The process of growing up and coming of age comes with the loss of innocence. In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the theme of innocence and protecting it, is seen through the actions of the protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Holden is stuck in the awkward stage between childhood and adulthood. He often sees himself as a protector of the innocent, however he still holds innocence and longs for it himself. That is why, through Salinger’s work, we see the theme of innocence develop through Holden’s desires, fantasies and actions.
Achievement of this results in an emotion of autonomy; and a failure results in the feeling of shame and doubt. | Preschool|3 to 5 years| Imitative vs. Guilt|It is essential that children begin declaring control and power over the setting. Success in this stage leads to a sense of purpose. Children who try to use too much power experience disapproval, causing a sense of guilt.| School Age|6 to 11 years|Industry vs. Inferiority|Children need to cope with new social and academic demands. Success leads to a sense of capability, while failure results in feelings of inferiority.| Adolescence|12 to 18 years|Identity vs. Role Confusion |Teenagers need to progress a sense of self and personal individuality.
Young Adulthood 19-40 years Intimacy vs. Isolation Young adults need to form intimate, loving relationships with other people. Success leads to strong relationships, while failure results in loneliness and isolation. Middle Adulthood 40-65 years Generativity vs. Stagnation Adults need to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often by having children or creating a positive change that benefits other people. Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure results in shallow involvement in the world.
Reflections of a Swingmaker. As I was reading Reflections of a Swingmaker, I noticed the passion of the writer, her need for the world to understand the importance and the value of playing therapy, and how impacting can be for children. A simple playground could not only change a kids life, but it can help children express their deepest desire to be children, and enjoy the most beautiful and important stages of a persons life. Unfortunately children around the world have experience pain, natural disasters, terrorism, war, accidents and assault, as the author was saying, and is sad to see that many kids have no time to be just kids. Kids are naturally happy beings and when that happiness is interrupted is difficult to bring it back, at least without any future harm.
Below is a free essay on "Catcher In The Rye Symbolism" from Anti Essays, your source for free research papers, essays, and term paper examples. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield is fearful of change and growing into adulthood. This fact is quite obvious due to his attitudes towards the following symbols. Each of them represents a different perspective or feeling Holden has towards people or usually a customary or “phony” way of living.
Holden, the Mature Man Throughout J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, the main character, searches for an impractical ideal-- to cling onto his childhood and his innocence. Believing that children are pure and that all grown-ups are “phonies,” Holden’s quest is to preserve childhood within himself and children around him. Placing symbols to stress Holden’s immaturity and impossible ideal, Salinger illustrates his unrealistic goals. Although Holden remains immature for the majority of the novel, as the story progresses, Holden becomes a new person and discovers his true self.
Also, he does not want other children to ‘grow up’. This is presented through his misinterpretation of ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ poem. He says that he wants to ‘catch’ children who ‘start to go off the cliff’, when the poem is actually about the sex. Holden can’t move on from childhood and can’t change his innocent mindset. Holden distains adulthood because of its superficiality and ‘phoniness’.
Standing on the precipice that separates the rye field of childhood from the cliff of adulthood, Holden wants to protect childhood innocence from the fall into disillusionment that necessarily accompanies adulthood. Trapped between states, with his innocence in jeopardy, Holden wants to be a “catcher in the rye,” a saviour of the innocence missing in the world around him, a world that has let him fall over the cliff into adulthood alone. Holden’s mistake about the line from the Robert Burns song—his substitution of “catch a body” for “meet a body”—is highly significant, as its placement in the novel’s title suggests. Burns’s song “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye” exists in several versions, each with somewhat different lyrics. In some versions, the song is about a woman who has gotten her clothes wet while she was out in a rye field, while in other versions the speaker of the song is a woman discussing being out in a rye field.
My reaction when I read this was that I felt very sympathetic for some reason. I felt as if the teacher had gone through some harsh times in his childhood and had to grow up fast. So, he's trying to save his student's innocence. But it's ironic because though children are children and they're young, but yet they're not innocent enough to bully other kids. Thought the poem also talks about how children see the world how they want to see it.
“Manhood” by John Wain focuses on the slightly negative sides of pacing, even though the father may not be doing what he does to put pressure on his son. “The Happiest Days of Your Life” written by Penelope Lively, is telling us how childhood actually can be. “Growing up” is represented in both stories, as a period in your life where other people affect you and adjust you into being who you are, and in that way making every single person unique. I chose to analyse and compare these two texts, because they deal with the theme “growing up” in quite similar ways. E.g.