Ideal And Reality In The Catcher In The Rye

Ideal and Reality

Everyone has an idea of an ideal world, particularly children. When children grow up, they start to realize that the reality is different from their ideal world. While children go through the adolescent stage, they will act differently than normal and have to handle huge changes both mentally and physically. This is demonstrated by the main character Holden Caulfield, in the Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger. Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year old boy, grows up and he realizes that the real life is very different from his ideal world due to him going through his brother Allie’s death and his transition to adulthood. Holden goes through a serious grieving process by constantly observing people and calling them “phonies,” phoniness means talking and acting fake in front of people by his definition. He always talks hostile towards others and uses negative language because he can’t connect with surrounding people due to his high standard, which includes Holden’s comparison between his brother Allie’s genuine personality and other people’s phoniness. Holden grieves Allie’s death by resenting the world full of phonies and regrets that he couldn’t save his brother and tries to make up for his guilt by saving the innocent.

He wants to save all the innocent people because of the guilt from his brother’s death. Even though there would always be phonies in reality, there would be the Catcher in the Rye arises. For example, when people meet each other for the first time, it’s not genuine because they just greet each other to be polite. Though the reality is different from what Holden imagines, God will give him a chance. What he imagines is an ideal world of people who are genuine and sincerely nice, where in reality doesn’t exist. As Holden grows up as an adult in future, he will have the ability to be the Catcher in the Rye, to protect those who need to be