Catcher In The Rye Loss Of Innocence Analysis

When Sunny the prostitute comes to Holdens’s hotel room, when he visits the museum, and when he lies to Mrs. Marrow on the train are all examples of controversy and loss of innocence in the novel.

Throughout the novel, Holden is afraid of losing his innocence. After he leaves Pencey Prep, Holden stays in a hotel and meets Maurice, who works in the elevator at the hotel. Maurice asks Holden “Innarested in having a good time, fella? Or is it too late for you?” (Salinger 101) When Maurice asks him this at first he does not know what to say because he does not understand what he is asking and then when he realizes what Maurice means he is shocked that someone would be so open to ask him. Out of loneliness and fear of being alone Holden says yes to Maurice, Maurice then sends the prostitute to Holden’s room. All Holden actually wants is someone he can talk to and spend time with. When the prostitute, Sunny, arrives at his hotel room, Holden realizes that he does not want to do anything with her. Holden became nervous and he did not want to lose the innocence he had held on to for so long. In order to protect this innocence he makes up a lie that he had surgery on his clavichord.
He enjoys museums for the reason that they never change and no matter how old and how much a person changes, every time that person returns to the museum it will stay exactly the same. When reflecting on the museum Holden says that, “ Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you” (Salinger 135). Holden likes when the environment around him does not change because he does not want to grow up. He wishes that, like the museum everything around him would always stay exactly the way is has always been. He is afraid of growing up and losing his