Holden Caulfield Loss Of Innocence Analysis

Although Holden experiences the loss of human life in a more intimate manner than Salinger, they both deal with death evasively in a futile effort to preserve their youthful innocence and idealistic outlook on the cruel and heartless world. After reflecting on the jubilant moments in his younger brother’s short life, a distraught Holden reveals his confusion over death of innocent beings as well as his evasive efforts to solace himself:

I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it. It was a very stupid thing to do,

Struggling to accept the perpetuity of a loss due to his tenacity, Holden ignorantly refuses to acknowledge the imperfections of the world by exerting his rage on his inanimate surroundings instead of reflecting on his emotional state in an attempt to preserve his innocence. By acting on impulse and defensively justifying his motives, Holden displays his evasive attitude toward the ambiguous and poignant concept of death as he uselessly tries to maintain his idealistic perspective of the world. In Salinger, Shields and Salerno discuss J.D. Salinger’s own emotional trauma as a direct result of his refusal to acknowledge injustices in the world and his emotional apathy: “It wasn't one event that put Salinger in the hospital in Nuremberg. It was a culmination of events: going through eleven months of war, being forced to witness atrocities beyond human imagination. He submerged his feelings—fear, anguish, pain—about losing his brothers-in-arms. Submerging that

Forced to recognize the dismal reality of the wickedness of humanity, Salinger relinquished part of his utopian views of society while still retaining an overall indifferent approach to death, which Holden attempts to maintain by refusing to acknowledge Allie’s demise. Similar to how Holden fails to grasp the idea of mortality, Salinger struggled to identify and express his sentiments involving violence and the loss of human life in fear of appearing unfit for his military position and the stereotypical masculine role that was given to him by society. As a result of his obstinate rejection of his feelings and his persistent attitude toward keeping his innocence, Salinger faced a mental crisis like that of Holden due to his inability to comprehend his feelings and overcome an eye-opening encounter with death. Paralleling Salinger’s elusive response to his own emotions after witnessing death in war, Holden feels ashamed in requesting the loving support of his family and peers after experiencing a loss, and he instead chooses to mull over the tragedy without obtaining emotional closure. Miller states, “[I]n answering a question about Egyptian history on an examination Holden [begins] and [ends] with a description of the preservation of