Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Essay

In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the author takes us on a journey with Holden Caul electron orbit, a sixteen-year-old boy, going in and out of many boarding schools. When he gets kicked out of Pencey the story begins. In fear of coming home to his parents, Holden takes a trip to New York which leaves him at the touch of mental, physical, and emotional insanity. As the novel goes on his obsession with keeping children from losing their purity grows. The adult world seems fake, and Holden does not respect people who made the transition. In Gerald Rosens A Retrospective Look At The Catcher In The Rye he explores Holdens connection to other characters in the book. He alike analyzes the difficulties in crossing over to the adult world. Holden qualms the crossing over due to the fact that losing ones innocence will force one to flavor reality, and will at times cause adults to fall into a deeper hole.Holdens mania of keeping children from transitioning to adult hood shows al l throughout The Catcher in the Rye. Rosen explains that during the period of time Holden was in the museum he made it known that everything always stayed the same. The purpose of the glass cases acts as a defense against touching, or tainting. Like the children in the museum, to protect the innocent, the catcher must strictly refrain from touching he must just leave them alone (Rosen). This moment in the book compares the protect artifacts to the innocence of a child. He feels that if the children had someone to protect them from getting affected (touched) by the hard and cruel times in life they could fill onto their purity for as long as possible. Holden expresses the fact that he wants en confident(predicate) security and stability during these times in life.This point seems to be the first point in the novel where Holden shows a desire to keep children from corruption. Anyway, I keep picturing all these kids playing some game in the big field of rye and allWhat I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start going over the cliff (Salinger 173). Holden wants to catch the kids from their transition into an adult. He does not want them having to deal with losses they will have to overcome in life. He believes that going into adulthood marks the point where society shows its true face.Since Allie, Holden sidekicks, death he sees how reality twists and warps in sick ways. While walking around the museum he sees profanity. 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 wouldnt come off. Its hopeless, anyway. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldnt rub out even half of the Fuck You signs in the world. Its unsufferable (Salinger 173).When Holden see those words written on the wall he realizes that the youth has already gone through exposure to corruption and cannot go backwards. Holden now understands his unfi tness to save the children from falling, growing up.Since Holden has spent most of his time refraining other from going into adulthood, he did not see how much he himself has fallen. Holden has many similar qualities to a former classmate, crowd Castle. Holden is identified with Castle by Castles having killed himself while wearing Holdens sweater and by Castles appearing just before Holden on the roll call and school. This carries the implication that Holden maybe next in line for Castles death (Rosen). James Castles way of and to death influenced Holdens view of life. He suddenly became ostracized in society surrounded by a bunch of phonies. wipeout was the start and end of Holdens loss of innocence.Holden never truly had an adult figure in life. His parents detached themselves from him, in times of his need. Feeling like he needed to communicate with someone he called his former teacher, Mr. Antolini. Holden wants to catch children from falling, where as Mr. Antolini wants to save Holden from a rough way down. I have a looking that youre falling, a terrible,terrible fall (Salinger 186).Mr. Antolini says this because ever since Allies death Holden has had a series of falls. Even though Allie was younger than Holden, he idolized him and thinks very exceedingly of him. Mr. Antolini symbolizes Holdens loss of Allie, loneliness, and inability to posess self-esteem.Holden wants to provide insurance for children so they do not experience the reality of society and from falling into a deeper hole. Making sure he succeeds, he does everything to keep them from going over the edge. Holden grows up through the novel, and realized that losing ones innocence in is an unavoidable part of life. In this stage of life one makes the most mistakes and learns from them. If one never went through experience necessary to grow into an adult, they would seem very nave and easily taken advantage of. People that have gone through the difficult crossing over want to protect chil dren from the hard-ships.Works CitedRosen, Gerald. A Retrospective Look At The Catcher In The Rye. American Quarterly 457-462Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston Little, Brown, 1951.