Growing up can be a very easy process or a very difficult process, it all matters on how the person looks at it. Holden Caulfield from the book The Catcher in the Rye, takes growing up as a difficult process. He likes to make things a burden to do. Holden makes becoming an adult more difficult by being self-centered, using vulgar language, and wanting the responsibilities of a child but being able to do what anything an adult could. Holden Caulfield struggles with growing up throughout the book as kid’s today struggle with similar social problems.
Holden across the span of book worries about himself and no one else. He tends to push things away and fend for his own self, because he feels people are phonies, or just to fake to be with. Salinger writes “You never saw so many phonies in all your life, everybody smoking their ears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear and know how sharp they were” (Salinger126). Here holden quickly jumps to conclusion that everyone in the building are phonies, when he doesn’t even know anyone. Because Holden cannot place himself into other people shoes to consider their point of view or to hear what they have to say, he struggles connecting with anyone that isn’t already in relation with him. So instead he labels them as phonies. This is one of the many social issues that keep Holden from maturing and growing up to be an adult. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, a cognitive neuroscientist from University College London, UK, found in one of her studies on decision making and the teenage brain, said “she has found that the medial prefrontal cortex is under-used by teenagers when choosing a course of action” (SYDNEY.) This tells us that Holden’s prefrontal cortex would not be fully developed for smart decision making. Blakemore also said “the response time got shorter as the participants got older, suggesting that the older people found it easier to put themselves in other people’s shoes” (Thomson). Her study is a prime example on how Holden’s brain was not developed as well as others to make decisions on moral choices. Having an underdeveloped brain was a possible reason on why Holden was so self-centered and did not have very many close friends. Holden at this developmental stage is why he struggles growing up as well as controlling his language. Holden Caulfield is what people could say today as a potty mouth. He does not care what words come out of his mouth. He has a very poor vocabulary and tends to just end his sentences with very vague phrases. He also doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut and this causes him to struggle communicating socially. Holden likes to push people to their limits until it hurts himself in the end. Salinger writes “Holden. If I letcha up, willya keep your mouth shut? Yes. He got up off me, and I got up, too. My chest hurt like hell from his dirty knees. You’re a dirt stupid sonuvabitch of a moron. I told him. That got him really mad” (Salinger44). After Stradlater got mad he hits Holden hard enough to put him on the floor. If Holden would have understood that Stradlater’s social issues is his own business and not his, he wouldn’t have been in a situation where he was fighting with Stradlater. Instead he ran his mouth until he got punched. Holden’s struggle to control his language is just another sign of his inability to use his words correctly to socialize at an intelligent level. Penny S. Harmon, a freelance writer, wrote an article about teens and why they use vulgar words. She stated that “One of them may be to simply push your buttons. Teens like to feel they are in control and by swearing in front of their parent, they are simply testing the boundaries, seeing exactly how far they can go” (Harmen). This correlates with Holden Caulfield. Holden tends to run his mouth until he gets in some sort of trouble, to push peoples buttons. Timothy Joy from the Association of Psychological Sciences Perspectives on Psychological Science says “Swearing injects a direct, succinct emotional component into the discussion, usually in order to express frustration, anger or surprise” (Jay).Holden continued to nag Stradlater to get a thrill out of him and to vaguely express his frustration. Yet all he can use for words is curse words. Holden’s poor terminology is one cause preventing Holden from maturing socially. He has no control over what he says before he thinks about what might happen. This is just another one of his social problems keeping him back from growing up. In addition to poor language, Holden fears the fact that he is growing up. One of the major things that keeps Holden from growing up is that he is afraid of becoming an adult. This idea of adulthood scares Holden. He wants to have the freedom of an adult but the responsibilities of a teenager. Salinger writes “Do you happen to know where they go in the wintertime, by any chance? Where who goes? The ducks. Do you know, by any chance? I mean does somebody come around in a truck or something and take the away? … If you was a fish, mother natur’d take care of you, wouldn’t she? Right? You don’t think them fish just die when it gets to be winter, do ya?” (Salinger). Here the taxi driver uses this metaphor to tell Holden how he will be alright in the end being either a fish or a duck. Holden Caulfield worries about becoming a fish and not being able to have the freedoms like a duck. Being a duck means to him as being able to be unrestricted and to have very little responsibilities and not being tied down like a Fish. In contrary a fish means being tied down and not having fun like a child would. Being a fish means being a “phony”. Andrea Mathews a cognitive therapist says “the idea of growing up is so overwhelmingly frightening, that he just cannot allow himself to do it. He believes that growing up means facing difficult, even painful challenges, running up against insurmountable obstacles and dealing with odious responsibilities” (Mathews). Holden has this fear of growing up continuously though out the book. Liz Hale, PH.D. write about embracing adult hood. She said “Today’s pathways(to adulthood) have grown more varied and complex” (Hale). Becoming an adult is and always will be a complex pathway for any teenager. Holden is on a pathway he is not yet ready to be on. Because of this his road Is very long and curvy. The taxi driver does tell him that Nature will take care of him but he is still afraid of the difficulties he will have to face. This fear is one of the biggest social problems that keeps him from controlling his language and being selfish. Holden likes to view himself as a duck but in reality he is becoming a fish faster than he wishes. Holden Caulfield struggles with growing up because he is in complete fear of being an adult. He chooses to hide behind his poor language and selfishness to make every attempt possible to stay as a teenager. He wishes to be this catcher in the rye, to prevent all children from growing up. Holden Caulfield will always consider himself as a child even though he in reality he is at the footsteps of the long stairwell of adult. There is no turning back to become the catcher in the rye.

Works Cited
Hale, Dr. Liz. Liz Hale, PH. D. 29 April 2008. 8 March 2013 .
Harmen, Penny S. "Your teen's bad language- What can you do?" n.d. Familylobby. 20 Febuary 2013 .
Jay, Timothy. "Why Do We Swear." 2009. World of Psychology. 7 March 2013 .
Mathews, Andrea. "Peter Pan Grows up." 17 March 2011. Pschology Today. 20 Febuary 2013 .
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston : Little, Brown and Company, 1951.
SYDNEY. "Teenagers thoughtless and selfish, according to researcher." Cosmos 8 September 2013: 1.
Thomson, Helen. New Scientist. 08 September 2006. 19 Febuary 2013 .