A True Guardian of Innocence J. D. Salinger was an American novelist whose literary career began in the early 1940s (Telgen 117). A majority of Salinger’s early work focused on the Second World War, a conflict he participated in (117). Salinger’s literary career took off while taking a short story course at Colombia University (117). The professor of this course, Whit Burnett, owned Story, a literary magazine, and started to publish Salinger’s early work (117). Shortly after, Salinger’s work was being up by national magazines and papers and his success began (117). Salinger is most notably recognized for his novel The Catcher in the Rye, which some say mirrors aspects of his own childhood (117). The novel starts by introducing the readers to Holden Caulfield, a troubled teen that has recently failed out of Pencey Prep. Instead of waiting to go home Wednesday, Holden decides to leave school …show more content…
Holden reveals early in the novel that he was very close to his brother Allie. Holden describes Allie by saying, “He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent” (Salinger 43). This quote makes displays Holden’s idealized view of Allie. When Allie dies, Holden becomes extremely depressed and shatters all the windows in his garage. Jonathan Baumbach, an American author and professor at Brooklyn College, perfectly describes Holden’s reaction to the death by saying, “In Allie’s death, Holden first recognized the fact of evil—of what appears to be gratuitous malevolence in the universe” (66). Allie’s death causes Holden to realize there is evil in the world. This realization and traumatizes him as his childlike innocence is destroyed. This trauma begins to grow as Holden goes through more real world experiences. While Allie’s death ignites Holden’s breakdown, and his encounter with Maurice adds fuel to the