Sayfal-Din Cope
January 16, 2013
English

In the world we live in often times all people want to do is benefit there selves, so they can’t be trusted. Some people take advantage of other peoples innocents to use them or get the better over them. Innocents are more commonly found in children because they are new to the world and naturally show nothing but kindness. But over time children will grow older, colder, and more serious through their experiences in life. It isn’t common to find adults who still have their innocents because losing your innocents is considered as a form of growing up, or maturing.

In the Book the Catcher in the Rye Holden seems only to feel comfort around children because he claims that children are not phonies because they still have their innocents. But Holden mostly feels comfort around his younger sister Phoebe who he admires greatly. Holden loves his little sister very much. In the story he always described her as a perfect young child when in reality she is not as perfect as he described her to be. Holden does not like change he does everything in his power to avoid it. But one thing that he cannot avoid is his loving sister Phoebes gradual maturing. Holden wants Phoebe to stay young forever, in other words keep her innocents. But regardless Holden’s efforts he cannot avoid the inevitable growth of his sister. Once Holden did something to Phoebe that made her lose a fragment of her innocents, the exact thing he was trying to protect her from. Phoebe wanted to go with Holden just in case he was going to leave her again. She had her bags packed and kept insisting that he let her go with him but out of frustration he kept yelling at her and refusing. “You can’t take anything. Because you’re not going. I’m going alone. So shut up.”
Holden kept telling Phoebe to shut up which made her cry. Then he felt bad for yelling at her so he tried to cheer her up but she was already to mad at him. “I said I’m not going back to school. You can do what you want to do, but I’m not going back to school, So shut up” To Holden her telling him to shut up was a sign of Phoebe losing her innocents because she had never said shut up to Holden before and it made him feel very guilty.

Holden didn’t just like children for their innocents he also liked all people in general that he considered not being a phony. When he described