In his book Growing Up Absurd, Paul Goodman remarked, “I assume that the young really need a more worthwhile world in order to grow up at all,” and J.D. Salinger portrays this sentiment in The Catcher in the Rye (Jezer 243). In a world containing phony institutions, disreputable hotels, and unlettered adults, adolescents have no choice but to question their surroundings and make tough decisions for themselves. They break free from societal norms in an attempt to avoid falling into the same phony behavior they witness every day. Unfortunately, as the protagonist Holden Caulfield realizes as his young sister reaches for the carousel’s gold ring, kids need to experience their own risks, and if they fall, they fall, without the help from
In his book Growing Up Absurd, Paul Goodman remarked, “I assume that the young really need a more worthwhile world in order to grow up at all,” and J.D. Salinger portrays this sentiment in The Catcher in the Rye (Jezer 243). In a world containing phony institutions, disreputable hotels, and unlettered adults, adolescents have no choice but to question their surroundings and make tough decisions for themselves. They break free from societal norms in an attempt to avoid falling into the same phony behavior they witness every day. Unfortunately, as the protagonist Holden Caulfield realizes as his young sister reaches for the carousel’s gold ring, kids need to experience their own risks, and if they fall, they fall, without the help from