The Catcher In The Rye Literary Analysis

Words: 1573
Pages: 7

“The overall five-year relative survival rate for leukemia has more than quadrupled since 1960” (The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). Unfortunately, Allie, Holden’s brother, was not one of them. Holden had a very close relationship with Allie and his death causes Holden to experience loss in a very sudden and tragic way. Holden begins to rebel and has trouble coping. This was a turning point for Holden where he lost his innocence. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel about a young man, Holden, that attempts to cope with his confrontation issues. He feels lost and lonely, despite that he experiences different stages of living. Holden first hand experiences the pain and suffering of losing one’s innocence. According to Salinger, when people lose their innocence, they learn the permanence of it and yearn for it to come back.
First and foremost, becoming an adult shows a new outlook at life that is surrounded by despair. Despair can be found in the most subtlest ways. For instance, Holden is
…show more content…
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger discusses the new outlook of the world as an adult that is full of cruelty, pain, and suffering. The want that Holden has to shield children who are naive and innocent is justified because he knows what it is like to lose it. He also has moments where he realizes that everything has changed and it really confuses him and reminds him of how lonely he really is. One moment would be when Allie died because he was very close to his brother. Holden saw a glimpse of what the world looks like to adults when Allie dies. Losing ones’ innocence means that one can no longer see the goodness of the world, and can only see negativity around them. To live in a world like that is truly terrifying, which is why this novel encourages people to hold onto their innocence for as long as possible because the purity never comes