The Catcher in the Rye could be interpreted many different ways. JD Salinger, the author, could have written this story for one main purpose or for many different purposes, but in my opinion, Salinger wrote this story in order to show the reader that some teenagers avoid adulthood because they are not quite ready for the responsibility. Not only are they not ready because they are young and still do ignorant things, but also because their brain is not fully developed. In Richard Knox’s “The Teen Brain: It’s Just Not Grown Up Yet,” he informs the reader that the frontal lobes of the brain are not fully connected in adolescence. The frontal lobes are a crucial part of the brain because it differentiates between what is a good idea and what is a bad idea. Since the frontal lobes control decision making, and the frontal lobes in adolescence are not connected which forces decision making to be sluggish, then that is why teenagers make poor choices. This is what seems to be the problem with Holden Caulfield, the narrator of the novel. Holden does not make the smartest decision multiple times throughout the story. Because of the frontal lobe disconnection in Holden’s brain caused him to attack Stradlater, almost have sex with a prostitute, and to not care about school. …show more content…
The reason for attacking him was out of pure jealousy. Stradlater would not tell Holden how his date went with Jane, after Holden wrote a paper for him that he did not like. Holden’s emotions got the better or him because if his obvious feeling toward Jane. His emotions exposed the immaturity in him, which leads the reader to the reader assume that he does a poor job at making good decisions. This coincides perfectly with Knox’s point made in “The Teen Brain…” because he is a teenager that makes poor decisions based on emotions rather that critical thinking. This is caused because the frontal lobes are not connected that such of an