holen paper..
As he hangs on to the edge of the rugged cliff edge, he looks down at the endless fall below. All he wanted was to save the children from this, to stay on the safe side where nothing changed. His shield of isolation wasnt enough to stop the inescapable fall of innocence, he was one of them now. In J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, we meet a young boy named Holden who refuses to let go. Holden's inability to accept change is demonstrated through his obssesion of his younger sibling's innocence, which he strives to conserve. Despite Holden's denial of the human need to change, those surrounding him such as Mr. Antolini, Holden's former teacher, knew that this part of life was inevitable, "The man falling isnt permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling" (Salinger pg.169). In this coming of age novel, we learn that the ways of society such as casual sex, constant change, and being fake are set and cannot be altered. Holden's surroundings were filled with casual sex, one big example being his roomate Stradlater. Holden despised the thought of Stradlater taking advantage of Jane Gallagher and tried to deal with it in a physical fight. After he got beat up, he escaped his depression by going to New York days earlier than his expulsion date. Holden built himself a bitter predisposition and judged everone as being "phony", not realizing that he wasnt too different from others. He rejected society and wanted to protect himself from its falsehoods, so he avoided getting too personal with people by constantly lying to them. An example of falsehhoods that Holden talked about was Stradlater's uncleanliness, noting that despite his attractiveness, his razor was a discusting mess. He figured that everyone had a dirty razor hidden somewhere, filled with personal truths instead of hair. pubes