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Catcher In The Rye Literary Analysis

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Often, many young adults battle with misconceptions about themselves and lack a sense of direction within their lives. In the coming of age novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, the conflicted protagonist, Holden Caulfield, struggles in maintaining a balance in his life with an aversion view towards society and a disconnect with others. Also, my personal memories connect to Holden’s events and views in life. Holden’s distaste for adapting into adulthood overpowers his pursuit of identity and acceptance of reality. Holden establishes that disabling others from maturing is impractical, but discovering a meaningful purpose within himself is critical in accepting his change into adulthood. Holden encounters various people that both suit …show more content…
However, Holden experiences a change in both his views and attitude towards society as he learns to accept the bad parts of life. While Holden is roaming around Phoebe’s school, he encounters curse words embedded on the walls. Even though Holden was enraged at the thought of kids learning swears, he notices “you couldn’t rub out even half the ‘F*ck you’ signs in the world. It’s impossible” (222). For the first time, Holden accepts the fact that children will eventually encounter unpleasant things in life. Holden realizes that his task in preventing children from losing their innocence, is a task so big that he won’t even be able to control. In reality, the only person trying to hide kids from the truth is Holden. He acknowledges the impossibility of preserving innocence. Furthermore, Phoebe rushes out of school with a suitcase, pleading to Holden to leave with him. Holden is shocked simply because his sister would leave the safety of her current life just to be with him. Holden rejects Phoebe’s offer because he doesn’t want Phoebe to end up like him, hating society. Holden believes that isolating oneself from society is not best for a children like Phoebe as it prevents them from being open-minded and sharing their gifts and ideas with the world. Holden realizes that he is responsible for Phoebe and part of his responsibility is making sure that she does not grow up miserable with society. Holden realizes the faults in his own plans and assures Phoebe that “[he’s] not going away anywhere…[he’s] going home” (228). Holdens decides to stay because he is done with running away from his problems. Holden has to be able to repair his himself and work on his emotional issues if he wants to survive in the real world. Part of accepting himself means dealing with his problems firsthand. In addition, Phoebe’s moment on the carousel aids in the development

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