Catcher In The Rye Journey
The Crossroads of Adolescence
In Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Traveled, the narrator reminisces, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood / And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler, long I stood.” This recurring motif of being “stuck” between two “roads” can be found again and again, both within society itself and within works of literature such as J.D. Salinger’s coming-of-age novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger uses the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, to explore the process of self-discovery, ultimately demonstrating how society oppresses the non-conforming individual. Caulfield, “be one traveler,” attempts to find out what it means to be an adolescent, stuck between the “roads” of childhood and adulthood.
Caulfield is …show more content…
He thinks that many people are phony, proclaiming, “I [am] surrounded by jerks. I’m not kidding” (85). When Caulfield calls people “jerks,” it demonstrates how he does not like them and how he refuses to give people a chance to prove themselves as decent before judging them. He does not see people in the same way that most people do. Caulfield values childhood innocence. When he is talking to his sister, Phoebe, about what he wants to do with his life, he says, "I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them" (173). To Caulfield, the cliff is symbolic of the border to adulthood. He wants to save children from that border, as he is conflicted himself about the entrance to adulthood. Caulfield occasionally attempts to interact with others as an adult. Sometimes, he makes his "voice quite deep so that [they] wouldn't suspect [his] age or anything" (64). He also confronts a bartender, asking, “do I look like I'm under twenty-one?" (69). In both of these instances, Caulfield tries to pretend to be older than he is, even attempting to fake his age. Caulfield is quite a unique character, given that he values both innocence and adulthood, two polar-opposite values. He desires both the innocence of childhood and the temptations of adulthood. Throughout
In Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Traveled, the narrator reminisces, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood / And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler, long I stood.” This recurring motif of being “stuck” between two “roads” can be found again and again, both within society itself and within works of literature such as J.D. Salinger’s coming-of-age novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger uses the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, to explore the process of self-discovery, ultimately demonstrating how society oppresses the non-conforming individual. Caulfield, “be one traveler,” attempts to find out what it means to be an adolescent, stuck between the “roads” of childhood and adulthood.
Caulfield is …show more content…
He thinks that many people are phony, proclaiming, “I [am] surrounded by jerks. I’m not kidding” (85). When Caulfield calls people “jerks,” it demonstrates how he does not like them and how he refuses to give people a chance to prove themselves as decent before judging them. He does not see people in the same way that most people do. Caulfield values childhood innocence. When he is talking to his sister, Phoebe, about what he wants to do with his life, he says, "I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them" (173). To Caulfield, the cliff is symbolic of the border to adulthood. He wants to save children from that border, as he is conflicted himself about the entrance to adulthood. Caulfield occasionally attempts to interact with others as an adult. Sometimes, he makes his "voice quite deep so that [they] wouldn't suspect [his] age or anything" (64). He also confronts a bartender, asking, “do I look like I'm under twenty-one?" (69). In both of these instances, Caulfield tries to pretend to be older than he is, even attempting to fake his age. Caulfield is quite a unique character, given that he values both innocence and adulthood, two polar-opposite values. He desires both the innocence of childhood and the temptations of adulthood. Throughout