Growing Up In The Catcher In The Rye By J. D. Salinger

Although most children appear to want to grow up, most do not. In fact most kids are extremely afraid to grow up. This is certainly the case for 16 year old Holden Caulfield. At the beginning of the book The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden finds himself being kicked out of boarding school yet again. Instead of doing the reasonable thing, he decides to run away and roam the streets of New York City all alone. He has some wild adventures along the way. Including but not limited to; meeting a prostitute, getting drunk several times, and passing out at the Museum of Natural History. Through all of his crazy situations and the way he handles them you begin to get the idea that he has an intense fear of growing up. Throughout The Catcher and The Rye, J.D. Salinger uses symbolism to show Holden 's fear of growing up in order to help his adult readers understand what it is like to be a teenager. He does …show more content…
As we grow older we push that item away because it gets too “babyish” for us. Holden feels exactly the opposite, he chooses to purchase a new item so he can continually hold on to his childhood. He is so infatuated with his hat just like any small child with a new toy he even said himself “I still had my red hunting hat on, with the peak around the back. I really get a kick out of that hat” (Salinger 27). Holden likes to act different than people expect him to be. When people want him to act like an adult he hangs on to childhood even more tightly. He wears his red hunting cap backwards to rebel against social norms, much like a child would. He feels the need to do things his way much like a toddler. Both feel like everything somebody says or does is all about them. Holden likes to hang on to this ideal much like he is holding on to the red hunting cap. Much like a child he is curious about things that are happening around