Holden Caulfield Self Protection Analysis

Teenagers are so damaged and emotionally broken that at least twenty percent of teenagers suffer from depression before they become adults. That only could explain Holden’s need to self protect and not trust people. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger shows the theme of alienation for the purpose of self-protection . The main character Holden Caulfield uses his red hunting hat when he is looking for protection, refers to the museum when he wants everything to stay the same and Allie’s baseball mit when he wants to have comfort.
Holden’s red hunting hat is used as a symbol a surplus amount of times. He uses this hat as a symbol to feel connected to Allie and as a way to protect himself from the adult world. When Holden said “ she took

For Holden, he is afraid of growing older because he doesn’t want to be alone. You can tell that when he explains “that he loves the museum because it is unchanging. However, he acknowledges that the people visiting the museum change, which contributes to making a museum visit different each time.” Basically Holden thinks that the older you get the world will change you and make you more phony by taking the pureness out of your soul. So he idealizes because he knows the exhibits will never change and they won’t become phony. Holden clings to knowing the world around him will stay the same. That is the only thing that keeps him going and you can tell ( “the museum connotes ideas of both dynamism and stasis. However, to begin with, Holden clings to its associations with stasis.”) Holden’s mind is fighting between everything staying the same and not moving to he knows that everyone will change and become impure. He clings on to stasis because he is afraid of what the future will bring. Holden is tired of people becoming phony and leaving his life, he just wished to would stop. This is come on once he says “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. “ Holden lost his brother Allie and that could be why he wants everything to stay the same. After you lose someone your mind becomes blurred so Holden doesn’t want to lose someone else he cares about. Holden’s main problem is he doesn’t have courage ( “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move.” ) Holden thinks that if he moves forward he is going to change and become impure. We as people all want to move forward but sometimes the people you are associated with are not helping you either. You can tell once he says “You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two