Catcher In Rye By J. D. Salinger: Holden’S Struggle To Accept The Realities Of Growing Up

In J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in Rye, Holden Caulfield experience a chaotic weekend – filled with lust, alcohol, loneliness, and loathing– in New York after he is kicked out of his fourth school, Pencey Prep. While he’s tempted by the adult lifestyle, he is disgusted by the disingenuous behavior of grown ups and adamantly refuses to be a part of it. Holden Caulfield’s cynicism and reluctance towards the idea of entering adulthood is a common phenomenon that all teenagers his age face. The bildungsroman novel showcases Holden’s struggle to accept the realities of growing up through his attraction to innocence, attachment to consistency, and rebellion towards society and its members. Holden’s contemptuous perception of adults reveals him to be an adolescent rebel who is clutching onto his innocence.

This is evident in that most, if not all, teenagers face obstacles through the transformation of becoming an adult. They are unwilling to separate from the simplicity and stability of childhood to enter the more complex and dangerous world. The novel was originally categorized as a bildungsroman, “a coming of age” story. The time period, 1940s, was known as an era of conformity, and Holden’s hatred points out the dreariness and hypocrisy of the time as his life mirrors that of the author’s childhood who lived in that time period. Salinger’s military academy was the “model for Pencey Prep, Holden’s alma mater in the story”. The school’s mission was to “turn out young men fully prepared to meet their responsibilities” (Autobiographical) and implemented these goals through structure, found through military discipline. Salinger, like Holden, recognized the phoniness and deception within the execution of the mission. Rather than nourishing creativity and originality, the school officials place obedience, conformity, and wealth on a pedestal.

Holden Caulfield is a portrait of Salinger’s childhood and the internal struggle he underwent. Salinger merely wanted to tell his own transformative story and connect with other conflicting teens. Teenagers’ fascination with Holden can be linked to the same reasons why they’re hooked to the tale of Peter Pan. The headstrong spirit of Peter Pan lives in many adolescents - the desire to play carelessly forever and stay pure rather than exchange it for the daunting challenge of engaging with reality. Holden’s fantasy of being a catcher in the rye showcases his desire to preserve the innocence of children. By rescuing hundreds of children from their imminent doom as they approaches the edge of the cliff, Holden is essentially saving them from descending into the darkness, adulthood, which is the one thing that he is fiercely determined to avoid. He’s afraid of them, and by extension himself, being dulled and tainted by the real world. Neverland, created by Peter Pan, was a place to escape reality, while Holden creates the “catcher of children” persona, whose ambition is linked to preserving others and his own childhood, to escape his own inevitability as he sacrifices himself.

The little kids in the big field of rye are “playing some game. . . and they're running and they [are not looking] where they're going”(Chpt 22) which suggests that they are unaware of the burdens, stress, and expectations that come along with maturity. Adulthood, to Holden, is equivalent to death - a lethal fall to the bottom with no way back up. Salinger implies that teenagers become “phonies” as a way to be recognized and adored by their peers. They adopt the behavior and opinions of others rather than living honestly. During this phase of Holden’s life, he is able to identify the conforming nature of society and chooses to reject it in order to maintain originality. This mindset explains why Holden wears the red hunting hat. The hat is bold which in turn symbolizes Holden’s desire to maintain his uniqueness which is similar to how teens would dye their hair a vibrant color to stand out from a crowd. He believes that growing up is the start of phoniness that plagues mankind. Holden expresses that he does not typically like adults, because they are just pretending to enjoy life. Holden creates excuses to escape responsibility.

The anxiety and intense rejection manifests themselves in his rationale. He misinterprets Mr. Antolini’s paternal gesture of petting his head as “flitty” behavior. Hours before, Mr. Antolini reveals his concern of Holden potentially dying as a martyr for some unjust cause. “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one” (Chpt 24). Holden, like most teenagers, tends to exaggerate, mostly stemming from their desire to gain more freedom. It is plausible that Holden chooses to blame Mr. Antolini in order to dismiss his advice and continue his destructive path. His “failings are not his own making but of a world that is out of joint” (Burger). Teenagers usually make them into the victim rather than acknowledging their fault. Holden keeps pushing away people who tries to help him. He uses this defense mechanism whenever anyone questions his lack of motivation. He finds a way to distract himself from the reality of his life or leave the situation altogether. Holden holds strong affection for consistency and transparency. He treasures the experiences of the museum he often frequented in the past because everything was extremely simple and clear; there were no extremities to any of the exhibits. Everything always “stayed right where it was. . . The only thing that would be different would be you” (Chpt 16). Holden's fascination and love for the museum is brought by the inanimate objects since they never change and, metaphorically, never grow up, which further explains his hatred for aging. Holden’s refusal to enter the museum represents his fear to acknowledging that he has changed. He is no longer the pure child he once was. Even though, he resents all the aspects of the adult world, he cannot help but be seduced by sex, smoking, and drinking. He would be forced to confront his reflection, looking back at him, and acknowledge how he can no longer pretend he is still naive and blameless (Sade). The fascination with timelessness is also apparent in the noble quality he places on James Castle’s death.

Castle refused to conform to societal pressure and apologize to the boys. Holden sees bravery in the resistance and believed the incident to be a ‘resisting the death of childhood’ and not becoming a cog in the adult world. The transition from the wonderment of childhood to serious adulthood is a tragic and difficult one. Adolescents’ fear of the unknown and losing purity manifest as emotional distress and impulsive decisions. Holden’s confusion and general depressed demure as he trudge his way through is something the youth can empathize with. The immense pressure placed onto them by parents, teachers, and society is sometime too crushing. Holden speaks “for those who are confused about their place in the larger scheme of things” (Pinsker) and afraid of the future.