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Holden's Maturity In Catcher In The Rye

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There is one experience in life that everyone can relate to. Whether it was pleasurable or not, no one can deny the fact that they have not been through it. This experience is that of growing up and change, a time in all of our lives where it is such a complicated yet natural process that kids just ‘go with it’. In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield suffers from the same complexity in his life. Holden is struck with events throughout the book questioning his maturity and emotions. He is unable to analyze what maturity really is because he does not want to grow up. The first stage of the motif Growing Up/Change is seen when Holden constantly thinks about his peers and siblings and how he would like to protect them. The final stage of this motif shows Holden wanting to protect kids from the vulgar world. However, he is struggling because he would prefer to stay innocent, …show more content…

Holden is able to see the innocence in her as “she was very nervous for a prostitute”. Holden identifies innocence through youth as he states “she was young as hell. She was around my age”. Throughout the book Holden sees adults as phonies and children being pure. Sunny then goes on to say "Like fun you are" and Holden reacts to this because he sees childish traits in her. Holden identifies innocence in this instance and through it shows maturity by not sleeping with her. Growing up/change is also shown when Holden visits the museum to kill time before his date with Sally. He says “The best thing...in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move” The museum presents him with a vision of life he can understand: it is frozen, silent, and always the same. He then goes on to state “‘Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.” This portrays how Holden would like to stay in a world where no one judges

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1005 Words | 5 Pages

Holden walks this tight rope throughout the novel of whether he should grow up and act mature, much like society wants him to or if he should go against force of society and hold on to his innocence. At one point in the novel, Holden tries to get rid of his innocence at a bar when he tries to act mature and order a drink containing alcohol, this is not a very innocent act after he gets denied because he doesn’t look over 21 he gets aggravated and really tries to sell himself as an adult. In the novel Holden states… “I gave him this very cold stare, like he’d insulted the hell out of me and asked him “Do I look like I'm under twenty-one?” (Salinger 69) Holden feels the need to get rid of his innocence because of societies influence. Society glamourizes the idea of drinking and makes it look appealing, Holden picks up on this.

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593 Words | 3 Pages

He faces many problems throughout the book, and is always trying to save kids innocence. Holden also wants to stay a kid and not grow up, however he finds out that he can’t do this by the end of the novel. Some people may think that Holden wasn't successful throughout his journey, however, one could also see how he was successful in his journey. By the end of the novel, Holden was able to find out that he couldn't save kids innocence, he couldn’t be a kid forever, and he sees that even though the world is filled with evil, he can accept it, or at least live with it.

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1804 Words | 8 Pages

The only thing that would be different would be you” (Salinger 135). Holden throughout the novel is depicted as someone who finds it hard to move on in life and is unable to deal with change. In specification to the Museum of Natural History, everything seemingly stays the same, even after an extended period of time. In this case, Holden desires to be similar to the museum in the sense that he wishes to be frozen in time. This dismissal of change and wanting things to stay the same can also relate to how Holden views the museum as a safe haven for him to escape to whenever life becomes too hard for him.

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291 Words | 2 Pages

Holden passes strict judgement on everyone, as he struggles to transition from adolescence to adulthood. Holden appears to be stunned when he sees how different the life of an adult is comparison to that of children. His views on topics such as, life, his future, and sex. Holden

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1346 Words | 6 Pages

This is not the only time where we see Holden be affected by loss of innocence. Holden’s love for the museum symbolizes his desire to avoid change and his preference of childhood’s simplicity over adulthood’s unpredictability. Holden loves the museum because it is the one constant thing in his life that will not change. The museum is a place where Holden can go to avoid growing up, because it will not change. This is a place of stability for Holden.

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337 Words | 2 Pages

Everybody says that, especially my father” (Salinger 12). This comment that Holden receives from people a lot indicates that they see him differently, then the way he views

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600 Words | 3 Pages

Jessica Casimiro October 30, 2015 English 3/PayLea Short Story Essay Patrick Rothfuss once claimed, “The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.” The novel Catcher in the Rye focuses on Holden Caulfield, an angst-ridden teen conflicted between remaining in a state of prolonged innocence or transitioning into the world of adulthood, thus facing the corruption and phoniness that it correlates with. Through Holden’s dynamic character, J.D Salinger depicts how innocence is slowly lost when exposed to adulthood. Reluctant to the idea of growing up, Holden strives to protect the innocence of himself and the ones’ around him. Holden reminisces about the Natural Museum of History, a place he enjoyed going

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1142 Words | 5 Pages

He talks quite a bit about sex, but his virginity is the last existing innocence to him. Holden pays for a prostitute to have sex with, but he cannot go through with it. He is very hesitant about losing his innocence. Holden wants to be “the catcher in the rye” (191) and save all the innocence in the world. He believes that that is what he wants to do in the future as he tells his little sister, Phoebe.

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858 Words | 4 Pages

These two struggles are what causes Holden to realise his purpose is being a catcher in the rye. His struggle to adulthood is quite evident. Holden states that the adult world is a nasty and horrible place, he thinks that the adult world is very phony, fake, and corrupt. These are words he uses quite often to describe the adult world, proving that he despises the thought of being an adult.

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779 Words | 4 Pages

Furthermore, Holden starts to hate all the adults or loses faith in them, calls them phony. Holden has a second thought of becoming an adult he loses hope in his future and it seems to him nothing in the world matters to him anymore. We can see that throughout the book. He smokes, gets drunk, and does daring acts like getting a prostitute in his room. He also tries to escape all this guilt and grief by wasting time with unnecessary people he calls phony.

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837 Words | 4 Pages

Holden struggles with growing up and facing reality. There are many examples of Holden’s immaturity that are displayed in many forms such as facing responsibilities, his speech, his actions, and etc. Holden’s outlook on adult life is that it is superficial and brimming with phonies, but childhood was all about looking pleasing and innocent. He wants everything to stay the same and for time to stop. As Holden progresses in age, he will discover more about becoming mature in the

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1230 Words | 5 Pages

A. Allie’s death causes Holden to become obsessed with death and this obsession makes him believe that growing up and becoming a “phonie” is like dying; this belief that is planted inside Holden’s head when Allie died is what sends him on a quest to preserve children’s innocence and save them from the “death” of growing up. B. Salinger includes the traumatic story of Allies death that happened years in advance to provide an explanation for Holden’s obsession with death and how he sees loss of innocence as equivalent to dying. Allie died with his innocence still intact, so Holden does not want other children to grow up and have their innocence “die”. C. Holden even admits to being mentally unstable after his brother’s traumatic death when he says, “I was only 13, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all

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830 Words | 4 Pages

He has trouble growing up and accepting life as it is. Holden thinks adults are "phony" which makes him hate the fact of growing up and staying innocent as much as he can while he is old enough to become an adult. He is frustrated with the world and people which makes him act with anger. His innocent childish dream is to be the Catcher in the Rye, to catch the kids before they become phonies like Holden says about adults. The moment he realizes that he cannot keep kids from falling or in other words, from growing up and becoming adults, he, reaches adulthood, and takes a big step towards it at the end of the novel.

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693 Words | 3 Pages

Catcher in the Rye In the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the narrator and protagonist Holden Caulfield a sixteen year old junior undergoes a series of changes. Holden learns multiple life changing lessons; one of them is you must grow up. In the beginning of the novel, Holden starts out as “that kid”; the one with the parents who expect him to get into an ivy league school, and end up with a kid with no intentions of doing so. At the beginning of the book it is very apparent that Holden lacks motivation; he also has hit rock bottom.

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1268 Words | 6 Pages

Holden realizes she is going to grow up and he cannot affect that and he should not either because that would get in the way of her development, and that is not what mature person would do, and he does not therefore he has indeed matured by this point in the novel. Holden learned to accept loss of innocence and grew in maturity throughout the novel. At some point in people's lives everyone matures, and learns to accept that they are going to grow

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