What Is Holden's Loss Of Innocence

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel written by J.D. Salinger that follows Holden Caulfield as he wanders through New York after being kicked out of school; whilst he deals with the loss of his brothers, the phoniness of everyday life, and his own innocence in an unforgiving world.
The loss of Holden’s brothers plays a huge part in why Holden is so lost in this crucial part of his life. Having lost one younger brother, Allie, to death and one older brother, D.B., to Hollywood, Holden feels constantly betrayed by both of them for not being there for him. Despite this, Holden constantly looks back on memories of the two and even talks to them when he feels the need. Holden even wishes for death when he says, “‘Anyway, I’m sort of glad they’ve got the atomic bomb. If there’s ever another war, I’m going to sit right the hell on top of it. I’ll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.’” (Salinger 70). Holden does not want to die, instead he would just like to join his brother, Allie. We know that Holden doesn’t want to die when he tells his brother “‘Allie, don't let me

He finds this phoniness being much more common in adults than in children his own age or younger. In Holden’s mind this makes many of the adults the enemies of a perfect world he has in his imagination. Throughout the novel Holden takes a strong stance against this phoniness while he too is slowly sucked into this world of superficiality that he so desperately wants nothing to do with. This can be seen very early in the novel when he runs into a lady on the bus who is asking innocent questions about his school, which he answers, but when asked his name Holden says “‘Rudolf Schmidt’” (Salinger 11). Holden has no reason to lie here other than the fact that he does not want to deal with the woman anymore. This was the beginning of Holden’s transition into