Holden talks many times throughout the book about children losing their innocence to the cruel adult world. For example, when Holden orders a prostitute to his hotel room in New York, he hangs up Sunny’s dress and describes how he feels. “I took her dress over to the closet and hung it up for her. It was funny, It made me feel sort of sad when I hung it up. I thought of her going in a store and buying it, and nobody in the store knowing she was a prostitute and all. The salesman probably just thought she was a regular girl when she bought it. It made me feel sad as hell - I don’t know why exactly” (Salinger 125). Holden gets emotionally caught up with regard to people, especially children, growing up and losing their innocence. Three examples
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I figured it was some perverty bum that’d sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something and then wrote it on the wall. I kept picturing myself catching him at it, and how I’d smash his head on the stone steps till he was good and goddamn dead and bloody” (Salinger 261). Holden even fantasizes about killing whoever wrote profanity on the wall and ruined the little kid’s innocence. A criminal inspired by Catcher in the Rye is Robert John Bardo, who shot and killed actress Rebecca Schaeffer since she lost her innocent image. On July 18, 1989, Bardo confronted Schaeffer at her home, livid with her for having starred in a sex scene in the film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills and thus having "lost her innocence." Bardo visited Schaffer at her apartment, and told her he was a big fan. She signed an autograph, went back into her apartment and he left. About an hour later, Bardo again rang the bell to Schaffer’s apartment. When Schaeffer opened the door, Bardo fired one round of ammunition, killing her. Bardo was arrested, but was found to have been carrying a copy of Catcher in the Rye when he murdered Schaeffer, which he threw onto the roof of a nearby building as he
I figured it was some perverty bum that’d sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something and then wrote it on the wall. I kept picturing myself catching him at it, and how I’d smash his head on the stone steps till he was good and goddamn dead and bloody” (Salinger 261). Holden even fantasizes about killing whoever wrote profanity on the wall and ruined the little kid’s innocence. A criminal inspired by Catcher in the Rye is Robert John Bardo, who shot and killed actress Rebecca Schaeffer since she lost her innocent image. On July 18, 1989, Bardo confronted Schaeffer at her home, livid with her for having starred in a sex scene in the film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills and thus having "lost her innocence." Bardo visited Schaffer at her apartment, and told her he was a big fan. She signed an autograph, went back into her apartment and he left. About an hour later, Bardo again rang the bell to Schaffer’s apartment. When Schaeffer opened the door, Bardo fired one round of ammunition, killing her. Bardo was arrested, but was found to have been carrying a copy of Catcher in the Rye when he murdered Schaeffer, which he threw onto the roof of a nearby building as he