Examples Of Immaturity In Catcher In The Rye

Holden envies the idea of childhood and holds onto his immaturity and childlike fantasies in order to escape the reality of growing up into a world full of “phonies.” This is proven by how much Holden brings up the duck pond he visited as a child, wondering where the ducks go in the winter. He says, “I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them away to the zoo or something. Or if they just flew away” (18). Holden’s fascination with the ducks shows how childlike his mind still is. Although the obvious answer to his question is simple, the ducks migrate, nobody tells him because someone his age should already know the answer. They are assuming that, because …show more content…
When talking with Holden at the bar, Holden’s old friend Luce states, early in the conversation, “ ‘Listen. Let’s get one thing straight. I refuse to listen to answer any typical Caulfield questions tonight. When in the hell are you going to grow up?’ ” (189). Classmate criticizes Holden’s immaturity. Ironically saying he needs to grow up, even though he isn’t any more mature than they are. Holden annoys him with questions about sex, which is not something a child would typically be interested in. The topic of sex is something personal yet interesting to Holden, and he pesters his friend about it because his child-like curiosity mixes with his growing maturity. This makes Holden seem like a contradictory character, as described by literary critic Karen R. Tolchin in her article "Optimism, Innocence, and Angst in The Catcher in the Rye." She explains how Holden has feelings of both inferiority and superiority, making him a complex and contradictory …show more content…
In order to prove this, Tolchin cites his frequent swearing as an example of this. However, she believes Holden’s language makes him out to be even more immature, stating, “Yet Holden's swearing, a by-product of his frantic efforts to connect with others, paints him as an innocent: he still believes in the possibility of utopic relation, and cannot accept repeated failures toward that end” (Tolchin). The most prominent reason for Holden’s immaturity is his fear of growing up and the sorrow that comes with the truth, as shown in the final image of the carousel. He is moved to tears while watching his sister because he knows he will never be able to experience the same nostalgic joy that came with riding the carousel as a child, but at least his sister still has a few more years. Also, he comments on the fact that the kids look like they are about to fall off their horses while they reach for a gold ring, but Holden says kids need to reach for things, and people won’t always be there to catch them. That is how they grow up and learn to be wiser. “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say