We All Fall Down, don't we?
Holden Caulfield’s fixation on innocence is less about childhood itself and more about coherence. Children make sense to him. Their feelings are direct, their reactions unedited. This is why Phoebe, Allie, and Jane occupy such a protected space in Holden’s mind. They represent a world where sincerity has not yet been steam rolled by social expectation and pressure that comes with growing up. And particularly Jane and Allie are perpetually stuck in this rye field that Holden watches over because they hold permanent memories in Holden's mind where their innocence is kept safe. What Holden calls “phoniness” is the moment when emotion becomes strategic. Adults, in his eyes, have learned how to perform feeling rather than experience it. When he complains that schools are “full of phonies” where people only work hard so they can “buy a goddam Cadillac someday,” he is reacting to a version of adulthood that rewards ambition over authenticity. The fantasy of being the catcher in the...
