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Holden Caulfield Reflection

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Reflection Holden Caulfield, the main character in J.D Salinger’s book The Catcher in the Rye, goes through many tough challenges in life trying to figure who he is. He constantly pretends to act old than he is, but inside, he is scared of growing up. He is also scared of those around him growing up losing their innocence. To symbolize Holden Caulfield and his fear of adulthood, I drew Peter Pan, a Walt Disney character known his choice of never growing up and staying young forever. I believe that Peter Pan is a great symbolism for Holden Caulfield as they both are scared of growing up, want to preserve the innocence of those around him, and wish to save the children from entering the world that is adulthood. Peter Pan is a character famous …show more content…

He believes that all adults are “phonies,” and doesn’t want people like Jane to lose their innocence and become and “phony” adult. This is shown after Holden finds out about Stradlater’s date with Jane, Holden explains, “I kept thinking about Jane, and about Stradlater having a date with her and all. It made me nervous I nearly went crazy” (Salinger 34). This quote explains to us how Holden feels as though Jane is innocent and shouldn’t be with someone like Stradlater. He is nervous because he realizes that Jane and Stradlater are growing up and doing adult things, unlike himself. After Stradlater comes back from his date with Jane, Holden keeps questioning him about it and Stradlater hints that he and Jane may have had sex in the basketball coach’s car. Though Holden was the one pestering Stradlater about his date with Jane, he later becomes upset and starts a fight with Stradlater. This shows how Holden is upset that someone like Stradlater might’ve taken away Jane’s innocence and how they both are becoming adults. Peter Pan tries to convince people like Wendy to join him in never growing up. He doesn’t want Wendy to lose her innocence just like how Holden doesn’t want Jane to lose her innocence. This is why I used Peter Pan as a symbol to represent Holden Caulfield as they both want the people around them to stay

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