The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger, in The Catcher in the Rye, shows Holden Caulfield to be aware of both the values of childhood and of the loss of these values as one grows older. What this means is that children feel safe in the world, protected by their parents and ignorant of many of the things that frighten adults (money, sex, death), so they are free to be innocent, to express love, to have a simple faith in life, and to hope that everything will be all right. But when children begin to age, they lose that sense of inner security, and begin to have to look outward for security, usually becoming "phony" and "materialistic" in the process. Holden's sister Phoebe is one of the most important symbols of childhood. As he watches her on the merry-go-round, Holden says "I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around . . . in her blue coat and all" (Salinger 213). Phoebe is happy simply going round and round on a painted horse, and the surviving child in Holden is happy watching. A telling example of the loss of childhood and the love of material things is found in their father's response to the invitation to go to Phoebe's school play: "Daddy can't come. He has to fly to California" (Salinger 162). What business trip, to make money and gather power, could be as important as seeing one's daughter play Benedict Arnold---"practically the biggest part" (162)---in her first play? What makes the book poignant in this exploration of childhood innocence and phony a

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ing that Holden will be able to find any true independence. He is dependent essentially on the suspicious, judgmental frame of mind that he has adopted to protect himself from the pain the adult world inflicts on him. Every human being in every modern society---democratic or otherwise---must find his own individual identity. Of course, the early 1950s was a period of stringent conformity, making Holden's search for himself more difficult. Nevertheless, true independence is spiritual, transcending economic, social and historical circumstances, and such independence---glimpsed in its infancy in Holden's compassion and his "missing everybody" (214)---is the only hope for such a sensitive soul as Holden. Works Cited Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1991. The world of Hemingway in A Farewell to Arms is world of war and madness. Nothing is certain, not even survival for the day. In such a world it is up to the individual himself to find a place to stand in the world which gives him a sense of sanity in this insane environment. If sanity is security and certainty, then the Lieutenant must stake out a patch of mental/emotional land where he can control himself and at least give himself and others the im

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