Holden Caulfield's Identity

Identity is what defines us as people, it is a culmination of our past experiences, our childhood and several defining events. But more often than not society tries to shape someone’s identity into something that they aren’t. There are several examples of this constant battle between the people and society in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Holden Caulfield is the prime example of this struggle there are several points in the story where he tries his hardest to fit into the unreasonable standards set by society, but eventually comes to the realization that he cannot be that standard model human that the world wanted him to be. He then took it upon himself to protect the children from the constant battle between those who aren’t “normal”
He became sick of what this “real world” eventually decided it was his duty to protect those from losing their innocence and having to deal with what he had to deal with. Holden even said to Phoebe how he felt about his need to protect children, talking about how he wants catch them while they were falling off this “cliff”-saying that “if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.”(Salinger 191). This was an exemplification of figurative language, a metaphor for Holden’s true goal-which was to save the children from falling off the cliff of “childhood”. Which started the irreversible transition of childhood to adulthood.. Another Instance of this (Holden wanting to protect children) could be him and his sister Phoebe. His almost paternal instinct made him feel the need to protect her from things that children shouldn’t be exposed to like vulgar phrases written on the walls of Phoebe’s school. He had the realization that “If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t even rub out half the “F*ck you” signs in the world. It’s impossible” (Salinger 222). This represented the fact Holden’s goal was unrealistic, showing how if he spent a million years trying to save all the children from losing their innocence he wouldn’t even get close to half of the children. These two quotes reveal a lot about Holden’s Character, exhibiting his willingness to confront a severely unrealistic goal in an attempt to save children from the cold dark reality of the adult world. Holden Caulfield is a boy whose identity has been created by the cruel dark world, a boy with the unrealistic of trying his best to protect those from