The Catcher in the Rye
Why is Holden afraid to move on to adulthood and does not want any children to be adults. Holden Caulfield is a seventeen-year-old character who is acrimonious of the adult world, whereas displaying immature behavior during the novel progresses. He is terrified of the change and troubled through life, despite having the entire world prior to him. James Castle, Holden’s old mate, killed himself rather than become a phony adult. Phoebe, Holden’s sister, is still a kid and Holden needs to shield her from turning into a phony when she gets older.
There are a lot of quotes in this book about childhood and adulthood. The first quote that I’m aiming to analyze is one amongst the foremost powerful and unforgettable quotes from the complete book, specifically as a result of it’s within the title. Holden is protecting his young qualities and doesn’t wish to abandon them once he drifts into adulthood. He refers to himself in chapter twenty-two as ‘the catcher within the rye’, saving ‘thousands of very little kids’ from their near doom as they begin running off of the edge of a cliff. He, by stopping them from going over the margin, is managing to prevent them from ‘falling’ into adulthood, the one thing that he himself is so desperate to avoid. These youngsters, who are ‘playing some game during this huge field of rye’, aren't ‘looking wherever they’re going’. This suggests that the youngsters are unaware of the pressures of adulthood and also the stress that comes with it. This condemnation is quickly approaching as Holden tries to save the youngsters, additionally supported by the actual fact that they're ‘running’ towards the margin of the formation. Another piece of proof I will draw from this quote is that the indisputable fact that ‘nobody’s around – no one huge, I mean – except me.’ This implies that the area is with none adults and their extorted minds poisoning the youngsters, whose young innocence is impenetrable with Holden protective them. Holden doesn’t wish any adults around as a result of him himself is petrified of growing up. He fears the responsibilities that growing up brings like turning into sexually active, and handles such things with dread throughout the novel. He just is not ready to grow up.
Holden is clearly hostile towards the concept of the transition. He desires everything to remain precisely as it is, however in life, the change could be a given and also the sole factor that's for definite is that change at all times will be there, regardless of how much Holden tries to avoid it. One of the ways in which Holden urgently tries to divert removed from this transition is by visiting the repository, wherever ‘everything invariably stayed right wherever it was.’ Holden visited the repository as a baby and everything remains an equivalent means because it once this happened, suggesting that Holden is desirous to return to the good previous days once he wasn’t filled with anxiety or apprehension towards growing up. It seems that Holden is tuned in to his distress towards transition, saying in chapter 16 that ‘certain things 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. I know that’s impossible, but it’s too bad anyway.’
Holden’s brother Allie died of cancer once he was eleven years old and Holden was 13. The night of his death, Holden busts all the windows within the garage and had to be hospitalized. Holden portrays Allie as a lot of a saint than a boy. Allie died young before he might lose all of his innocence and is thus remembered as invariably being a child. Because Holden is afraid to become older and hates the corruption of innocence, he always describes Allie with perfection since Allie never had to go through the pain of growing up and Holden viewed him as a child who he favors. He was a completely rare individual. Allie was left-handed – he was a singular person. He had red hair – he very stood out from everybody else. He wrote poems on his GLOVE – he was sensitive and emotional, and he did this in the inexperienced link – once more, he was a unique being. Allie’s death on July 18, 1945, appears progressive to possess more to than meets the attention and could be the one single event which has left Holden the most emotionally devastated.
Holden attracts a lot of his passion to continue the fight against the corruption of adulthood from reminiscences of the death of his younger brother Allie. Perhaps if Holden had a less traumatic past and was able to connect to a lot of sympathetic companions, he would notice himself during a less unsettled gift and future. Then within the end, Holden finally survives the downfall of his life, and transitions into adulthood. It took him some time however Holden overcame his fear of adulthood and continue living once more for what he can call normal.
