Catcher in the Rye

Throughout the novel The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield uses cynicism to hide himself from the real world because he fears growing up. The most apparent example of Holden’s fear of the adult world and of maturity is his misconception of some lyrics about catching children in a rye field, which is where the title of the book gets its name. Holden spends nearly the entire novel denying the existence of his fear of maturity. These are a few instances when Holden admits his fear and confusion of maturity and adulthood, and these are when he admits that sex is something he does not understand. Holden makes excuses for hiding in childhood, attempting to stay free from the world of maturity by labeling adults and growing up as “phony”. He also attributes innocence and honesty to childhood and thinks that all children are good. The main character that Holden portrays as innocent is his little sister Phoebe, who Holden views as an honest and innocent little girl who can do no harm.

Holden’s blatant criticism and misconception of adults is shown when he visits Mr. Antolini. Holden wakes up after spending the evening talking and watching Mr. Antolini drink only to find Mr. Antolini patting his head and stroking it. Holden misconstrues Mr. Antolini’s actions as homosexual and perverse when in reality this is not the case and Mr. Antolini is merely showing his affection and concern for Holden. There was no homosexual action taking place aside from inside Holden’s mind. This shows Holden’s misconception of the adult world around him and, this makes clear how Holden’s false thought on adulthood effects his day to day life. ”No, no kidding. I gotta get going. I really do.”(192) this is how Holden responds to Mr. Antolini’s actions, erratically when he storms quickly out of his house, making it clear that Holden is shocked in an extremely disturbing way.

Holden also makes adulthood and adults out to be phony in order to convince himself that it is acceptable for him to hide from adulthood. Holden views almost the entire adult and mature population as phony, often accusing people of being phony for things that Holden himself is in fact guilty of. Holden accuses the adult world of being phony when in fact Holden can be considered a phony himself. This is because Holden shows interest in sex but never actually follows through with it when he has the opportunity. In Chapter 13 Holden is presented with the offer to buy a prostitute from a door man at a hotel named Maurice. Holden accepts this offer but when it comes time to actually sleep with Sunny, the prostitute, he makes an excuse and backs out of it. He makes an excuse how he is unable to have sex, which is a lie, and asks her to leave “The thing is, I had an operation very recently.”(96). She gets greatly upset, but most importantly in this event, Holden attempts to have sex with a woman but fails to do so. This kind of behavior, in Holden’s mind, would earn an individual the label of being a phony.

Adulthood is filled with responsibility, something Holden is not personally ready for, so instead of growing up Holden accuses adults of being phony as an excuse for not needing to grow up. Holden has failed out of many prep schools and at the beginning of the novel we find out that he has failed out of yet another prep school, Pencey Prep. Holden talks with Mr. Spencer about his progress in school and Mr. Spencer becomes very bothered by Holden’s effort. “’Five. And how many are you failing in?’ Holden ‘Four.’”(10). The only class Holden is passing at this time is English, which he seems to have some interest in. Holden fails to recognize at this point that just because you do not like something it does not give you the right to boycott it or to give up. Holden does not take responsibility for his actions of failing out of multiple schools; instead, he makes up excuses for why he is not applying himself or giving adequate effort to pass the courses. Holden fails to accept that as one gets older you one has to do more and more things that one does not like to do, it’s all a part of growing up. Although Holden struggles with this aspect of maturity and adulthood throughout the novel, in the end Holden decides not to run away and to go home to face his decisions and return to another prep school. Although Holden does not say that he is going to excel, he says that he thinks he will do better, which is a much better