Catcher in the rye: Corruption in Innocence
As humans age, they lose their innocence and become corrupted. There is one point in time between the changes from child to adult, the child loses its innocence. In novel, Holden realizes that innocence cannot be protected forever. Everything that he is innocent becomes corrupted. He learns that it is ones innocence cannot be held forever. In J.D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield portrays that innocence cannot be protected and is driven to insanity by the corruption that exist in society. During Holden's stay in New York he encounters many problems and people. One of the people he encounters is Sunny. Holden orders a prostitute but when she comes, he has second thoughts about her. When he hangs up her dress he thinks that 'the salesman probably just thought she was a regular girl" (Salinger 96). This shows that innocence cannot be protected forever. Sunny has already lost her innocence by becoming a prostitute. Everybody around her thought that she was probably a regular girl, but in reality was a prostitute. He feels pity that the innocence in her has been lost. Holden feels that it is his
During the story, Holden remembers the poem "The Catcher in the Rye". This song holds great importance to him. The field is a symbol of childhood and the children play in the field unaware and carefree. The field is on the edge of a cliff, which separates childhood from adulthood. Holden wants to protect childhood innocence from the fall into adulthood (Salinger 173). This symbolism of, "the fall he is really talking about is the fall from innocence of childhood into the obscenity of adulthood (Lundquist 45)." By saving them from falling off the cliff he is able to protect the innocence within children. But, Holden has no way to stop children from falling because the crossover from child to adult is something that needs to happen. This enrages Holden because he cannot stop the children from becoming adult and thus, become corrupted. At one point, Holden becomes mad when he is in Phoebe's school and realizes, "somebody wrote F**k you on the wall"(Salinger 201). He wants to erase the obscenity written on the wall and does not want children to find out about sex because at an elementary age, children should not know abo
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Approximate Word count = 757
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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