Children VS Adults

Holden Caulfield is between childhood and becoming an adult. In this novel we can read, among other things, about his view of kids and adults.

His view of children is that they are innocent and he can relate with them. Sometimes it seems like he's trying to save them from the changes he's going through himself and keeping them from falling off the "cliff" down to adulthood. He sees himself as their "catcher in the rye."


Adults come of as mean, materialistic and "phony" and compared to the picture of kids that Holden is giving to us that's almost the opposite. They trick him, lets him down or makes him upset.
One example is when Holden is fooled by the "pimp" in the elevator.

'Why should I give her another five bucks? (...) You're trying to chisel me.' - Holden.

Then Holden gets beaten by the "elevator pimp", Maurice.

He is finding something wrong in every adult he likes, so that he don't have to like them anymore.

The people he likes the most are the ones who are children or people who are frozen young in his memory, for example his dead brother, Allie.