The universal themes of the book can be a very key instrument for the reader when trying to understand the message of the book and the complexity of each of its characters. I think that one of the themes in this book is the struggle of becoming an adult. It seems that Holden is resisting and fighting maturity as hard as he can. He seems to be a bright and smart kid but he still flunks out of school. Is it so that he can change to another school? So his parents can yell at him and so that he can feel scared like a young kid would. At some points though he does very adult things that he ends up fighting. He does quite a bit of drinking and smoking which most kids do not do. He also buys a prostitute from the elevator boy but when she comes to the room he does not want to "give it to her" even though he says she is very pretty. He makes up all of these outrageous reasons why he can not have intercourse with her. Holden says that he has just had a very bad day and when this does not work he tells her that he just had a procedure done his is spine and on a part of his spine that i do not know to exist. He is frightened because he is guilty of the sins he criticizes in others, and because he can’t understand everything around him. But he refuses to acknowledge this fear, expressing it only in a few instances. Like when he says "Sex is something I just don't understand. I swear to God I don't." (Salinger, 82). Holden is afraid of becoming an adult because he does not want to become one of those people who get up and do the same things everyday. When he is talking to Phoebe he tells her why he would not want to be a lawyer and how he would not want to do the same things for the rest of his life.
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print
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