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Essay: Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”: Understanding Holden Caulfield’s Struggle with Adulthood

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  • Subject area(s): Essay examples
  • Reading time: 6 minutes
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  • Published: 25 February 2023*
  • Last Modified: 22 July 2024
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  • Words: 1,657 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 7 (approx)
  • Tags: The Catcher in the Rye

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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a story about a boy named Holden Caulfield, an adolescent who is unable to make the transition from childhood to adulthood (Alsen). Holden Caulfield is a misunderstood teenage boy who does not want to grow up. Holden views all adults as phonies. This is in contrast to his view of children, whom he sees as innocent, pure, and gentle. Holden views the entire adult world as “phony” in order to help him hide from all the complexities he will soon have to face in the adult world. As much as Holden hates the adult world, he cannot prevent himself from growing up. Holden would often dream up schemes to prevent himself from growing up, such as moving to a cabin in New England or working on a ranch out west (Pinkser). He would even envision himself catching children before they fall off a cliff. This is symbolic of his wish to one day save children, as well as himself, from growing up. What Holden does not want to accept is the fact that he cannot prevent the transition into adulthood. The Catcher in the Rye is a story about how Holden Caulfield matures from a child into an adult. Holden truly fears becoming an adult because he does not want to be a phony. The author, J.D. Salinger, places many symbols of this theme throughout his story that suggest Holden, whether he likes it or not, is transitioning into an adult.

Holden strongly believes he is ostracized by society for the reason being that he is a non phony. The reason Holden is so against growing up is because Holden believes that when he gets older, it is certain that he will end up being a phony, or somebody that in his eyes is not unique. When Phoebe asks Holden why he is so afraid of growing up, he replies, “How would you know you weren’t being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn’t” (Page 172). Also, Holden fears the possibility that when a man becomes an adult, they will lack the ability to tell the difference between a phony and a non phony. Ever since the death of his little brother, Allie, he has had trouble accepting adulthood (Alsen). Holden describes that after Allie’s death, he punched out all of the windows in the garage which led to his parents needing to psychoanalyze him. This is symbolic to the shattering of Holden’s childhood after Allie’s death. Since then in Holden’s life, he ends up broken and in need of repair, much like the windows. Ever since Allie’s death, Holden does not want to let go of his childhood. Childhood was when Allie was alive, so as a result Holden believes that when he becomes an adult, he would truly lose Allie forever. Holden does not want to accept being an adult, but numerous things occur throughout The Catcher in the Rye which suggest Holden is becoming an adult. The theme of adulthood appears frequently through the ducks in the pond, the museum exhibits, the carousel, and his little sister, Phoebe.

Holden’s enthusiasm for the ducks represents his interest about what will happen to him when he grows up (Pinkser). Holden ponders what happens to the ducks once the pond freezes over in the winter. Holden first begins to think about the ducks while talking with Mr. Spencer about how he failed out of Pencey. Then, when Holden gets to Manhattan, he promptly asks his taxicab driver where the ducks go in the winter. It’s not until the point where Holden meets a taxicab driver named Horowitz that he finally gets an answer. Holden tells Horowitz, an insane taxicab driver, “[the ducks] can’t just ignore the ice. They can’t just ignore it” (Page 83). Holden is stating that they cannot just simply ignore the ice since they will freeze otherwise. The main reason this question is so important to Holden is because he truly believes what happens to the ducks will soon happen to him. Holden also asks about the fish in the pond, and Horowitz tells him “Their bodies take in nutrition and all, that’s their nature for chrissake” (Page 83). Horowitz wants Holden to realize that the fish naturally survive this way. Despite the fact that the ducks are surrounded with ice, they allow Mother Nature to take her course by enduring it and knowing they will survive. Horowitz goes ahead to state, “If you was a fish, Mother Nature’d take care of you, wouldn’t she? You don’t think them fish just die when it gets to be winter, do ya?” (Page 84). What the taxi driver says about the fish directly relates to Holden because he fears he is not going to make it through the troubles life has to offer (Alsen). Horowitz also discusses how it is difficult for the fish to survive because they are both caught in a dangerous situation. Holden can relate himself to the ducks and the fish since they do not know what to do in the ice as Holden does not know what to do in his situation. Horowitz is basically saying that everything is a piece of nature, so they need to let nature take its course and afterward they will survive.

“The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move” (Page 203). When Holden goes to the Museum of Natural History he makes it obvious that he envies the exhibits. Holden describes the way that everyone is different when they come back to visit the museum. Holden says the exhibits appeal to him because they are frozen and unchanging. Holden also mentions that he is troubled by the fact that he, as well as the kids that visit, change every time they return to the exhibits. The Museum of Natural History represents the fantasy Holden wishes he could live in (Weinberg). It is the world where nothing ever changes, everything is understandable, simple, and infinite. Holden wishes he could live that fantasy instead of having to deal with the unpredictable challenges the real world offers. Holden’s survival of his transformation as an adult occurs at the Museum of Natural History in the bathroom when he falls over. “I mean I could’ve killed myself when I hit the floor, but all I did was land on my side. It was a funny thing, though. I felt better after I passed out. I really did” (Page 206). This fall that Holden experiences is vital because he realizes how important life really is. In the beginning of the story, Holden is terrified of growing up because he does not want to face change and the unpredictable challenges such as sex, intimacy, and facing death. Once Holden accepts adulthood, he realizes that most kids are not phonies and they need to figure out life on their own.

“Then the carousel started, and I watched her go round and round…All the kids tried to grab the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it is bad to say anything to them” (Page 211). Toward the end of the story Holden does not get on the carousel with Phoebe. He lets her go on and he is all right with his decision. The carousel scene shows that Holden has allowed himself into the “grown-up world” by not going on it (Takehuchi). He has acknowledged that he is growing up. When all of the children are going after the gold ring, Holden does not stop them from falling. Holden desires to be the “catcher in the rye,” but instead he lets them fall out of youth. Holden knows that he cannot stop the children from “falling” out of childhood. The carousel symbolizes youth and innocence. And once the kids fall off the carousel, they lose their youth and innocence and become adults. Holden no longer feels he has to stop Phoebe from growing up, so he lets her on the carousel which forces him to become emotional as he watches his little sister grow up.

Holden’s transition from youth to adulthood is a fascinating changeover because various different things happened that led him to adulthood. His involvement with Horowitz and the ducks, the museum exhibits, the Carousel, Phoebe, and his survival at last, all add to his conversion into a grown-up. Holden’s dislike for “phony” adults is really an expression of his fears about what becoming an adult means. With Horowitz, Holden learns that he cannot prevent growing up, but instead, he needs to let nature take its course. The carousel’s circle symbolizes the process or transition from childhood to becoming an adult (Eberhard). Holden is able to allow for the growing up of his younger sister, which leaves him no choice but to grow up himself. In the same way that the ducks and the fish just know how to survive, a person just knows how to grow up. Holden knows he cannot stay as a kid forever. Being frozen, the way he fears the fish and the birds are, is not an option. When he falls in the bathroom, he experiences a weird closeness to death which convinces him that things that are unexpected and just happen are not as bad as he fears. Accepting the unknown as part of life gives him a kind of courage that his harsh attitude does not. He has to find a way to stop looking down on adults in order to become one himself.

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