Holden's Loss Of Innocence In Catcher In The Rye

The phrase “it’s not a phase” just might have met its maker after this novel. Holden Caulfield, a “suave” sixteen year old rebel, is in the awkward, isolating limbo between childhood and full-fledged adulthood, and this divergence opens his eyes to the flaws of society with the perspective of an adult and the honest distress of a child. He was once an innocent child- most likely a boy similar to his beloved “catcher in the rye” tyke running alongside the streets with reckless abandon and “just singing for the hell of it” (p. 115). This fleeting chapter of life called “childhood” contains no boundaries, no mental illness, and all of the courage to dream of making one's’ mark on the world. However, the term “growing up” is often synonymous with

He views adults as “phonies” who cope with the loss of their innocence by lying to both themselves and others and greedily filling the void in their hearts with any vice they can, whether that is money, power, or even sex. Being so intensely invested in preserving the happiness of those around him, Holden takes it upon himself to become a protector, of sorts, of the children whose innocence are in jeopardy. In a moment of tenderness, he admits to Phoebe that in an ideal world, he would watch over children playing in a field full of rye and “catch everybody if they start to go off the cliff” (p. 173). Holden’s Peter-Pan-esque desire to preserve the purity of youth is represented by the cliff because falling off really means plunging off of the golden fields of childhood into the shadowy depths of adult society, which he sees as full of indecency and corruption. His time in New York City only serves to further fuel his disillusionment with the state of society, as he finds himself surrounded by adults who are uncaring, emotionally (and possibly even sexually) abusive, and resigned to living uninspired lifestyles that match the grey, drab, and depressing environment that the city is painted to be. Unlike these people who give in to society’s “rat race” mentality, Holden battles against the current and strives to protect whatever childhood innocence remains while the rest of him inevitably grows up. Takeuchi Yasuhiro asserts, using Jungian analysis, that Holden is a true example of the “binary opposition” (Takeuchi) that comes from being “both savior and saved” (Takeuchi), driving him to conflict with societal norms. Unlike the adults who do nothing for others but expect things in return, insisting on being saved while refusing the role of the savior out of their own greed, Holden takes on the burden of being a savior by sacrificing acceptance