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

No Innocence in Catcher in the Rye         Probably the greatest irony of the novel is the accompaniment that, despite his love of childhood innocence, Holden is and solves far from innocent himself. In fact, he is its antithesis. He acts that way for many reasons. First of all in all, he has so many responsibilities. Second, he never fits in with the crowd, and finally, he never gets any real help for the problems that he deals with.         Holden does have a love for childhood innocence as seen crosswise the book. For example, on page two hundred and one Somebodyd written Fuck you on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe 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 ab step forward it and possibly even worry about 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(prenominal) outstanding quotation from the novel which is found 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. unless 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 why 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 constitute sure he doesnt get lost, and actually gets there. He has to make sure that he doesnt flunk school.