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Holden Caulfield's Maturity

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To start with, let us define the meaning of immaturity and maturity in order to pass our judgment on Holden Caulfield’s characterization throughout this thesis. According to Argyris, a well-renowned theorist on business management gave out his theory which focused on the Immaturity/Maturity-Continuum. Argyris laid out the seven types of personal growth which employees are supposed to jump from and onto; but a few shall be plotted out in order for stronger relevance to the main content of this thesis. These relevant types are (from immature to mature): short span of attention (to) long span of attention, dependence (to) independence and few shallow interests (to) many broader and deeper interests. In order to relate this with the focus of …show more content…

At the beginning of Chapter 18 in the novel, Holden Caulfield faced an indecisive direction whether he should contact a girl named Jane Gallagher. However, before Chapter 18, Holden had been manifesting his idea to contact her, whereas this moment plays a role to Holden Caulfield’s sexual views. Jane Gallagher plays an absent role throughout the story; despite the fact that Jane Gallagher has been mentioned to be one of the most important female characters to Holden Caulfield, with his younger sister Phoebe being the other. Holden Caulfield tried contacting her home telephone but no one picked up. As a result, Holden tried to consult one of his childhood friends Carl Luce suddenly, in order to discuss sexual experiences that Carl Luce have had out of “random interests”. The reason behind the sudden consultation was that Holden remembered back when he was studying at Whooton School, before his expulsion, his older friend Carl Luce would secretly share his own sexual experiences with the other boys in his class. “He was about three years older than I was, and I didn’t like him too much, but he was one of these very intellectual guys … I thought he might want to have dinner with me … and have a slightly intellectual conversation.” Moreover, this applies to the idea of Holden Caulfield’s immature sexual view, through his curiosity which he decides to consult someone who bears the expository idea on sexual

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