Loss of Innocence: The Catcher in the Rye and Rebel Without a Cause

Every day, someone loses his or her innocence due to a seminal moment that changes his or her life forever. This idea of lost innocence is represented in each the novel The Catcher in the Rye and the film Rebel Without having a Cause. Protagonists Holden Caulfield and Jim Stark strive to preserve the innocence of other individuals in order to defend them from the turmoil they see every single day in the actual world. Similarly, both very developed characters take on the function of protecting somebody they care for immensely.

In Rebel With out a Lead to, Jim befriends a boy named Plato who has difficulty fitting in with the other teenagers at their school. When the two pals and Judy go to an abandoned mansion late at evening, Plato opens up and shares his belief that his parents have entirely cast him aside. It is apparent to Jim that his friend is beginning to see the true colors of the globe, so he measures in to attempt to preserve his friend’s innocence as long as he can. He and Judy pretend to be a couple who are hunting at the mansion in hopes of a new residence for them and their children. Plato starts off by pretending to be the actual estate broker, but rapidly switches to portraying their son when Jim starts acting as a parental figure to him. By acting like a father to to his pal, Jim is allowing him to reside the youth Plato is afraid he has currently lost. Nevertheless, in The Catcher in the Rye, Holden talks with his tiny sister Phoebe about what he really desires to be a catcher in the rye. He explains what that implies when he says “what I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start off to go more than the cliff” (Salinger 173). The “cliff” Holden is referring to is the seminal moment in which innocence is lost. He desires to “catch” or shield them from “[going] over” or expanding up. Holden knows what it’s like to fall off the cliff and see what the world is actually like, so he wants to keep them happy and oblivious of the metaphorical cliff they are continuously nearing.

Holden and Jim share the belief that nearly all grown-ups are phonies because they no longer have the innocence that used to make them comfortable in their own skin. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is continuously making use of this term to negatively refer to numerous adults he encounters. Even though speaking about parents and folks of higher status,such as priests, he says “I do not see why the hell they cannot speak in their all-natural voice. They sound so phony when they talk” (Salinger 100). He is attempting to say that individuals who do not “talk in their all-natural voice” are unauthentic and really fake. The explanation Holden desires to preserve the innocence of others is so that they do not have to camouflage themselves with a phony identity. As an alternative of considering that all those who have lost innocence are phonies, Jim just basically believes that they make phony excuses for their own behavior. When trying to open up to his parent’s about his involvement of the death of Buzz, his mother reluctantly claims that they are going to move again. Jim tries to explain that their can’t just run away from the occasion simply because she doesn’t want to deal with it. He calls her out on her actions and says that she is often employing any phony excuse she can find to move rather of facing the issue at hand. She denies it once again which does not surprise Jim simply because he knows that grown-ups are unauthentic and will use any cause they can consider of to get out of their troubles.

In each narratives, there is a reoccurring theme of the colour blue representing innocence and the colour red representing maturity. Toward the end of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden requires Phoebe to a carousel so she can attempt to grab for the gold rings. He watches her go around and around on the wooden horse and says “my red hunting hat truly gave me really a lot of protection, in a way” and that “[Phoebe] just looked so damn nice…in her blue coat and all” (Salinger 212-213). Appropriate just before this, Phoebe puts the hat on Holden’s head to hold him safe and due to the fact she is not prepared to put on it yet. When he sees her in that blue peacoat, Holden knows he’s appropriately kept her safe. The red hunting hat he wears signifies his maturity and provides him “protection” or reassurance that for now, Phoebe nevertheless has her innocence. When Plato is shot by the police in Rebel Without a Cause, Jim stays near his friend’s lifeless body in grief. He moves Plato’s pants up so he can appear at his mismatched socks one particular is red and 1 is blue. The diverse colored socks signify that Plato wanted to feel mature, but he wasn’t prepared to give up his innocent youth. He was also wearing his friend’s red jacket at the time, which was his try at displaying he was mature like his pal. Ahead of the police carry his physique away, Jim cries and zips up his red coat that is on Plato. He is upset due to the fact he feels like he has failed his buddy by not becoming in a position to preserve his innocence. Jim decided to let Plato hold the jacket because he had lost his innocence and observed the globe for what it truly is right ahead of his death he earned it.

Even though Jim and Holden do not try to make the mature become innocent once again, it is due to the fact they know lost innocence can't ever be identified. Preserving the youth of the folks they care about prior to they drop it is how they tackle this problem head on. Even although innocence cannot last forever, these two characters want to shield others from the harsh realities of the globe for as long as they can in order to make the globe a far better place.