Holden Caulfield Coming Of Age Analysis

Another coming of age element that proves that Holden is a coming of age character is Idealism to Realism. Most of the time in the novel Holden idealized kids and viewed them as innocent and pure. However, later in the novel when Holden visits places like school, that represented innocence, his whole view switches and he realizes that in reality kids are not perfect. Once when Stradlater asked Holden to write a detailed essay on one subject, Holden opened up about his brother Allie that died from leukemia. " You'd have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty

times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing

letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having
But he realized what he idiolized was not the. One time ,just for the heck of it, Holden went to museum to kill some time. The school he went to had a museum right nearby. Because it was so close, museum became the place where he and his classmates went to as a field trip a million of times. Holden can find a room with his eyes close; he memorized the museum like his five fingers. He describes this place as a place that always stays the same. While Holden was at the museum killing time, he met two students, who were ditching school. " "No school t'day," the kid that did all the talking said. He was lying, sure as I'm alive, the little bastard. I didn't have anything to do, though, till old Phoebe showed up, so I helped them find the place where the mummies were" (202). This was the first time Holden talks about kids like this. While he was helping them to get where the mummies where he thought to himself " It was pretty spooky, and you could tell the two hot-shots I was with weren't enjoying it too much. They stuck close as hell to me, and the one that didn't talk at all practically was holding onto my sleeve " (203). He officially realized that kids are not perfect. When those two rude kids left, Holden was left all alone and that time felt relaxing, nice , and peaceful. Then all of the sudden , he saw a"fuck you" that was written in red crayon. Before he came to the museum, he was at his old school that Phoebe goes to, delivering her a message that she needs to meet him after school by the museum. As he was walking upstairs, he saw a first "fuck you" that somebody had written on the wall. To respond to this Holden convinces himself that a child couldn't have written this. He said " I figured it was some perverty bum that'd sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something and then wrote it on the wall" (201). He rubbed it of because he doesn't want little and innocent souls to see it and wonder what this saying meant. He saw a second «Fuck