Innocence In Catcher In The Rye

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In 1950s, people gave up their hope in society; it was the bad phase of American society. In his novel “The Catcher of the Rye”, author J.D. Salinger expresses his observation of society through characters. Salinger uses fictional character named Holden to show different aspect of 1950s society. Holden is at the point of his life where whether he has to accept adulthood or suicide but he doesn’t really want to turn to an adult because he thinks adulthood is corrupted and all of them are phonies. Through Holden’s experience in society, Salinger criticizes how there is more corruption than innocence in American society. According to Holden, innocence is disappearing and corruption is taking over people’s life, something he sees in the flawed people he meets. Holden experiences corruption of American society, while struggling to accept corrupt adulthood, which makes Holden’s faith off corrupted adults. As Holden is in the Phoebe’s school, he sees “Somebody'd 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 they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them--all cockeyed, naturally--what it meant, and how they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days” (Salinger 221). Holden suddenly sees fuck you written in elementary school. He is very shocked to see that in Phoebe’s school. Due to his curiosity to save innocence of kids, he decides to erase it of the wall. As he is done erasing, he sees another one,…show more content…
Holden thinks children are only innocent people because they have not experienced adulthood. Holden shows innocence of Allie, when he says “They really meant it. But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at
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