Alexandra Matysová, 4.

AB
Opinion essay: Think about Holden’s vision of the nature of childhood and adulthood. Are the
two realms as separate as Holden believes them to be? Where does he fit in?

Childhood. The most enjoyable, unproblematic, calm, and indeed special period in every
person’s life. A time we all want to live one more time, full of beautiful memories and love.
When adulthood is mentioned, suddenly, not everything is so bright and easy. What comes
with this opposite-to-childhood part of our life is responsibility, hard decisions and tough
lessons from life itself and not all people are somehow dealing well with the idea of being an
adult and facing the reality life brings. How does Holden see these two significantly different
parts of his life?
First of all, throughout the whole book we can see and sense Holden’s, I dare say, obsession
with his childhood. Where his view of childhood as a symbol of innocence may originate is
the death of his two years younger brother Allie. Holden as a narrator idealizes Allie’s nature
– him being the nicest, smartest, the most intelligent boy. Him going through brother’s death
and knowing that Allie will never become an adult, Holden remains with pure memory of
innocent childhood with him. Holden wants to stay in this stage of life. He does not want to
live and adult life. Him believing that childish acts and behaviour will keep him in childhood
forever, is one of his self-created worlds.
On the other hand, adulthood is something that Holden fears and tries to escape during the
whole story. Adulthood is in Holden’s eyes a world full of phonies – people whose surface
behaviour disguises their inner, true feelings, and the world of superficial people. However, I
believe that somehow, he thinks he is being a grown man in means of smoking cigarettes,
drinking or having more grey hair than his peers. In fact, these are all signs of him lying to
himself and remaining a child. What I consider according to the story is that Holden lives in
fear of adulthood and sees it in the same light as he sees death.
All in all, Holden enters adulthood in the very beginning, but he is still a child. We see him
criticizing adult people, saying every adult person he met or knows is a phony, he cuts himself
off from the world around him. All over the story we can detect signs of childish behaviour in
Holden’s act which personally only confirms my opinion of how he is afraid of adulthood and
how bound he is to his childhood.