Holden Caulfield Thesis

After the expulsion from his fourth prep school for lack of academic success, the cynical adolescent, Holden Caulfield, returns to his hometown, New York City. There, Holden roams meaninglessly, trying to postpone his arrival and news to his family that he has once again failed to succeed in his schooling. Silently suffering over the death of his beloved brother, Allie, Holden builds up his inner turmoil toward adults and the phoniness they have created as they entered adulthood. Although Holden realizes that he himself is slipping into the adult world, he tries to resist the corruptness and demoralization by grasping onto the one pure element of his life, his younger sister, Phoebe. Caught between the conflicting worlds of blissful innocence …show more content…
While Holden watched Phoebe on the carousel, he noticed the song they were playing: “ There were only about five or six kids on the ride, and the song the carousel was playing was Smoke gets in your eyes.” The saying Smoke gets in your eyes referred to as an excuse when somebody was crying. In this case, the song represents Holdens feeling toward his sister and how he feels about moving on with his life. Although upset and scared he feels about growing up, he comes to accept what life has to give him. Before Phoebe decides to ride the carousel, She asks Holden if he would like to ride with her. Holden stops to think but then decides that for right now, he would rather watch her enjoy herself: “Aren’t you gonna ride too?’ she ask me. She was looking at me sort of funny. You could tell she wasn’t too sore at me anymore. ‘Maybe I will the next time. I’ll watch ya,’ I said.” (211). During this scene, Holden comes to understand that his childhood life has almost come to an end and his adult life, a beginning. He comes face to face with reality that childhood’s meant for children and adulthood, for adults and instead of riding the never-ending feeling of childhood, Holden decides to proceed on with his life. While the rain starts to pour on Holden, he realizes how much joy watching Phoebe brought to him: “I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around.” Watching Phoebe go around in a circle symbolizes the infinite feeling of childhood. As a child, life seems to go slow and drag on forever until it unconsciously slips away. At this point, Holden cries knowing that his sister will not ride the carousel infinitely, or stay forever innocent and that despite what he does to prevent her from growing up, will have to endure the phoniness life has to offer just like he