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How Does Holden Lose Innocence

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In The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger through the character Holden show the readers that at one point, everyone has to go through the journey of innocence. Holden is a seventeen year old teenager who loses his innocence along with the death of his endearing brother and draws a conclusion that losing innocence is harmful. His own journey of innocence consists of him losing innocence, then trying to protect others from losing innocence, and finally realizing that losing innocence is not damaging as he imagined it to be. Therefore, through his journey, J. D. Salinger proves that although losing innocence is damaging and can break a person, it is not as damaging as trying to protect one’s innocence because it is unrealistic.
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Holden’s dream of wanting to be the catcher in the rye proves that he wants to keep every child innocent and pure. He says, “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around―nobody big, I mean―except me” (Salinger 224). Holden wants no adults except for him in the field because he believes that the adults are the ones who change children and break their innocence. Similar to his dream of being the catcher in the rye, his fantasy about the glass cases and the cabin camps also proves that Holden wants to protect others and himself from losing innocence by isolation. When Holden talks about the Museum of Natural History, he says that his favorite feature about the museum is the big glass cases. Holden believes that the glass cases represent innocence since they protect the exhibits from the outside world and time. Therefore, he says that he wants “to stick [Phoebe] in one of those big glass cases and just leave” her alone (Salinger 158). His idea proves that Holden believes that the glass cases will protect Phoebe from change and losing innocence since she will be isolated. Holden returns to his fantasy of isolation when he is meets Sally, and he says that they should “drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont” and “stay in [the] cabin camps” (Salinger 171). Holden again imagines that the cabin camps will keep Holden away from society. However, as his fantasies about being the catcher in the rye and isolating himself and children in glass cases and cabin camps are ideal and cannot happen, the dreams rather harm Holden by making him even more

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(Salinger, 173). His obsession with being the catcher in the rye shows that he didn't want children to get caught up in the corrupt and complex world of adulthood, so he desired them to stay kids and preserve their innocence. Thus, proving Holden is naïve to the idea of losing his childhood innocence, since he’s being “forced” into

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The novel “The Catcher in the Rye” was about the journey of a adolescent boy finding his way to adulthood. In the book Holden Caulfield was unsuccessful in finding his way to adulthood. Holden’s attitude in the novel throughout his journey was very immature. He also can't accept the fact that innocence can’t be forever protected. Lastly, Holden calls everyone a phony when in reality he is the real phony.

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This connects to the theme of the story, which is that people should not force themselves to grow up when they are not ready yet. Throughout the novel, this theme is emphasized by Holden's love for the innocence of children. Overall, The Catcher in the Rye is an amazing novel to read, and very much deserves its position as a classic of American

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He feels very protective of his little sister Phoebe because she reminds Holden of Allie since they are both younger than Holden and have red hair. For example, when visiting Phoebe’s school, Holden becomes infuriated by the profanity written on the wall and is concerned that other kids, including Phoebe, may see the writing (Salinger 221). Not only does Holden want to prevent other kids from growing up, he wants to keep his own innocence so he does not forget about Allie. Holden notes that “the best thing [about museums] was that everything always stayed right where it was… The only thing that would be different

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Teenagers often experience internal battles and struggle with taking action. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger uses supporting characters to demonstrate the negative effects of Holden's inability to take action. J.D. Salinger uses the variety of characters to signify the effects of Holden's inability to take action and display the importance of this theme throughout the novel. J.D. Salinger demonstrates the concept of inaction through the interactions between Holden and his family, friends and strangers. While many teenagers struggle with internal issues, Holden Caulfied struggles with the inability to take action.

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Innocence is a possession that is best not taken for granted. Once lost, it can never be returned. Many wish to preserve innocence in the people around them, but may fail to realize that the loss of innocence is only a part of growing up. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield tries to preserve the innocence around him. However, he is not able to get away from the "phoniness" nor is he able to keep everyone innocent.

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Purpose: To show how a small change in choice could affect holden’s life The Catcher in the Rye is about Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old boy from New York. The novel starts with Holden, writing in his book, hinting that he is in some sort of mental facility .Even though he comes from a wealthy family,because of his loss of interest in studies,and low grades, he gets expelled from all schools he has studied in .Holden leaves his final school, Pency Prep and decides that he will stay in New York City until his parents learn of his expulsion and “cool down” .Most of the novel is dedicated to Holden’s time in the city, Holden lives in a hotel room for a few days during his stay .Holden then starts meeting with people that he used know, some strangers and goes to places with. From his conversations, he

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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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This means that he wants to protect children from the nasty adult world, and to protect their innocence. " What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they 're running and they don 't look where they 're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That 's all I 'd do all day. I 'd just be the catcher in the rye and all " (p.156).From this quote you can see, this is what his purpose is. Due to alienating himself, he finds out that he want to help kids and protect them because they are the only real people in the world according to Holden.

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“Innocence is always unsuspicious”- Joseph Joubert The loss of innocence isn’t some big celebration when you hit a certain age, or have a certain experience, it is something that comes when you aren’t looking. J.D. Salinger was a man who kept to himself, didn’t offer many interviews, and wanted to make a difference. In this novel, he has woven the story of Holden Caulfield a sixteen year old, who has an adventure in New York City before going home and taking responsibility for his actions that fall. Throughout his time in the city, he matures and learns to look at the big picture.

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In The Catcher in the Rye, the author J.D. Salinger, introduces the protagonist; Holden Caulfield. Holden feels the sense that he cannot choose between the two worlds. For example, he makes it seem as both of them are complete opposites from each other. In the book, Holden wants to keep his innocence, but he also wants to grow up and toss that innocence away. He still keeps his childhood personality by constantly obsessing over things that shouldn’t matter.

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Holden’s unusual fantasy metaphorically displays this desire to save children’s innocence on his quest, and literally displays his obsession with death and preventing it, as being the catcher in the rye would accomplish both goals. F. Literary Critics also note that Holden’s catcher in the rye job is a dream of his that he pretends to be a reality to hide the fact that he secretly knows that he is unable to save the innocence of all children. G. Authors James E. Miller jr, and Arthur Heiserman explicitly state that, “Holden delights in circles – a comforting bounded figure which yet connotes hopelessness” (Miller, Heiserman 496). H. The “comforting bounded figure” is Holden’s catcher fantasy that he literally uses to comfort himself against the reality he refuses to believe because it “connotes hopelessness” and he is still too innocent and naïve to accept that. I. Holden possesses this dream as a weak attempt to save the innocence of children and to avoid a hopeless reality of defeat he has yet to accept.

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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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“ you have to go back to school, you want to be in this play, no I want to stay here, no you don't you're going back to school”(269). This is sort of contradictory to holden earlier in the novel, because he left school and now he is telling phoebe to go back to school. This shows a reformation from earlier in the novel, because he wants what’s best for phoebe not that he wants to see her but wants her to have a better life. In the carousel scene holden wants to help phoebe not fall off but comes to the realization that she is going to grow up hence when he says if they fall let them fall. Holden wants to be the catcher in the rye and now he wants to let them fall....

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