Holden's True Love Children example essay topic

Holden's True Love Children: spirited, loveable, cute, and something that a society could not live without. But when ones life is so rotated around children like JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye character, Holden, one loses all conscious and can only find happiness when with children or thinking about them. Holden can only find genuine love in children, for they have not learned the dreadful prerequisite of life, "phoniness". He hates the artificiality that adults eventually acquire because all his good memories remain in his youth and his life with young children his age. This characteristic of Holden is shown throughout the book, particularly with his love for Phoebe, his helping the innocent children who are unable to help themselves, and his love for Jane at their age of serenity and ignorance! Holden shows his love for Phoebe by continuously thinking about her and requiring for her company.

The only gift we have ever seen given by Holden was his record purchase for Phoebe. "Besides, I wanted to find a record store that was open on Sunday. There was this record I wanted to get for Phoebe, called 'Little Shorely Beans. ' It was a very hard record to get (114)". This is one example of Holden's thought and love for Phoebe. We can believe that he only views Phoebe as one who deserves gifts in all the people that he knows.

A great example of his love for Phoebe is how he risks showing himself at his own home just to see his sister. "Anyway, I went into D. B's room quiet as hell, and turned on the lamp on the desk. Old Phoebe didn't even wake up... My mother, she has ears like a goddam bloodhound (159)". Holden takes this risk, a risk that could cost him much more then a week of hell. His love for his sister's company is obvious by this and there is no denying that he would have never taken this risk if he found himself having a phony and older sister.

What separates Phoebe from all of the rest of the phony people is by how "straight-up" she is. She gets to the point and she doesn't try to squiggle out of the situation. This is proven when she says", 'How come you " re not home Wednesday?' 'What?'. .. 'How come you " re not home Wednesday?' She asked me, 'You didn't get kicked out or anything, did you? (164-5) ' " She gets right to the point with the aggressive comment.

She doesn't stall when she thinks about something, she gets right to the point, something that attracts Holden so much that traveling to the park just to see her is something he would perform! Again he proves his love for children by helping an innocent girl that is unable to help herself. For any other adult he would have never offered to help. When he searches for his sister at the park, he meets up with some children and he has a brief conversation with them. However, his discussion with a certain child represents truly a discussion that Holden would have enjoyed with an adult his age. The child is straightforward and to the point and doesn't act "phony" at all.

"She thanked me and all when I had it tightened for her. She was a very nice, polite little kid. God, I love it when a kid's nice and polite when you tighten their skate for them or something. Most kids are. They really are.

I asked her of she'd care to have a hot chocolate or something with me, but she said no, thank you. She said she had to meet her friends. Kids always have to meet their friend. That kills me. (119) "This description of Holden with the girl is interesting since it brings up two things, first she doesn't want to drink with him, almost all adults we have met have met with him to get a drink.

She denies the drink without any hesitation just no thanks, from Holden's perspective, he simply disregarded it, with his intelligence he knew well enough that the child would have rather been with her friends, not with him. And the second thing about his discussion with her is how he loves her sincere politeness. He knows that the child appreciated his help with the skates and that is why he enjoyed that child's company so much, just like Phoebe. Another great example of his love for children, due to their innocence, is Jane.

She didn't care about image when they were so young, she didn't care about her dog, and it never bothered her to win. These characteristics are only found in someone who doesn't strive for everything somewhat like an innocent and ignorant child. When she did these things they were only 14, still young, "goa less", and not striving for acceptance and love. Holden says, "She was sort of muckle-mouthed. I mean when she was talking and she got excited about something, her mouth sort of went in about fifty directions (77)". This is a good example of image, in terms of Holden he probably didn't find that "sexy", but it showed how she didn't "goddam" care.

When she was young she never found it wrong to let her dog do his business on Holden' yard and they way she reacted to when Holden's mom complained made it seem as if it were Holden's fault, "She gave me the big freeze when I said hello that day, though. I had a helluva time convincing her that I didn't give a good goddam where her dog relieved himself (77)". If Jane doesn't see her rudeness in her dog's performance, and if Holden doesn't see anything wrong with where her dog relieves itself then you can safely say they are innocent, childish, ignorant kids. That is why Holden likes her so much, because at that age they didn't see almost anything wrong, for all they can think about is play, the age of innocence and "stupidity". And what Holden probably liked even more about her is how she, "always had her kings in the back-row". This characteristic just shows how childish they were, another reason why Holden loved her.

She didn't just want to win the checker game; she saw something else in it. She saw a design with holding her checkers in the back or maybe safety of some sort. That is what made Holden like her so much. However, from a point of view they aren't perfectly innocent, they did make out and they did have a sort of love relationship but at that age kids try to act at such a higher level of maturity, they do this by making out or other high-school like actions, imagine 7th graders making out, their only goals are to show that they are cool and so much older and mature! But what even more proves the thesis is that Jane grew up and started making dates with guys like Stradlater. She lost her immaturity and innocence and ignorance.

That is why Holden at the end of the book stops thinking about her because he realizes she grew up too. Only he remained the same! Holden, like everyone else, will grow out of these requirements and he will become phony and lose the characteristics of a child in his own way and in a sense he has formed into a phony, because his new goals now are to apply himself in school, something he saw pointless and a waste of time, instead of enjoying the beauty of life and the wisdom that comes with it. But what separates Holden from the rest is that he bloomed late, and this late bloom made him realize how sick the world is, he was able to comprehend everything yet still unable to comply to it like a rebel.

He didn't want to be phony but he had too, that is why he needed to go to a rest home in California. Truly his intentions are pure and appropriate, everyone in society should be going to the rest home except him and children. But his molding to society is required. But that is what ties him to children, just like the entertainers of today, like today's clowns and children comedians, these people still have Holden's characteristics, they struggle the same way Holden did, they don't want to mold, they want to love with sincerity!