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English Speaking Literature after the Second World War T.

P N 3: The Catcher in the Rye:

The Loss of Innocence:


When we are children we are able to see the world differently the way we see it now that we are grownups. It is always difficult for every one of us the passage from one stage to the other. For some, it is a path full of discoveries and self-awareness but for others, it is an interval full of doubts and searching to find out who they are and what do they eventually want. But there is still is a third category conformed by those who cannot overcame the changes and the new period they are obliged to enter when they leave childhood. The ones placed in this final category are the one who in a way are lost in life because they are trapped between the memories and longing for the past times and oncoming changes. In the novel The Catcher and the Rye by J.D.Salinger a character embodies the perfect example of the third category. Here, Holden, the main character in the novel is a teenage boy incapable of adapting to his surroundings, i.e. his family, his school, his friends and situations in which he is involved in. The name of the novel is directly connected to Holdens desire to keep his childhood and innocence. He is constantly remembering his past when he was a child. Therefore, he cannot advance and prefers things to be exactly as they were; clear examples of this are his favorite place which is the museum, The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobodyd move(XVI, 127), and the carrousel where he takes his sister Thats one nice thing about carrousels, they always play the same songs (XXV, 216). He proves to be closely connected to his sister Phoebe who is a child and for him she is the only person who escapes from phoniness so common to all the people he knows, here Old Phoebe as he calls her represents what Holden respects the most and cherish the most, childhood. In this novel Holdens lacks of identity is what impedes him to find his role in life, as he is not the owner of his identity he is not able to stand people or confront them. He is constantly giving other names but his own, and whenever he has a conflict with somebody he chooses to run away. Holden does not want to move forward and chooses to be in this constant battle against what he thinks is a world full of phonies, where he is clearly the last one different from the rest. In the novel the Loss of Innocence for this character becomes a conflict and a constant quarrel with the outside world that surrounds him. As he is not able to cope with this new stage he is entering in, he feels alienated from the world. He

cannot see the world as it is, or even he is no capable of accepting people as they are, with their good and bad things. This teenager is always depressed, sad or even suicidal imagining his own death. As he cannot feel himself as a part of the society he lives in, he is constantly running away. He is unfit to adapt to every place he goes to. He has been expelled from several schools, he is not capable of bearing his own family and of course even his schools mates lack a sense of being in his mind as they are all phonies. Through the eyes of Holden it is possible to see how the passage from one stage to the other represents a world of changes for some people, where the search for identity and the acceptance of the loss of innocence are the constant quests and the final destinations they need to reach in order to be able to conform a part of the society they live in. It is this transition time where it is vital to accept that although childhood might be a good memory it will be eventually left behind and will become an important constituent to move forward and became what in the future will be a person capable of adapting to life and overcome situations that will lead to the final pursuit for personal happiness and to the discovery of the own identity.

Orellana, Laura.

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