The Catcher in the Rye
Holden is a teenager student of a prep school, who struggles finding his motivation for life, after he undergoes a series of depressive states and “unusual” experiences; Holden finally finds his motivation for life. Growing up is a theme in The Catcher in the Rye. Through this theme, Salinger suggests it is necessary for one to grow up in time in order to continue one’s life journey. The novel reveals Holden’s childish behavior, aversion to adults and refusal of growing up results in Holden’s lack of motivation in life.
Holden behaves like a child throughout the most part of the novel. For instance, as a manager of the fencing team, Holden should take responsibility of all the equipment, but instead he leaves all the equipment on the subway. Afterwards, rather then being responsible as an adult, Holden decides not to take responsibility, like a child, by saying “It wasn’t all my fault, I had to keep getting up to look at this map, it was pretty funny in a way(3)” Holden feels absolutely nothing about his critical mistake of losing the fencing equipment, and even thinks it was funny, on top of that his attitude toward this incident demonstrates his immaturity. Holden’s repetition of the phrase “I don’t feel like it” illustrates his irresponsible response, which can surely be compared to a child. The main difference between an adult and a child is that a child only does things that they are interested in, while adults know what they need to do. In other words Holden’s major problems are that he doesn’t understand it’s time for him to grow up, and he considers his own self to still be a child.
Holden’s deep aversion of adults sticks him in the middle of a crossroad between childhood and adulthood. Holden gets expelled from Pency prep, (which is the 4th time he got expelled from school) because he is failing all the classes except English. Mr. Spencer, Holden’s history teacher, asks Holden to drop by his house before he leaves, and Holden did. When Mr. Spencer compliments Holden’s parents as “grand” people, it all seems “phony” to him, and Holden thinks all adults are phony, which makes him refuse to accept the reality that he is becoming an adult. Right before Holden leaves he says “I’m just undergoing through a phase right now. Everybody goes though phases and all(15)” This shows that Holden himself knows he is undergoing a phase, a phase in which a child changes to an adult. Instead of moving along his journey of life, Holden chooses to remain in that phase.
Holden’s refusal to grow up results in his lack of motivation for life. After Holden leaves Pency prep, he finds that he has nothing to do and no where to go, and he decides to take a trip back to his hometown of New York. Holden doesn’t want to go home because he is afraid of that his parents will find out that he got expelled, so at the end of his trip he decides to sleep over at his English teacher, Mr. Antolini’s house, which is a turning point of the novel. Mr. Antolini notices Holden’s situation and warns him by saying “The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps on falling and falling(187)” Unlike most teenagers, who move up to adulthood, Holden keeps on stopping himself from moving to the next level. Holden will be unable find motivation and purpose in his life until he enters the next level, but he denies every single chance that he has had so far. Other people can only advise him, just like Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini. Whether to pass though this phase or not, it is still Holden’s decision.
