How Does Holden Present Adulthood In Catcher In The Rye

The novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is a novel about a 16-year-old kid named Holden Caulfield. A recently suspended student running around New York City trying to hold onto his childhood before he has to grow up. He puts off growing up as much as he can because he sees it as an abusive environment. Through his travels Holden is confronted with moments that help him learn. By the end of the book Holden shows that he has evolved from the beginning of the story. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield attempts to sustain himself in the child world, but when faced with evidence that adulthood is inescapable, he starts to give in to what he views as the corruptive adult atmosphere, since he is no longer welcome in the childhood.

Holden is afraid to grow up. He sees the adult world to be abusive and corruptive, like when he orders a prostitute, he sees her, all young and innocent, and he doesn’t want to have sex with her(106). He gets depressed because he knows they are similar in age and she has already been fully taken in by the adult world and it isn’t doing any good for her. She looks like a young girl but is really a unlucky prostitute who grew up too fast. Although he despises the adult world it is soon proven to him that the adult world is unavoidable. For example when he goes to the school to give Phoebe his note“But while I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody’d written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy...I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn’t come off...If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t rub out even half the “Fuck You” signs in the world. It’s impossible” (221-222). Holden is uncomfortable when he sees the curse word on the wall and worries because he knows the little kids at the school will see it. He tries to wipe it off because he wants to get rid of it before any children witness it. When he can’t get rid of it because it is scratched in permanently he comes to the realization that he can’t save all the kids from the adult world. Even if he tries to get rid of one curse word, there is thousands more that he won’t be able to catch and he can’t protect every kid from seeing them. Another scene that influenced Holden’s realization of the inevitability of the adult world is when he is saying goodbye to Phoebe before he leaves for out west. When Holden meets Phoebe before he leaves, he sees her walk up to him with a suitcase, as if