Free Essays - No Innocence in Catcher in the Rye :: Catcher Rye Essays

No Innocence in Catcher in the Rye         belike the greatest irony of the novel is the fact that, despite his love of puerility innocence, Holden is and acts far from innocent himself. In fact, he is its antithesis. He acts that way for umpteen reasons. First of tout ensemble, he has so many responsibilities. Second, he never fits in with the crowd, and eventually, he never gets any real help for the problems that he deals with.         Holden does devote a love for childhood innocence as seen across the book. For example, on page twain hundred and one Somebodyd write Fuck you on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how quintuplet and all the other little kids would see it, and how theyd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them-cockeyed naturally- what it meant, and how theyd all think virtually it and maybe even worry almost it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoeverd written it... But I rubbed it The fuck you written on the wall out anyway. Another example is on page two hundred and eight, So shut up. It was the first time she Phoebe ever told me to shut up. It sounded terrible. God, it sounded terrible. It sounded worse than  swearing. There is one more outstanding quotation from the novel which is show on page two hundred and thirteen. I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe was going around and around the carousel. All these examples clearly show that Holden appreciated childhood innocence to a great extent. Yet Holden acts the opposite.         The irony in this novel is Holdens behavior, which is far from being innocent. He smokes, drinks, always depressed, thinks about suicide, thinks about going embarking to a far place, and has people tell and act in many weird ways. There are three main reasons wherefore he acts this way. Firstly, Holden being only sixteen years of age already has so much responsibility. He has to get money for food and travel. When he travels he has to make sure he doesnt get lost, and actually gets there. He has to make sure that he doesnt flunk school.