From Innocence to Adulthood in The Catcher in the Rye Essay Example

For millennia, legends of such a fountain possessing the power to keep youth have been told all globally appearing in multiple pieces of literature. In all of these writings, the protagonist has a fear of growing old so they either fantasize about or try to harbor their youth from this mystical place. These stories hold relevance today in terms of the force driving them to find this magical place which is the fear of what aging brings. Time happens to be inevitable, and irrespective of anybody, each moment of every passing day adolescents mature into adulthood. Adulthood and what it brings with it is unavoidable and prevalent in society, this is directly addressed in J.D Salinger's classic coming-of-age novel The Catcher in the Rye. The fundamental message in Salinger's novel regarding adulthood is that it brings immense responsibilities and complex/highly challenging emotions to deal with, therefore it may put a strain on an individual mentally.

To go through adulthood means that to accept the responsibilities that come with it a sense of innocence has to be left behind. People as they grow to learn more about the world around them must accept some of the ugly truths that they discern, an individual can come into contact with something that they did not know before straining them mentally. Salinger shows this concept through the main protagonist Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in The Rye. Holden has a conversation with Phoebe his little sister and she asks him what he plans to do with his life, he withdraws from logically thinking about her question and responds “[he’d] be the Catcher In the Rye and all”(Salinger 211). The term catcher in the rye symbolizes protecting children from the phoniness and corruption of the adult world. Holden's words give perspective on his feelings of being scared of growing up and losing his innocence, therefore deflecting it on Phoebe and other children in hopes of saving them from maturity and loss of innocence although it is inevitable. The 2013 Film Salinger directed by Shane Salerno gives a viewpoint into Salinger personally and the life he led. In the film, it talks about Salinger's experiences and an influential experience “[he] had was the war that [he] partook in [which] exposed him to a side of human nature that scarred him for the rest of his life” (Salerno). Salinger's experiences with the war made him different from everyone else leading to a life of recluse and sadness. Salingers and Holden's viewpoints on incorruptibility are almost identical and the experiences he had as a young adult which confiscated his innocence results in the view on adulthood that is portrayed in The Catcher in The Rye. Salinger's underlying message is going through adulthood entails leaving behind a sense of innocence to accept the responsibilities that come with age.

Adulthood responsibilities are associated with loneliness and fakeness. The discourse of loneliness in The Catcher in The Rye is often portrayed through Holden's thoughts. Holdens thoughts often come back to the feeling of loneliness no matter where he’s at and who's with, communicating that the loneliness he feels is not physical but rather mental. Holdens peers who are mostly transitioned into the adult world, partake in activities and welcome responsibilities that require maturity causing him to feel secluded and different. The lack of his connectivity that he has to other people makes him depressed and “[feel] so lonesome [that] [he] kind of wish[es] [he] was dead” (Salinger 49), this shows that the loneliness he feels is caused by the strain of the adult world. A concept that brings a lot of attention in The Catcher in The Rye is the phoniness of adults and the underlying fear of becoming like them. Holden relates all adult-like activities with being phony; he says the things people “do make [him] so depressed that [he’d] crazy” (Salinger 22), in truth he cannot adjust to the society around him and an excuse to not accept responsibility and to put off maturing, is by categorizing everyone else around him as phonies. The article The Isolated Youth explores more about the fakeness and urbanization of the modern-day world portraying that “life in the modern metropolis… is completely mechanized, automized, [and] denaturalized” (Bungert 2), meaning that adulthood is associated with the qualities of fakeness. In truth, Salinger's underlying message is isolation and phoniness are correlated with adult obligations.

The literature about aging will make an imprint for years to come from writing of unrealistic places like the Fountain of Youth to a novel like A Catcher in The Rye that people connect with to this day and the message these great works teach will always be discussed. Through the thorough analysis of what the Catcher in the Rye teaches in conclusion, the major message of Salinger's work on maturity is that it comes with responsibilities and complex/highly tough emotions to deal with, which may place a burden on an individual's mental health. 

Works Cited 

Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown and Company, July 1951, New York 

Salerno, Shane (director). Salinger: A Film by Shane Salerno. The Weinstein Company, 2013, New York. 

Bungert, First name (author). Hans Bungert “Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye: The Isolated Youth and His Struggle to Communicate” Die Neueren Sprachen (1960) 208-17.