Catcher In The Rye Holdens Character Development

I am going to change my original thesis, which was about Holden’s character developing, because it is not a strong theme anymore. After reading half of the book, I have realized that Holden’s character does not really seem to be changing for the better. His character seems to be becoming more of a rebellious person. He leaves the school and goes to a nightclub and a hotel, where he gets a prostitute. I realized after that that his character is not going to change for the better in this novel. I think a stronger thesis would be about innocence of children. Holden does not seem to like adults or anything about growing up, like being responsible. When he is at the nightclub, he listens in to some conversations around him and thinks that all adults have boring conversations and that they are all phony. He also talks about how him and Jane Gallagher would play checkers and how they held hands but had no sexual relationship. Playing checkers and holding hands is more of a childish thing to do and the fact that he mentions it several times in the novel, shows that he is trying to make a point out of it. Having a sexual relationship is a more adult thing and it was also mentioned several times that him and Jane had no sexual relationship.

Double-Entry Journal
“‘Boy!’ I said. I also say ‘Boy!’ …show more content…
Spencer and Holden. Mr. Spencer is trying to teach Holden a life lesson. He wants Holden to do well in life, but in order to do that he tells him he has to “play according to the rules”. This page of the novel shows how Holden feels about adults. He just sits there and nods while Mr. Spencer goes on about life being a game. Holden does not really take adults seriously and that is why he gets into trouble. It also shows that Holden believes he is on the “other side”, the side where there are no hot-shots and he isn’t popular. Holden does not feel like he fits in with people probably because he acts young and does not want to grow up with everyone