Holden’s story starts off in this therapist where Holden is telling his life in a reverse chronological way. Holden’s immaturity of not wanting to grow up comes from all the examples he sees around himself. Holden’s opinion about all of the adults around is that they all have flaws and are phony. But he sees children as pure, gentle, innocent, and perfect. The characters he speaks most fondly about in the novel are all children, Allie, Phoebe, etc. Holden is afraid to grow up which is why he acts so immature. He is constantly dreaming up schemes to escape growing up and maturing. He thinks fleeing to a New England cabin or working on a ranch out West will stop him from having to grow up. The only role that Holden envisions for himself in life is being The Catcher in the Rye and catching children before they fall off a cliff and this is symbolic of his wish to save himself and other children from having to grow up one day. However, Holden's view of perfect childhood is as incorrect as his view of the adult world. Acting immature helps Holden hide from all the things that terrify him such as issues ranging from sex, to intimacy, to facing death. Further, this form of delusional self-protection can only last so long. Holden will grow up, whether he likes it or not. Mr. Antolini and Phoebe both make it clear that unless he learns to accept the complexities of adulthood, he will never be happy and …show more content…
He tries to make conversation with the driver, asking him where the ducks in the Central Park go in the winter, but the driver is uninterested. This is a very immature question that he continues to ask throughout the novel, creating some conflicts among himself and the cab drivers. In addition, in his room at the Edmont hotel, he looks out across the hotel courtyard into the lighted windows on the other side and discovers a variety of acts that he finds bizarre but are actually normal scenes that occurs and are seen in everyday life. He sees one man dresses in women’s clothing, and in another room a man and a woman take turns spitting mouthfuls of their drinks into each other’s face. Holden begins to feel aroused, so he calls Faith Cavendish, a promiscuous girl recommended to him by a boy he met at a party, and tries to make a date with her. She refuses to meet up. But Holden continues to feel the same way for a while, he calls a prostitute for the night. Yet when the prostitute takes off her dress and gets ready to have sex with her he refuses to do so, he claims “The trouble was, I just didn't want to do it. I felt more depressed than sexy, if you want to know the truth. She was depressing. Her green dress hanging in the closet and all. And besides, I don't think I could ever do it with somebody that sits in a stupid movie all day long.