Childhood Word

Childhood Everybody likes to brag about their childhood. People enjoy boasting of how they watched the newest television shows on their own televisions or over how many toys they had while they were young. However, not all children have this ideal picture perfect childhood, for example, Ellen in Kaye Gibbon’s coming of age novel Ellen Foster. On the other hand, some people have the opportunity to have that childhood but do not enjoy it, sort of like J.D. Salinger’s character Holden Caulfield in his famous novel The Catcher in the Rye. The idea of childhood is an important component part in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Kaye Gibbon’s Ellen Foster. Catcher in the Rye was written by J.D. Salinger in 1951. The book centers on Holden Caulfield and the events take place over a span of two days. Holden’s childhood is never really mentioned in the book except for a few instances, for example, when Holden recalls his time with Allie at the lake. Holden would not let Allie shoot BB guns with Holden and a friend of his. Holden would later feel bad about this. Whenever Holden gets depressed he will say, “Okay. Go home and get your bike and meet me in front of Bobby’s house. Hurry up.’ (Salinger Chapter 14) However, Holden does treasure childhood and innocence. This is shown when Holden watches his sister Phoebe on the carousel even though it was raining heavily. He enjoyed watching her laugh on the carousel, which represents childhood. Phoebe grasps for the gold ring, as many other children have done, but many of them fall off their horse reaching for the ring. Holden wishes that he could keep them from falling off their horse. This represents Holden protecting kids from the adult world, which is like being a “catcher in the rye.” Kaye Gibbon’s book Ellen Foster was written in 1987. Ellen is the protagonist and Kaye writes about Ellen’s horrific childhood. Some may say that Ellen grew up too fast because she was basically and independent girl at the