''I think one of these days,'' he says, ''you'll have to figure out where you want to go. And then you have to start going there. But immediately. You can't afford to waste a minute. Not you.” In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden Caufield comes from an emotional background and certain emotional events and does not grow emotionally but remains as immature as he was at the beginning of the book. People should come out of their adolescence ready for the real world and ready to become adults, but in Holden's case he remains the same character and shows little to no growth. Holden goes through many situations in the novel and still comes out the same person he was at the end. At the end of the book, Holden still has the same childish views on life; he thinks violently, he is depressed, confused and irresponsible. Throughout the book, Holden fantasizes about killing people, he is immature regarding sex, his interactions with children, and he does not think about his actions and dreams before trying to make them come true. This ends up hurting him and other people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay According to Isabel Meese in her article on Holden's immaturity in Catcher and the Rye, she also thinks that Holden is immature and not progressing. character of the novel. ''I can very clearly see you dying nobly in one way or another for a highly unworthy cause, and then he walks to his office and flees on a piece of paper. The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while “the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for a cause.” “I think Holden is stuck between adolescent angst, some clinical depression and his own intellect. Holden is able to see the hypocrisy of the world but lacks the maturity to put everything into perspective. He is still a teenager caught in his raging hormones and his adolescent uneasiness. Holden searches for outlets for his anxiety while trying to understand truth and honesty. Holden doesn't yet have the maturity to understand the many nuances of good and evil that make us all so human and fallible. Holden is a budding existentialist caught in the body of a teenager.” I agree with Isabel that Holden is immature in this way because he would die for a causeless reason and he's sort of stuck in his own teenage body. For example, when he said he wanted to be the catcher of the rye, he therefore wanted to be the hero of each story instead of being the "basic" person. Although I don't agree with Isabel when she says that Holden hasn't grown up at all, he has a temper, because in the end, Holden realizes that he has to go back to school and try this time to be something in life. And also, it's not entirely Holden's fault that he's not on the right path in life or doing good because most teenagers have parents who help them take important decisions because you were in Holden's case, he doesn't have his parents there for him. .At the beginning of the story, Holden thinks about killing many people. He wanted to kill Stradlater, his roommate for dating Jane Gallagher, his old friend. Holden knew what kind of guy Stradlater was and thought Stradlater would take advantage of Jane and was unhappy about it. Holden actually fights Stradlater but is injured, so Holden turns to violence and ends up injured because of his violent act. It also hurts Stradater in some way because they can't anymorebe such good friends. Holden also puts on his hunting hat and calls it a "shooting people" hat. Later in the story, Holden also thinks about killing people when Maurice, the pimp, hurts Holden and steals his money. Holden acts like he's been shot in the stomach. He also claims that he comes down the stairs with a gun to shoot Maurice and get revenge. “Maurice is an angry pimp who prostitutes a young girl, steals five dollars and punches Holden in the stomach. He wears a "fake shirt collar" under his uniform, has a "big hairy belly" and looks "very, very tired or very, very bored" all the time as he bullies Holden into paying five dollars more for the privilege of talking to a nervous teenager." Holden doesn't actually do this, but it shows how immature and violent he is, it also shows how Holden still has his little child's imagination when he acts like he's going to do something or when he acts like he's "dying" Also, when Holden goes to see Phoebe at school, he sees that someone has written "fuck you". » on the wall He starts to get angry and wants to smash the skull of whoever did this on the marble floor so that they all bloody the garage windows with his bare hands, he is so upset. he breaks his hand during the violent episode This story, told in summary, is essential because it shows how teenagers deal with larger issues like death and loss caused by violence. Holden had to be psychoanalyzed after his breakdown because he was so violent that he broke his hand.” So this shows how violent and angry Holden can become and he becomes so violent over small things that don't matter that he does immature things that end up hurting him in the long run. He also doesn't know how to handle this, which shows how immature and hasn't grown up he is. Holden also doesn't understand his point of view and how he feels about sex. At first he hates Stradlater because he takes advantage of girls, then he says he has never done anything to a girl because he always stops when you tell him to stop. Holden says he should really like the girl's face and really get to know the person before he can sleep with her. Holden's confidence in romantic relationships emerges early in the novel, as he refers to himself as a "sex freak." However, this trust is not as strong as one might hope, which becomes clear when Holden cannot contain his jealousy after Stradlater goes on a date with Jane Gallagher. It shows how sexually immature Holden is when he calls himself a sex freak but he's never had sex or knows what sex is and he's hipacritic because he talks about sex that way so that he doesn't like it when Stranler talks about it like that. When Holden arrives in New York, he calls Faith Cavendish who he thinks is a stripper. He doesn't even know her but he wants to sleep with her. This goes against everything he said before when he said he would need to get to know the girl and that he found her cute. And then when Holden arrives at the hotel Maurice offers Holden a hooker and he accepts Holden then doesn't do anything with her because he's nervous and it doesn't feel right to him, this shows how confused Holden is about sex. This is something that is foreign to him and something we never see him understand. He has ideals that he sets for himself but he never follows them through and even sometimes, depending on him, he does a one-eighty and does the complete opposite of what he initially said. He also asks Carl Luce, an old friend from his school, about sex, but Carl is uncomfortable talking about it..