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Throughout the entire book Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield experiences a lot of trouble while struggling with the boundary between adolescence and adulthood. Holden's basic problem in life is that he is unable to accept adulthood and grow up because he is not mature enough to handle a complex world.
He likes to see things frozen because this way things are always the same so he doesnt have to worry about it. He would rather recede into a false, fantasy world he created than face what the true reality was. As a way of protecting himself from the real world, Holden self-ostracizes himself to isolate him from the others around him. As he is growing up Holden cannot understand his surroundings and therefore criticizes them and then alienates himself so that he cannot be criticized or judged. Holden summarizes adults as fake, hypercritical, and superficial while children are everything but thither are pure, innocent, and virtuous. Therefore, Holden thinks he must protect the children from the traps of adulthood though he is really the one who needs to be saved.
Holden's insecurity and immaturity is noticeable throughout the entire book as he constantly tries to oversimplify everything down to what he can understand while hiding in his own fantasy world away from everyone else, trapped between adolescence and adulthood. Holden's obsession with keeping things frozen throughout the book is brought out during his visit to the Museum of Natural History. Holden's fascination with keeping things the same stems from the fact that he cannot cope with a changing lifestyle. He fears change because he cannot grasp any new complexities. Throughout the story Holden has shown us that he cannot deal with conflict, confusion, and change, because of his immature mind so he finds refuge in the museum which is always there for him. Holden is fascinated by the museum because everything always stayed right where it was.
Nobody moveNobodyd be different. (Page 121), no matter how many times he went to the museum it was always something safe and reliable he could fall back onto instead of facing the real world. Though Holden does not come out and say it directly, the museum is really Holden's visualization of what he wishes the entire world was like. Holden says 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. (Page 122) Though Holden only says certain things in reality he would like to have his entire life inside a glass cage so nothing would ever be different for him. Holden also is fascinated by frozen things because in this way he can freely criticize things without fear of judgment on himself. Holden hides from human contact but without fear of himself being judged, Holden is able to safely come out.
Holden is captivated with the museum because it represents things that he cannot normally do with most human beings. Holden is constantly fighting growing up throughout the entire book as he tries to separate himself from all other adults. Holden classifies everything that is superficial, hypercritical, pretentious and almost every adult he encounters as being phony saying this phoniness is basically everything that is wrong in the world. Though he is constantly critical of every person he meets, Holden does not seem to introspect himself at all and how he is actually a lot like all the other adults he is always saying are phony.
A large part of Holden's belief of what phoniness is relies on self-deception / lying and how people believe they are greater than they are or they do not recognize their own weaknesses. However, Holden says to us Im the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life (Page 16), basically admitting that he is a phony as well. Therefore he is just as guilty as everyone else whom he criticizes as being phony, though he keeps trying to separate himself from them. As a result of his attitude, Holden does not seem to be able to sustain any human contact which results in him constantly being lonely. When Luce is leaving him Holden calls out to him to stay for another drink saying Please.
Im lonesome as hell. No kidding. (Page 149). Holden knows how lonesome he really is and tries to get Luce to stay despite his rude behavior. What Holden does not realize is that it is his need for isolation and protection that destroys any interactions he has with people. Holden then crawls back to preserve himself by saying Old Luce. He was strictly a pain the ass, (Page 149).
By insulting Luce, Holden once again manages to seemingly elevate himself above the other adults and separate himself from their disapproval. As Holden also grows up he decides to take on, what he sees as, the responsibility of protecting other children from making the fall into adulthood and phoniness as most people he knows have done. Holden views children as the opposite of adults the manifestation of everything innocent and pure which is why he feels as if he must play the role of the protector of innocence. Holden prefers to retreat into is oversimplified, imaginary view of what the world is like as opposed to the real world in which the children do not need to be protected. In Holden's world, he would catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff they dont look where theyre going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. (Page 173).
Although Holden says this, it is really him that is the one in need of catching because of his nave view of the world. The very fact that he is having this conversation with Phoebe proves that there is no clear line separating children and adults or innocence and phoniness. Though Holden says this, he knows that the idea is impossible since he says I know its crazy, but thats the only think Id really like to be. I know its crazy. (Page 173) because this is the only thing he can seemingly dedicate his life to. Holden is faced with many different situations during the book, however each time he faces something new or someone tries to help him, all he can do is withdraw, become cynical and cruel to the people around him and eventually drive them away. This pattern Holden falls into is because he cannot understand anything complex in life and therefore must simplify everything to something he can understand though it is not necessary correct.
This process repeats itself while he is growing up because adulthood is something that he just does not understand unlike his childhood. In the very end Holden may have realized the mistakes of what he has been doing, and come to sense with the difference between his fantasy and the real world. Holden says The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it they fall off, they fall off (Page 210) At this point Holden has let go of his catcher in the rye dream and has accepted that children have to grow up and if they take a fall and become phony then they do, and theres nothing you can do to stop it. By accepting that children must grow up, Holden is taking the first step to becoming more mature and better suited to the real world.
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Research essay sample on Trouble Growing Up In Catcher The Rye
