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Realization In The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the main character, Holden Caulfield, must deal with the death of a close family member. Holden was extremely close to his brother, Allie, who dies of leukemia before he reached adult hood. The death of Allie caused Holden to obtain an extremely cynical view on the world and a desire to preserve the innocence his brother lost when he died. The loss caused Holden to feel that the world and the people in it are fake and corrupt. His discontent with phoniness causes him to attempt to prevent children from growing up because he thinks that when a person grows up they become phony. Holden eventually brakes down because he realizes that his goal of preserving innocence and preventing phoniness is nearly impossible to achieve. In the Catcher In The Rye, Holden makes many attempts to preserve innocence in the world around him. For example, Holden discovers that Stradlater has plans to go out with his childhood friend. To Holden’s recollection, his friend Jane had always been sweet and innocent, causing the thought of Jane and Stradlater to give him great distress as seen when he says “I kept thinking about Jane and about Stradlater having a date with her and all. It made me so nervous I nearly went crazy… a sexy bastard Stradlater was” (34). In attempts to make Stradlater slow down his sexual advances on Jane, Holden brings up stories of their innocent childhood together. For instance, when he tells the story of how they used to play checkers and how “she wouldn’t move any of her kings… she just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row” (31-32).
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