Holden Caulfield Journey Analysis

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Holden Caulfield, Learning to Let Go:
Every child goes through a series of changes in their lives. The biggest transition a child must go through is the transition from childhood to adulthood. The book, Catcher in the Rye By J.D. Salinger, is about the journey and changes a seventeen-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield experienced while he himself transitioned from childhood to adulthood. His life was filled with many ups and downs along the way. One of the biggest downfalls in his life was when his younger brother Allie, passed away from Leukemia when Holden was only 13. Holden also got kicked out of a boarding school called Pencey, his parents sent him to, for failing all of his classes except one. Through these tough times, Holden was alone
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He wished someone could have kept him in a safe sanctuary where he would never lose his innocence and change. The metaphor, The Catcher in the Rye, is relating to Holden when he tried to save children from growing up and opening their eyes to the real world. The rye field was like a sense of protection in this situation. It “shielded” children from the real world, keeping them in this protected state of matter. Holden felt like it was his job to shield the children from all of the evil things of the world. When children went astray, he felt as if he needed to guide them back to safety. He goes out trying to rid the places around him of things that would destroy the innocence children have before they change and become corrupted. But he can't save everyone and he can't get rid of everything no matter how hard he tries. When he went to Phoebe's school, he comes across something that aggravated him. You can really hear Holden’s voice towards these things when he says,”Someone had written F*** you on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy… Phoebe and other little kids would see it, and wonder what the hell it meant… they'd wonder about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days." (pg. 201) Those small words could impact children a lot making them lose parts of their innocence so he rubbed it off. Later, he came across another one of those F*** you signs but he could not get rid of it. Some things just could not be gotten rid of. Holden realized that at that very

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