Open Prompt Response #1

In some works of literature, childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror. Focusing on a single novel or play, explain how its representation of childhood or adolescence shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.

While Peter Pan might be accredited with the familiar phrase “I don’t want to grow up”, many other works of literature carry the same message. In The Catcher in the Rye, adolescence is depicted as a time of uncertainty and change. In The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger uses diction, imagery and details to represent adolescence as a time for losing of innocence, although once lost, can never again be obtained. This brings about uncertainty for the narrator, Holden, as he struggles to walk the line between youth and maturity.

Holden ambivalence to maturation is best illustrated through his focus on sex.   Throughout the novel, he expresses many adult desires although is afraid to fulfil them. At the novel’s advent, Holden states that he is a virgin although he does not intend to remain one for very long. However, even when he buys a hooker, he cannot bring himself to carry out his plans as it makes him feel sick to engage in a sexual experience with someone he does not know. Throughout the novel, Holden reflects on a girl named Jane. Holden and Jane were once childhood friends, and when Jane accepts a date with Holden’s roommate Stradlater Holden is tortured by the thought that Stradlater will make sexual overtures to her. Holden struggles with this idea primarily because the two do not know each other much and the overtures exist simply on the premise of physical attraction. These thoughts illustrate that Holden has an understanding that sex occur between people who respect and care about each other, although he feels peer pressure at the thought of his friends and roommates engaging in sex earlier than he. These tumultuous thoughts confuse Holden and suggest to the reader that Salinger feels growing up should not be done hastily or as a way to impress peers.

Holden also expresses his uncertainty about the adult world through his usage of the word “phony”. To Holden, the adult world is full of hypocrisy and lies. He despises his teachers who speak in one way in a classroom but another outside of its walls. He cannot stand the gilded movies of Hollywood and feels that they resemble an unobtainable world. He has no desire to become a part of the phony adult world, but when asked by his sister what he wants to be when he grows up, Holden responds that his job in life should be to “be the catcher in the rye and all.” In other words, Holden wants to stop children from falling down the cliff that leads to adulthood. However, his kid sister Phoebe, intelligently points out that his idea simply isn’t realistic illustrating her own complex thoughts and lack of innocence to the ways of the adult world. Therefore, Holden desperately clings to his idea of childhood, that as Phoebe points out, is not as romantic as he’d like to think.

However, as the novel unfolds, it also becomes clear that it is not the adult world that is phony, but Holden’s perceptions. His judgements are quick, and they possess a child-like simplicity. Even his beloved teacher, Mr. Antolini, who defies convention and is therefore not “phony” is subject to Holden’s quick judgements. In one scene, Holden arrives at his teacher’s apartment in order to find company and guidance. Although at first he seems to have found what he was looking for, this changes when he thinks his teacher is making a sexual advance by offering a paternal pat on the check. Quickly, Holden judges his teacher to be a homosexual, despite Mr. Antolini’s apparent wife, and Holden flees the house the second he can. Only on later reflection does Holden begin to dwell his own child-like judgements and to see the world as more complex then he had first envisioned.

Therefore, The Cather in the Rye represents a complex novel about the struggles of growing up. Holden scrambles between the phony adult world which press upon him from his friends and peers and the idealistic image he has of the innocence of childhood. However, both perceptions are proven to be false, from his kid-sister Phoebe who is neither innocent nor simple, to the quick-childlike judgements Holden makes for the adult world. Therefore, the Catcher in the Rye’s portrayal of childhood reminds readers not to grow up too fast and to accept adulthood when one is ready.