Preserving Innocence: Holden Caulfield's Struggle with Growing Up

Categories: Catcher In The Rye Phoebe Caulfield

Essay, Pages 4 (867 words)

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Growing up is hard and everyone has challenges that they will need to face and overcome at some point in their life. In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is a teenage boy struggling with the idea of growing up and transitioning from the innocence of childhood to the harsh responsibilities and challenges of becoming an adult. Throughout his life, Holden has struggled with personal loss and the inability to fit into social groups or have any lasting relationships.

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He attempts to deal with these problems by having a very sarcastic view of his world. When he attempts to deal with his problems, he only seems to create more issues for himself. Innocence is something he wants to protect and preserve much like the reference to a museum in the book where objects are kept safe in a glass case. The Catcher in the Rye is a story about a young man who is struggling with his views of innocence and the realities of having to grow up.

Holden wants to hold on to the innocence of childhood rather than deal with his real-world issues. It is more comfortable to look back on a period when things were good for him, an innocent period and stress-free time in his life. In the book, Holden is very fond of the Museum of Natural History. “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was.” (Pg.121) It represents the calmness and comfort he feels knowing that the items in the museum never change.

'Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. (Pg.122) Holden fears change and wants to live a simple life. The life of a child who doesn’t have the stress and responsibility of an adult.

Holden protects himself from the reality of transitioning into adulthood by calling adults “phony”. He also uses this name to refer to social groups or peers that whom he does not fit in wit. “If you sat around there long enough and heard all the phonies applauding and all, you got to hate everybody in the world, I swear you did.” (Pg.142) Holden isn’t aware that he comes across to others as being very immature. “I don’t give a damn, except that I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am - I do - but people never notice it. People never notice anything.”(pg 9) Holden doesn’t even realize that he is holding onto his childhood due to his fears and anxiety about change. This is represented by his concern about the ducks in Central Park. He finds comfort in visiting the Lagoon to watch the ducks swim around in the springtime. However, he is very worried about where they go during the cold winter months. He would often ask the cab drivers if they knew where they went during wintertime. “Well, you know the ducks that swim around in it? In the springtime and all? Do you happen to know where they go in the wintertime, by any chance?” (Pg.81) He is bothered by the fact that the ducks have to change their environment to live. This represents his anxiety about change and the idea that change is a part of life.

Holden is still too immature to look at life in the big picture. He tries very hard to avoid growing up and acting like an adult. “And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. 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..' (Pg. 173) His protection of innocence is his way of not dealing with adult issues. His relationship with Phoebe shows his desire to not grow up. 'Anyway, I couldn't get that off my mind so finally what I figured I'd do, I figured I'd better sneak home and see her…' (Pg. 156) She won't judge him the way an adult would for not taking responsibility for his actions. He also struggled to deal with his brother's death and the events that happened after. This was worsened by moving around to different schools and struggling to fit in. These experiences have shaped his views on friendship and the distrust of adults.

Holden has had to face many challenges in his life. Being away from his family and losing his brother has made it especially hard. He found comfort in his childhood and feels that innocence is something he has to protect. Believing that adults are phonies is a way to protect him from accepting the reality of adulthood and from making meaningful friendships and connections. The innocence of childhood has become his safety zone from the world of change and transition into adulthood. Holden ultimately wants to preserve the innocence of childhood much like a museum will preserve history and culture, untouched in a glass case.