The Fall of Innocence
What is the loss of innocence? To start with, the term innocence is defined as “the state or quality of being free from moral wrong, guilt or sin” (“Innocence”). Therefore, innocence is commonly related to ignorance and youthfulness. On the contrary, the loss of innocence is mainly related to the corruption of the world. It transpires when an individual is exposed to the suffering, evil and the pain found in the world. This is relevant to the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger and the film, Frankenstein, directed by James Whale. In The Catcher in the Rye, a sixteen-year old boy named Holden Caulfield narrates several days of his life before Christmas break, right after he is expelled for flunking his …show more content…
In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is abandoned and therefore, disconnected from his parents. After leaving his school and arriving in New York, Holden decides not to call his younger sister due to the risk of his parents picking up the phone: “My kid sister Phoebe goes to bed around nine o’clock –so I couldn’t call her up. She wouldn’t’ve cared if I’d woke her up, but the trouble was, she wouldn’t’ve been the one that answered the phone. My parents would be the ones” (Salinger 77). A close reading of the passage shows that Holden would like to have a personal connection with a family member, but instead of communicating with his parents, he thinks about his younger sister. This demonstrates how Holden feels less connected to his parents and closer with his sibling since he would rather reveal his current, tragic situation of being expelled to her rather than his parents. As well as by sending Holden away to boys’ schools, it displays how his parents are abandoning him and relying on the schools to raise him as he continues to fail academically. Not to mention, his parents are briefly discussed in his story which gives the impression that they are not important enough in Holden’s life. This lack of nurturing therefore causes Holden to lose connections with them as well as lose his innocence because of the negativity and the corruptness he experiences in the world. Prior to Holden losing his innocence and developing into an adult, Holden is oblivious and free from the cruelty within the world. Unfortunately, due to the fact Holden has not received any affection or nurturing from his parents during his transition from child to an adult; he develops a fatalistic perception on life. Overall, this is significant as his perception of the world and adults causes him to have no mature idols and fewer connections, leading him to feel
What is the loss of innocence? To start with, the term innocence is defined as “the state or quality of being free from moral wrong, guilt or sin” (“Innocence”). Therefore, innocence is commonly related to ignorance and youthfulness. On the contrary, the loss of innocence is mainly related to the corruption of the world. It transpires when an individual is exposed to the suffering, evil and the pain found in the world. This is relevant to the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger and the film, Frankenstein, directed by James Whale. In The Catcher in the Rye, a sixteen-year old boy named Holden Caulfield narrates several days of his life before Christmas break, right after he is expelled for flunking his …show more content…
In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is abandoned and therefore, disconnected from his parents. After leaving his school and arriving in New York, Holden decides not to call his younger sister due to the risk of his parents picking up the phone: “My kid sister Phoebe goes to bed around nine o’clock –so I couldn’t call her up. She wouldn’t’ve cared if I’d woke her up, but the trouble was, she wouldn’t’ve been the one that answered the phone. My parents would be the ones” (Salinger 77). A close reading of the passage shows that Holden would like to have a personal connection with a family member, but instead of communicating with his parents, he thinks about his younger sister. This demonstrates how Holden feels less connected to his parents and closer with his sibling since he would rather reveal his current, tragic situation of being expelled to her rather than his parents. As well as by sending Holden away to boys’ schools, it displays how his parents are abandoning him and relying on the schools to raise him as he continues to fail academically. Not to mention, his parents are briefly discussed in his story which gives the impression that they are not important enough in Holden’s life. This lack of nurturing therefore causes Holden to lose connections with them as well as lose his innocence because of the negativity and the corruptness he experiences in the world. Prior to Holden losing his innocence and developing into an adult, Holden is oblivious and free from the cruelty within the world. Unfortunately, due to the fact Holden has not received any affection or nurturing from his parents during his transition from child to an adult; he develops a fatalistic perception on life. Overall, this is significant as his perception of the world and adults causes him to have no mature idols and fewer connections, leading him to feel