Coming Of Age In Catcher In The Rye

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is far from the typical coming of age story. From Holden Caulfield’s perspective, life is simply a battle between him and nearly everyone else in the world. This is a typical issue for any protagonist and most stories would likely propel the protagonist to change his view about life: however this high school flunky, who recently lost his younger brother to leukemia, never considers another mindset on life. Holden wants nothing more than to stop time, he doesn’t want to change and he doesn’t want anything associated with his childhood to change. Unfortunately for Holden, the world around him continues down a constantly changing path. J.D. Salinger uses Holden’s experiences to express the inevitability of maturing and losing one’s innocence as well as the effect that this struggle to grow up has on an individual and on society. The conflict in Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye stems from an event that does not take place within the novel: the root of the conflict lies with Holden’s younger brother Allie. Although Salinger never bluntly …show more content…
Society doesn’t see the world the way that Holden sees it: Holden’s need to maintain innocence actually counteracts society’s needs. When Holden explains to Phoebe that he wants to be “the catcher in the rye,” he really means that he wants to save youth and innocence from going over “some crazy cliff,” and the bottom of that cliff is adulthood (173). Holden wants to save the innocent from the reality of life. However, society needs the youth to grow up and experience all aspects of life in order to progress. Although he has not yet fallen the world Holden lives in is pushing him over the cliff; he is being forced to grow up. Holden is stuck in between childhood and adulthood, grasping the edge of the cliff, holding on to his innocence while society is stepping on his