Holden Caulfield's Journey

Life itself is a journey full of bonding and experiences which lead to wisdom and understanding. Without maturity one may never have these life teaching experiences. This leads to an empty shell of a person never truly feeling passion, love or peace. Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is an adolescent struggling to mature into manhood. He is on a journey towards maturity and identity. Holden’s threshold crossing, road of trials, and flee and return are . The threshold crossing is the place or the person that the character crosses over or through into the zone unknown, being the place where journey into self discovery begins. Many times the call to their adventure includes going by desire, chance, abduction, or by being …show more content…
It would seem to him that an outside force is luring him to do something, but in actuality he is beginning his journey because of his desire. It is evident that Holden cares nothing about school and about his own education. He wants to leave so he can begin the journey of self discovery and escape the phoniness that surrounds him. Holden also uses fake names, but he symbolically dies through fainting, changing the position of his red hunting hat, and his association with bathrooms. The bathroom motif, or the reoccurring appearance of the bathroom, symbolizes death for Holden because he enters bathrooms with a neurotic and pragmatic frame of mind and exits with a cleared mind. The symbolic death is what gets Holden onto their journeys and into the road of trials, where they experience many things that will change them forever. The road of trials is where most of the characters journey takes place. It is on the road of trials that the character begins to experience different obstacles that will change his life forever. Holden does so as to mature, and to accomplish the journey of self discovery. Holden Caulfields road of trials takes place from Pencey Prep to New York …show more content…
When he is assigned to look after his schools fencing equipment, he leaves the equipment on the train. He does not care about what he has done and does not even want to go back and look for it. Also, his attitude towards learning are atrocious, and when he finally flunks out of school, he does not bother to tell his parents. Instead, he escapes to New York City where he begins to learn things about himself and about others. However before he goes, he decides to visit his social studies teacher, who flunked him, to say good-bye. Also, he visits his previous English teacher to tell him he has flunked out of yet another school. Maturity is evident because he is trying to maintain relationships with people he cares about. Along his journey, though, small changes suggest that Holden is growing up. He was once very selfish and did not like to share. However when he encounters two poor nuns traveling to another church, he gives them a large portion of his remaining money. This is a major step in Holdens own self discovery. Holden requires much help to come to terms with his maturity. Even though he constantly speaks as if he is experienced in connection and bonding, they were always just