text: This unforgettable story illustrates the crazy, life-changing adventure of a seventeen-year-old boy who struggles to let go of his fading childhood and accept the phoniness of the adult world. Holden Caulfield's loneliness and lack of motivation combined with a traumatic childhood cause him to leave behind his youthful days at Pencey Prep to venture into the dynamic adult world of New York City. Holden tries to hide his youthful innocence as he mirrors the habits of other adults, going to bars, drinking, and purchasing prostitutes. However, his bickering and sarcastic attitude suggest a hidden desire to stay young, a desire he stubbornly buries beneath his new, mature lifestyle. Holden, like many others, longs to live in a place that is simple and motionless, a place where one needn't worry about the past or the future. Holden also hopes to preserve the innocence in others, such as his sister, so they don't turn out like him, depressed and regretful. Through Salinger's vibrant attitude towards Holden's experience in New York, we readers learn to stop running from our past to prevent losing our youth altogether. The Catcher in the Rye has survived generations as one of the world's best bildungsromans, not because it illustrates the fading youth and growing maturity of a memorable character, but because it demonstrates the confusion of a character as he fights desperately to protect what remains of his childhood
  