Examples Of Innocence In Catcher In The Rye
Acceptance of the Inescapable For some reason, many people in the world today ignore the fact that they have to struggle growing up. It comes to a point where they have to face certain obstacles in their lives: growing up too quickly and losing innocence. J.D. Salinger's coming-of-age novel, The Catcher in the Rye, emphasizes the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, who seems to feel extremely upset and feels as if he is growing up too quickly. Holden is positioned between being a child and an adult. He tries to act mature and grown by either smoking or drinking, when he knows that he is growing up. But deep down his soul, he is still a child by heart. When Holden is encountered by society's assumptions in becoming an adult, he struggles to grasp
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Holden cherishes the genuine innocence and wishes he can go back to those carefree days. Holden's exertions to save himself from growing up eventually establishes attempts to protect other children. When Holden visits his younger sister's school, he spots a few swears on walls. He instantaneously rubs the swear on the wall and becomes extremely upset at whoever wrote it. Holden really wants to rescue Phoebe and her classmates from experiencing the brutal world, just as he experienced when Allie has passed away and was taken away from him. Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to be, and he replies: “I keep picturing these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye…and nobody’s around—no one big, I mean, except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start going off the cliff.” (173) Holden wants to be the rescuer that will safeguard the innocent from growing up and experiencing pain. He wants to be the savior that he did not have in his childhood days. While saving these children, he prevents them from experiencing the pain he goes through, but these painful moments are exactly the ones that the children need to mature and develop. On the other hand, Holden never fully recoups from the death of Allie. It is Holden's impotence to shield himself of what causes him to protect others from a fate he could not save himself
Holden cherishes the genuine innocence and wishes he can go back to those carefree days. Holden's exertions to save himself from growing up eventually establishes attempts to protect other children. When Holden visits his younger sister's school, he spots a few swears on walls. He instantaneously rubs the swear on the wall and becomes extremely upset at whoever wrote it. Holden really wants to rescue Phoebe and her classmates from experiencing the brutal world, just as he experienced when Allie has passed away and was taken away from him. Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to be, and he replies: “I keep picturing these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye…and nobody’s around—no one big, I mean, except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start going off the cliff.” (173) Holden wants to be the rescuer that will safeguard the innocent from growing up and experiencing pain. He wants to be the savior that he did not have in his childhood days. While saving these children, he prevents them from experiencing the pain he goes through, but these painful moments are exactly the ones that the children need to mature and develop. On the other hand, Holden never fully recoups from the death of Allie. It is Holden's impotence to shield himself of what causes him to protect others from a fate he could not save himself