Catcher in the Rye free essay sample

The story takes place in Manhattan and is about a young boy named Holden Caulfield, it is about the learning experience that takes place and how an immature child tried to come to terms with multiple problems. In J. D. Salinger’s bildungsroman, Catcher in the Rye, Salinger utilizes the symbols, the red hunting hat; Allie’s catching mitt, and the ducks in central park to portray the theme that it is impossible to preserve natural innocence. Salinger utilizes the symbol of the red hunting hat to portray Holden’s loss of innocence and travel into adulthood. Firstly, when Holden is first mentioning the hat, â€Å"It only cost me a buck. I wore it, I swung the old peak way round to the back-very corny, I’ll admit but I liked it that way. † (17) Holden is talking about how he bought the hat and just wears it to express his own personality and recognizes that he likes to wear it in different ways. I came out of the booth, after about twenty minutes or so. The short sentence structure emphasises Caulfield’s hesitation of trying to contact someone but not being able to commit to it, this then positions the reader to feel sorrow for the isolation that Caulfield feels. Caulfield’s hesitation to immerse himself in a connection with another person, explores the idea that whilst Caulfield was progressing with his coming of age, this isolation is a step back for the development of himself. Salinger captures an adolescences bias perception of adults being phony and that they only think of themselves. Salinger explores the perspective of children being a complete world apart from the adults through Caulfield. ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ examines the theme of youth in conjunction with the process of becoming an adult. Caulfield has an idealized perception of what children are like, he has a fantasy of what children are like, and he hastily makes assumptions of adults, predominately on how they treat children. â€Å"There was a lady sitting next to me that cried all through the goddam picture. The phonier it got, the more she cried. Youd have thought she did it because she was kind-hearted as hell. But she had this little kid with her that had to go to the bathroom, but she wouldnt take him. She kept telling him to sit still and behave himself. She was about as kind-hearted as a goddam wolf. † The simile ‘She was about as kind-hearted as a goddam wolf’ emphasises the similarities between the lady and a wolf, this then positions the reader to become aware of Caulfield’s feelings towards adults and the lack of ‘respect’. This sense of him having no ‘respect’ for adults’ challenges society’s moral of respecting your elders is explored throughout the novel and represented through Caulfield’s character. In conclusion, J. D Salinger explores ideas and concepts of what it is like to become of age and how society’s morals are challenged by adolescents and children. He uses themes such as the innocence of children, the isolation of Caulfield and how the youth perceive adults to represent these ideas. I believe that Salinger effectively explores the ideas of coming of age and challenging society’s morals within his novel by using these themes and allows myself as an individual to understand the novel on a deeper level.