holden’s inevitable development into adulthood and his fears towards it are emphasized by putting him in contrast to his sister innocences.

Holden has a negative outlook on the world, he constantly is depressed because of his surroundings and the actions of people. He thinks that the world is full of phony people and he persistently says the word “phony” by describing most adults and teenagers. Holden thinks that in order to become an adult one must lose their authenticity and become phony. Contracting Holden's ideas, Phoebe, has a positive view on the world. The way that Phoebe understands the world is pure because she is a innocence child. This contrasting of ideas emphasizes Holden negative outlook on life. It also explains that Holden's ideas are not those of a young child, this shows that Holden is growing away from his childhood and become an adult. Holden's ideas also illustrate that he is afraid of being an adult because he thinks that by becoming an adult one must act phony and