catcher
Catcher In The Rye
Do you ever wish you could be a kid again? I know I do. Having that security of not knowing about the ways of the world would be great to have all of your life. This is also what Holden believes. Unlike just thinking about not losing your innocence like you and me, Holden obsesess over it. He wants to make it a real thing. This is what I think Holden has a major problem with. He can't get over the fact that the kids in the world are going to have to go through some horrible things and they will finally relize that the world is full of bad things. This is what is known as loss of innocence. In the book there is many acquaintinces that Holden has with kids. He adores the lifestyle and the innocence of kids. He extremely does not want his little sister Phoebe to go through this phase in every child's life. There has been many horrible experiances in his life that have made him this way. I have analyzed this problem of Holdens and will explain it to you.
I mentioned that he really loves his little sister Phoebe. He cares so much about her that he would do anything to protect her. He really wants to protect her from all the bad things in the world. He loves his sister so much that even after he has been kicked out of Pencey and is in fear of his parents finding out, he sneaks into his house to talk with her. He would love to always be with her. But he also wants to protect her and to have her have a good life that at the end he doesn't allow her to come with him to his cabin. He is so scared that Phoebe will lose her innocence. At one point he is sitting in her school and sees a "fuck you" painted on the wall and he "[thinks] how phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant...[He] kept wanting to kill woever wrote it"(201). His fear of losing innocence has come from many horrible experiances that have happened to him in his life.
The first bad event that happened in his life, was the death of his brother Allie. The loss of a family member can be hard for any kid. This is when he first relized that there were bad things in the world. These things can be really bad and he started to hate them. He hated the death of his brother so much that he "slept in the garage the night he died, and [he] broke all the goddamn windows with [his] fist"(39). This is whe Holden lost his innocence. He went through a very tramatic event and he didn't want any other kids to feel the pain he did. He carried this mentality with him all of his life. This was not the last event that made him hate the fact that kids can be put through the worst things.
While attending Elkton Hills there was a boy that holden had gone to school with. This boys name was James Castle. James had called a boy concieted. This boy got very offended by his comment. He gota couple of boys and went to James and told him to takeit back. James wouldnt take it back so they did some horrible things to him to make him, but james still wouldn't. Instead of taking back what he said James committed suicide by jumping out of the window. Holden witnessesed James's dead body on the ground. The scene was very horrific. There was a lot of blood an such. This was the second stage in holdens problem. This was another event that made Holden hate the bad things in the world. He didn't want any body else to see there friend's body dead on the ground. This lead Holden deeper into his problem of not accepting the fact that there are bad things in the world.
Towards the end of the book Holden has a moment of thought on the steps of his sisters school. As he is sitting on these steps waiting for his sister to leave he see's where somebody has written "fuck you" on the wall. This would seem to you that this would bother him and that he would hate that any kids would have to see it, because it is a bad thing in the world. Well he did but then he relized something that helped him overcome his problem. He relizes about the ammence number of "fuck you's" on walls in the world and relizes that there is and ammence number of bad things in the world. He relizes that " if you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't erase all the "fuck you signs" in the world"(202). He thinks that since there areso many bad things in the world there would never be anyway that he could stop all of them. He then understands that going through these experiances is just a part of life. After this point in the book you can tell that Holden gets better. He decides to stay home and not move away. You can see that he has changed from being immature to being an adult. Loss of innocence is Holdens problem but like with many things time has taught him that he can not change it.
Do you ever wish you could be a kid again? I know I do. Having that security of not knowing about the ways of the world would be great to have all of your life. This is also what Holden believes. Unlike just thinking about not losing your innocence like you and me, Holden obsesess over it. He wants to make it a real thing. This is what I think Holden has a major problem with. He can't get over the fact that the kids in the world are going to have to go through some horrible things and they will finally relize that the world is full of bad things. This is what is known as loss of innocence. In the book there is many acquaintinces that Holden has with kids. He adores the lifestyle and the innocence of kids. He extremely does not want his little sister Phoebe to go through this phase in every child's life. There has been many horrible experiances in his life that have made him this way. I have analyzed this problem of Holdens and will explain it to you.
I mentioned that he really loves his little sister Phoebe. He cares so much about her that he would do anything to protect her. He really wants to protect her from all the bad things in the world. He loves his sister so much that even after he has been kicked out of Pencey and is in fear of his parents finding out, he sneaks into his house to talk with her. He would love to always be with her. But he also wants to protect her and to have her have a good life that at the end he doesn't allow her to come with him to his cabin. He is so scared that Phoebe will lose her innocence. At one point he is sitting in her school and sees a "fuck you" painted on the wall and he "[thinks] how phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant...[He] kept wanting to kill woever wrote it"(201). His fear of losing innocence has come from many horrible experiances that have happened to him in his life.
The first bad event that happened in his life, was the death of his brother Allie. The loss of a family member can be hard for any kid. This is when he first relized that there were bad things in the world. These things can be really bad and he started to hate them. He hated the death of his brother so much that he "slept in the garage the night he died, and [he] broke all the goddamn windows with [his] fist"(39). This is whe Holden lost his innocence. He went through a very tramatic event and he didn't want any other kids to feel the pain he did. He carried this mentality with him all of his life. This was not the last event that made him hate the fact that kids can be put through the worst things.
While attending Elkton Hills there was a boy that holden had gone to school with. This boys name was James Castle. James had called a boy concieted. This boy got very offended by his comment. He gota couple of boys and went to James and told him to takeit back. James wouldnt take it back so they did some horrible things to him to make him, but james still wouldn't. Instead of taking back what he said James committed suicide by jumping out of the window. Holden witnessesed James's dead body on the ground. The scene was very horrific. There was a lot of blood an such. This was the second stage in holdens problem. This was another event that made Holden hate the bad things in the world. He didn't want any body else to see there friend's body dead on the ground. This lead Holden deeper into his problem of not accepting the fact that there are bad things in the world.
Towards the end of the book Holden has a moment of thought on the steps of his sisters school. As he is sitting on these steps waiting for his sister to leave he see's where somebody has written "fuck you" on the wall. This would seem to you that this would bother him and that he would hate that any kids would have to see it, because it is a bad thing in the world. Well he did but then he relized something that helped him overcome his problem. He relizes about the ammence number of "fuck you's" on walls in the world and relizes that there is and ammence number of bad things in the world. He relizes that " if you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't erase all the "fuck you signs" in the world"(202). He thinks that since there areso many bad things in the world there would never be anyway that he could stop all of them. He then understands that going through these experiances is just a part of life. After this point in the book you can tell that Holden gets better. He decides to stay home and not move away. You can see that he has changed from being immature to being an adult. Loss of innocence is Holdens problem but like with many things time has taught him that he can not change it.