The Rye
Its Their Fault Parenting is a selfless job. Popular child psychology advocates close contact with young children because the formative years are between birth and five years. By the time a child enters his teens, many parents distance themselves thinking the teen no longer needs or wants the parent’s presence. Nothing could be farther from what is necessary. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye illustrates the negative effects of selfish parenting. The book’s main character, Holden Caulfield, traipses around New York City in an effort to find himself after his desperate loss. Salinger’s intent was not only to present a tragic story of innocence lost, a theme with which most teens can relate, but, he also ultimately wrote Catcher as a warning to parents. Holden is unable to transition into adulthood because he does not have a mental, emotional, or spiritual sense of self. The fact that his sense of self is underdeveloped is ultimately his parents’ responsibility. Whether it is because of their money and lifestyle, their inability to relate to Holden, or their inadequacy as strong role models, somewhere along the way, Holden’s parents fail to help him develop his self-concept.
Money can control people. It is something every person on this earth wants. People spend their entire life working to get a job to get good pay to survive but sometimes people can forget about more important things like family. Holden’s family is very wealthy “My father’s quite wealthy, though I don’t know how much he makes-he’s
never discussed that stuff with me-but I imagine its quite a lot”(Salinger 107) and they might not be there for him. Kids need parenting to lead them through the right paths but if they are never there they can’t help them “he knew the maid wouldn’t hear me because she had only one eardrum. She has this brother who stuck this straw down her hear when she was a kid, she once told me. She was pretty deaf and all” (Salinger 158). This shows that their...