Holden Caulfield faces various forms of victimization throughout the novel, but his isolation from the world plays a vast role against him. The victimization forms him to protect the innocence of all children around the world. Throughout this novel there are many versatile examples of victimization towards Holden and how he turns it around to help protect the innocence of children. For example, when he tells Phoebe he is a catcher in the rye, when he sees the swearing words on the walls of the elementary school, and when people in real life associate themselves to this novel. In J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, Holden is a victim of a mental illness whose only goal in life is to protect the innocence of children.
Holden experiences several severe encounters with his mental illness which causes him to want to protect the innocence of children. An example of this is when he sees swear words on the wall of Phoebe’s elementary school. Holdem shows his thoughts about the words by angrily saying “… I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written 'Fuck …show more content…
David J. Burrows believes people associate to this novel by stating “Certainly every reader, no matter how young, has at least begun to make his own compromise with the adult society he is entering, and still may identify his own plight very strongly with Holden’s...and nostalgia for an innocence perhaps quite recently lost” (Burrows 62-63). David J. Burrows is saying that of course everyone thinks about adulthood before entering it or even thinks about their childhood after completing it. Holden along with other people take these thoughts to the extreme by refusing to grow up because they are terrified of the responsibilities they will be facing. They are the type of people who let their mental health take over them and makes the people go physco, like Holden who has to stay in a mental institute. This is why people relate to this
Holden experiences several severe encounters with his mental illness which causes him to want to protect the innocence of children. An example of this is when he sees swear words on the wall of Phoebe’s elementary school. Holdem shows his thoughts about the words by angrily saying “… I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written 'Fuck …show more content…
David J. Burrows believes people associate to this novel by stating “Certainly every reader, no matter how young, has at least begun to make his own compromise with the adult society he is entering, and still may identify his own plight very strongly with Holden’s...and nostalgia for an innocence perhaps quite recently lost” (Burrows 62-63). David J. Burrows is saying that of course everyone thinks about adulthood before entering it or even thinks about their childhood after completing it. Holden along with other people take these thoughts to the extreme by refusing to grow up because they are terrified of the responsibilities they will be facing. They are the type of people who let their mental health take over them and makes the people go physco, like Holden who has to stay in a mental institute. This is why people relate to this