Catcher In The Rye Research Paper

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Growing up is not always the best experience, but everyone must go through this phase. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye explores how adult life appears complex and incomprehensible to teenagers on the brink of entering it. Holden Caulfield’s transition from being a pessimistic and antagonistic teenager to a caring mature adult is clearly evident throughout the novel. The meaning of The Catcher in the Rye represents Holden’s view of himself as an intermediary of children who aren’t even aware of his existence.

At the start, Holden has no sense of direction, until he reflects back at his childhood while reading Phoebe’s notebook. “It didn’t take me long, and I can read that kind of stuff, some kid’s notebook, Phoebe’s or anybody’s, all day and all night long. Kids notebooks kill me” (Salinger 161). On the other hand, Holden finds her
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He may use profanity himself, but he draws the line when he sees the explicit graffiti on the walls of elementary schools and museum tombs. “If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t rub out even half the f- you signs in the world. It’s impossible” (Salinger 202). This imagery is a clear reflection on the novel’s title due to the fact that these writings particularly bother Holden, because they remind him of his own relatively comfortable and joyful childhood. On the other hand, Holden’s world has been corrupted by crudeness. “I thought how Phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant” (Salinger 201). In Caulfield’s mind, children are innocent and adults are corrupt. On the contrary, it also makes it impossible for him to understand the process of being The Catcher in the Rye. On his journey in becoming this idol for children, it all comes to the realization that rubbing out all of the vulgar graffiti in the world would be