Who would Holden be as an adult?
While I was reading the Catcher in the Rye, a major thing I wondered about was: who would Holden end up being later in life, if he grew up to be an adult and had to accept his realities– was forced to grow up, even? Like, does he ever actually become “the catcher in the rye” in his own view of things? I also wondered if Holden being an adult would make him phony, in his own eyes? Or does he just avoid any and all concepts of adulthood? First of all, I think Holden wouldn't really think of himself as an adult in the first place, and therefore avoids the potential crisis of being phony. He does seem to want to become a figure with some responsibility at some point, saving kids by being the catcher in the rye and imagining himself as a kind of hero. “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye… and I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff,” (156). This moment show...