Fight through the Death in Catcher in the Rye

There are many challenges of growing up as a teenager where mistakes are learned and futures are made. It take courage to grow up and become who you really are (E.E Cummings). Holden Caulfield undertakes the coming-of-age journey as a young adult in the novel The Catcher in the Rye. Life has challenges that everyone goes through, especially in the adolescent years. For Holden, he goes through losing a family member, Allie. Second, with those challenges comes learning and finding about oneself; Holden shows that he tries to run away from his problems like having to grow up and being an adult or a self conlift within himself, mentally. Lastly, life leads to understanding and realizing the troubles in life. The experiences a person withstands whether if it is good or bad situation, it shapes the person they are to this day. As a matter of fact, Holden then realizes the world is not as corrupt as he thought it was. In conclusion Holden has somewhat matured and became more wise by the end of the novel. There are obstacles in life where different situations and or decisions have a big impact on a person's life, for example, obtaining a new job or a break up. As for Holden, at the age of thirteen, he had the challenge of going through a death of his younger brother, Allie. After Allier's death, Holden viewed the world as very corrupt in the way that it turns people into monsters and the way life is just was not fair. Holden also started to slack in school, got kicked out of Whooton, Elkton and Pencey and became influenced with drugs and alcohol. In the book Holden says People are always ruining things for you (Salinger, page. 51), yet again his attitude and perspective towards his environment is negative. Allier's death being the one ?bad thing in life really got him off track from having a ?good future. As a result of his ups and downs in life his troubles convey all of his negativity onto the world. In the novel Holden experiences being alone in New York and feels vulnerable and scared. After getting kicked out of Pencey he did not want to face his parents knowing that he also does not have good communications skills. Holden encounters being attacked by Maurice, finding new friends, keeping a good relationship and thinking upon his own death. He thinks about Allie and observes how death seems like a better life way. In chapter 20 Holden says I hope to hell that when I die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery (Salinger, page. 155) Holden feels suicidal from all the tension he is going through. At this point of the novel Holden suffers from serious depression, physically and mentally, he feels sick, tired and dead on the inside. Under those circumstances it shows the reader that Holden is lost in the real world and does not know how to act upon it. Therefore, Holden tried to run away from his problems and wanted to restart his life. After the experiences he went through and wanting to restart his life, Holden came to realization that everything does not seem as corrupt as he thought it was. When Holden was watching Phoebe on the carousel it symbolizes that life goes on and on and that he can not stay young forever. When Phoebe reaches for the ring, Phoebe represents the youth and innocence and the ring representing maturity, together it represents how the young reaches for maturity. In the book Mr. Antolini noted The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one (Slinger, page. 188) Mr. Antolini was trying to tell Holden how a mature person can make a difference without having death as an option. Holden realizes that there are other good concepts in life that he could look at instead of all the negative side in life like how he has Phoebe. At the very end of the novel Holden also says don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody (Salinger, page. 214) his final ironic comment was that he started to miss everyone because he has been focusing on himself and everything that has been happening to him. Generally speaking, Holden came to understand that the world is not as depraved. Despite all the challenges in life, mistakes can be taught as lessons learned in life to shape the person they are. Obstacles are brought up in life to make a person show what they are capable of and to help them become stronger as a whole. Holden fights through the death of his younger brother Allie in the sense that he takes time to learn things about himself during the time of being alone in New York. He then came to understand and realize that everything in like was not as bad as he thought and that he could not run away from his problems or growing up as an adult. In conclusion Holden Caulfield has become more wise and mature by the end of the novel.

Cite this page