Growth Of Holden Caulfield

7 Pages 1843 Words

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel written by J.D. Salinger in 1951. Holden Caulfield is the protagonist who tells the story of “this madman stuff that happened to me around last christmas”(Salinger,1). It is a very popular novel that frequently provokes strong reactions
both positive and negative. Salinger wanted to capture the identity crises which many young
adults of Holden’s age are caught in. he focuses on the character development. Holden
narrates its own story from a psychiatric facility a few month after it. The story cover a time
period of about three days which are greatly important as they relate the passage from his
youth into maturity. Though his innocence has already been lost, he still hopes to protect
others children from knowing about adult subjects. Throughout the book, he will change and
will become much more mature, although his perception of the world as a corrupt and ‘phony’
place is not modified.
Holden’s central goal is to resist to the process of maturity and to resist to the
hypocrisy of the adult world. He is an atypical adolescent with special needs. Two traumas
put him in an emotional statue: the death of his brother Allie and the suicide of one of his
schoolmates therefore he suffers from depression which stems from a desire not to grow up.
Traumatized, holden is terrified by the idea of change and disappearance; the symbols of the
ducks in Central Park symbolize that change is not permanent. Even if they leave the lack
every winter, they return every spring; therefore, some vanishing are temporary. It is a direct
result of his inability to come to adult world. These had made him suicidal: “What I really felt
like, though, was committing suicide” (Salinger,104). He is extremely immature and has a
fixation on childhood. For him, it is a world of innocence, curiosity, and honesty. His
glorification of children, his admiration of Phoebe (his youngest sis...