Holden’s Transition Into an Adult

There is a moment in e truly pip-squeaks deportment where he or she realizes that growing up is non as desirable as they once thought. Before this moment they fantasize ab discover not having a bed condemnation or driving or at long last being able to drink. barely and soce they feel the weight of the handsome land with its responsibilities and restrictions of a society that doesnt value the individual and expects its citizens to alter into mature, controllable growns. This is the date parents hate, the time when their children try on to rebel or take for it a right smart to escape their future as with child(p)s, but time, alas, providenot be outrun.The giving realism expects m each another(prenominal) amours of its inhabitantsa job, a family, taxes, sex, and very much more. Unfortunately, most untried bounteouss feel as though they will be crushed to a lower attribute this strange rude(a) human beings. Holden Caulfield is no different. When we meet Holden and when we leave him at the contain of the allegory he is in a genial hospital because of a recent break down. J. D Salingers The Catcher in the rye whiskey is Holdens reflection on the events that led to this mental break down. He is a young adult placid seek to hold on to the ball of children for as long as he rouse. The child universe of discourse is a place with very few things to worry about.It is a place of honor and a time when anything is possible. The adult beingness could not be more different. As Holden is starting to see, the world of adults is cold, un condole with, and unfair. When pot make the transit from children to adults they compound foreverthey be gravel what society believes acceptable adults to be. Holden is reluctant to make the transition and conform to the adult world because he believes that in conforming he would lose his innocence and disappear. Holden is reluctant to leave his childhood behind(predicate) because that would mean conforming to the public opinion of what adults should be.There are very few examples of adults in this novel for Holden to see what an exemplary adult is and does. star of the few adults we meet is Mr. Spencer. til now if Holden doesnt fully respect Mr. Spencer he does comparable the man enough to go and see him before go forth Pency Prep. During that visit Mr. Spencer tells Holden that animation is a game that unity plays according to the rules if they motivation to survive in this world (Salinger 8). The problem is Holden has no desire to occur anybodys rules just because some integrity tells him he has to there is no origin for Holden to learn faulty and unnecessary rules.Holden believes that life is entirely a game for the race who are winning. The winners only believe in the rules because they play for them. Holden, according to Mr. Spencer, is not one of the winners because he wont fill up up and do what the adults tell him to do. The thing is, Holden doesnt fully get a line what the rules are because Holden doesnt truly go out the world of adults. A human face effect of this, as Peter Shaw points out, is that Holden is most reliable when dealing with the world of children, and less reliable when addressing the adult world (Shaw 124).Holden doesnt want to understand the world of adults he doesnt ever intend to enter the game so why should he learn the rules? Holden scoffs at the phonies who restrain succumbed to lifes rules. He only hates these phonies because he is hangdog of turning into one himself. All throughout the novel, Holden is reluctant to join the world of adults because he is afraid of changing into something hes not. Literary critic Alsen agrees by grammatical construction that Holden is afraid that he is going to turn into a phony of he is forced to live around them in the near future (Alsen 3).He is out on a date with the queen of phonies fling hay when he reveals how he believes he can escape the adult world. It is then tha t he shows us how he believes he is going to escape the adult world he says hes going to live in a cabin with a brook and solely where he would play to be a deaf-mute so he wouldnt confine to deal with anybody (Salinger 132). This way, Holden avoids all of the things that would force him to grow up such as a job and relationships with peck such as friends and familyin short, society.That, however, wouldnt solve anything because he experiences deep down that would never happen. Sally points out that his plan is not practical. Holden wouldnt be able to keep himself vital for longer than a week if he just packed up and moved to the wilderness. And he would still need to communicate with adults to get the supplies he wanted even if he did pretend to be a deaf-mute. Sallys flat out refusal of the plan shows the qualities of a sure mentation adult, and that is why he calls her the queen of phoniesbecause shes already acting like an adult.Physiologists say that girls mature faster t han boys do so it would make find that Holden is avoiding the adult world instead or embracing it like Sally. But Holden already knew Sallys personality from previous encounters. Jane, however, he is not similarly sure about. Another thing that Holden is afraid might have lurchd is Jane Gallagher. Throughout the novel Holden is searching for a person to call and closely calls her but time aft(prenominal) time he puts it off by saying that hes not in the mood (Salinger 59). Holden doesnt want to call Jane and find out that she has changed since the last time they were together.Holden would sortinga live with a memory of a girl who wont move the last row of checkers than get to get laid Jane all over again. Holden doesnt want to face it, but his world is losing its innocenceSally, Jane, and even Holden are maturing, even if it is at different rates. Holden is dimly mindful that in the process of losing his innocence he is being dragged into the adult world whether he likes it or not. This losing of innocence has been happening gradually over time and its impossible to stop mostly because Holden didnt realize it until it was in addition late.One point in the novel where Holden suits aware of this is when he is at Mr. Antolinis house. Holden believes that Mr. Antolini is being perverty by making a pass at him when he wakes up to find Mr. Antolini stroking his hair. Holden is at a kind of limbo in his life where he is mature enough to get by what a sexual pass is but immature enough to not be able to differentiate that from a warm gesture of caring love (Salinger 192). Holden is scared and confused by this he is actively nerve-wracking to prevent himself from growing up but the losing of innocence happens with the passage of time and cannot be prevented.The imbalance of maturity and innocence inside of Holden is dangerous and Mr. Antolini can see that thats why he tries to help him. But then Holden misreads Mr. Antolinis intentions and flees his house in an even more desperate responsibility than which he came. Another way his departing innocence is made know to Holden is when he goes to his sisters school and the hi spirit level museum after quitting Mr. Antolinis house. He goes inside his sisters schoolhis old schoolwhen he sees the worlds Fuck you on the smother (Salinger 201).After he wipes them off the wall he realize that even if he spent his whole life rubbing Holdens life where he realizes that evil exists in the world and he cant get rid of it nor protect people from it. The adult world is a nasty place and no one can change that. Then he goes to the museum and once inside he heads for the mummies tombs. These are the final resting places of some ancient and passing respected peopleit is supposed to be a place of peace. However, Holden sees another Fuck you sign on written there (Salinger 204).This enforces his revelation he had at the school that there is no escaping the bitterness of the world no matter where he go es. Even though Holden is just realizing these things now, his real changing point is when he dictum throng Castle lying dead on the ground after his fatal jump. During the talk Holden has with Mr. Antolini we see some parallels drawn between Holden and James Castle. Mr. Antolini says that he can see Holden dying nobly for a highly unworthy cause, which is exactly what James Castle did (Salinger 188). James died protecting something he said because he believed it to be square, but his death didnt change anything.If Holden carries on like he is hes going the come to the same end James didsuicide. Antolini also lays out a new meaning for maturity that Holden might be able to live with he says that an immature man is one who dies nobly for a cause rather than a mature man who is willing to live humbly for one (Salinger 188). Holden, however, doesnt fully understand what Antolini is saying and just assumes that, like everybody else, Mr. Antolini is trying to turn Holden into somethi ng that hes not. Holden cant envision himself sustentation in the adult worlds and as a result, he feels as though he is fading away, soon to be lost forever.A pie-eyed moment where Holden is afraid he is going to disappear I when he is talking a walk in New York. He feels as though once he steps off of the ledge hes never going to get to the other side of the road and go down, down, down, and no one would ever see him again (Salinger 197). Whenever this happens he prays to Allie, his strongest link to the world of children, that he wont disappear. Allie is symbolic or Holdens childhood because Allie is never going to maturehes dead. Also, Allie died when Holden was at a tender young age, only thirteen, which is the time when puberty is supposed to start (Salinger 38).That is part of the reason why Holden misses Allie so much its because Holdens childhoods disappeared along with Allie. Even the structure of the end of the novel lends evidence to Holdens predicament. At the end of the novel we dont know if Holden is going to be ok, or what he is going to become in future yearsin short, we dont know any more than Holden does. Holdens problem is that he has been trying to change the world to lead him, while everybody else is saying that he needfully to mildew himself to fit the world. Even though Holden ends up in a mental hospital doesnt mean he is crazy.Carl Luce, one of Holdens friends from the many schools he has attended, is the first person in the novel that suggests that Holden gets Psychoanalyzed which, as Trowbridge points out, suggests that the world will not change to Holdens needs, but that he needs to tune his mind to the world (Trowbridge 25). This is exactly what Holden is afraid ofthe whole reason why he is avoiding the adult world is because he wants to stay true to himself. The thing he doesnt realize is that he can do both. There is a way to adapt to the changing world and still remain Holden Caulfield.We, however, never find out if Holde n learns this crucial lesson. We do know that as long as Holden remains in New York he will remain confused about the adult world. Holden is baffled by the world that surrounds him when he is in New York because New York is symbolic of the adult world. As Robert P. Moore points out, the vulgarity of the story comes not from Holden but from his surroundings (Moore 159). see as how Holden spends most of the novel in the adult world, Moore backs up Holdens belief that the world of adults is a vile place not fit for the innocent.Another thing that enforces that belief is when Holden is in the hotel and he is watching the people on other floors play these weird sex games like the cuckoo and girl spitting water on each other or the man dressing up in womens clothing. Holden frightened of the adult world because he believes that the adult world destroys the beautiful. This harsh world destroys the beautifully simplistic things in life like a short story about a boy and his goldfish or a perfectly formed snowball. Holden is afraid of his journey from childhood to adulthood because he doesnt want to conform to society, disappear, or lose his innocence.The problem is, the process has already begun. Holden is becoming more aware of the adult world and he does not like what he sees. Holden is being forced into a cruel world that consumes child after child. So, predictably, Holden is trying to run away from the unpleasantness like any scared and misguided person would. Holden is unaccustomed to dealing with the complexities of adult life, and he therefore tries to cling to the simplistic life of a child, simply because he cant deal with this strange new world.And Holden is not but in his feelings of helplessness and melancholymost every child has felt up this way before, at varying degrees. Holden is just has extremely passionate feelings so naturally he feel very strongly about this. Holden believes that the only person he can count on one century percent of the time is himself. He doesnt faith people too easily and is an accomplished liar. So naturally he doesnt trust the few people who actually try to help him to ease his way into the adult world, like Mr. Antolini.All Holden sees is a bunch of adults trying to slog him into the mold of a mature, respectable adult. Any young adult would be wary of people trying to impose their will onto themadolescents hate structures that try to stifle their individuality and will do almost anything within their indicator to actively avoid them. Many people find it strange that children cant wait to grow up but adults spend an timeless existence trying to regain their youth, but both the children and the adults want the same thingfreedom to do what they want when they want.