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The Catcher in the Rye follows teenager Holden Caulfield as he struggles with his impending adulthood.  After being kicked out of boarding school, Holden wanders around New York. The idea of adulthood and growing up haunts Holden as he wishes to remain young and "innocent".  Holden is somewhat of a hypocrite as he preaches about his disdain for adulthood, but wishes to be seen as one (mostly for alcoholic purposes). As the story draws to an end, and Holden finally makes his way home, Holden comes to terms with his transition into an adult.

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"After a while I sat down in a chair and smoked a couple cigarettes. I was feeling pretty horny." (63)

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Alcohol is major theme throughout the novel representing how Holden tries to act like an adult while striving to keep his youth.

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Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown, 2001.

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Holden sees the partly frozen pond as in transition between two states just as Holden is transitioning between childhood and adulthood.

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""Aren't you gonna ride too?" she asked me. She was looking at my sort of funny. You could tell she wasn't too sore at me anymore." (211)

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"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around — nobody big, I mean — except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all."(173)

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The theme of childhood vs. adulthood appears almost constantly throughout the novel, being the driving force for most, if not all, of Holden's decisions. It is also a large point of contempt between Holden and the other characters as he sees them as phony and in a mostly negative light. Throughout the novel Holden strives to preserve his childhood and his journey to stay a kid ends up forcing him to become an adult. Holden realizes this in the last moments we see of him and phoebe on the carousel, where he truly seems to realize he is not a child anymore.

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Smoking is also a recurring theme showing Holden taking part in adult activities.

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1. Holden expresses his hatred towards adults and their "phony" nature throughout the novel.  Adulthood is the thing that he is running from as he wanders New York alone, but is also the thing that he tries to impersonate on numerous occasions. This impersonation turns Holden into one of the phonies that he resents.
2.Holden's little sister Phoebe represents what Holden wishes he was. He wishes to remain young and innocent, but at the same time wishes to become this "catcher in the rye", protecting children from growing up.

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1. As Holden decides to leave Pencey, this could symbolize Holden leaving his childhood behind and transitioning into adulthood.
2. When Holden is on the train to New York, he seems to flirt with an older woman and trys to have a drink with her.
3. When he arrives in New York, Holden tries to get a prostitute.
4. Holden takes Phoebe to the park and tries to be an adult figure in her life which shows his newfound maturity. He expresses his happiness in seeing his little sister which also plays into the adult theme as he is looking after her.
5. When Phoebe is on the carousel she asks Holden if he will ride with her and he says maybe next time, showing his acknowledgment of himself not being a child anymore and too grown up for kid rides.