In the beginning of the story, Holden comments on how old Mr. Spencer is. He states that "you wondered what the heck he was still living for". This, paired with the fact that he is possibly near death, causes Holden to feel isolated from him. He also thinks he is a phony. Because of this he does not want to age. He wants to be a child for the rest of his life because he sees childhood as a world of innocence, purity, honesty, and curiosity and adulthood as a world full of hypocrisy, or phoniness, and superficiality. In reality Holden is afraid of growing up and instead of acknowledging this fear, he makes up "false characteristics" of the adulthood world. Holden's fantasy of being "the catcher in the rye" bets explains his ideas of childhood and adulthood. He wants to stop children playing in a field of rye from falling over the edge of a cliff. The field of rye is symbolic of childhood. There, children are allowed to run and play free of responsibilities. The fall over the edge of the cliff represents becoming an adult. In Holden's fantasy, adulthood is equivalent to death.
             The death of Holden's little brother, Allie, caused him to be confused about death and resist growing up even more because he realized that the older you get, the closer you are to death.
             For most of the book, Holden sounds like a grumpy old man because he complains about everything and judges and criticizes everyone, but his interest about where the ducks go during the winter shows that he has a curious, youthful side. These two sides of Holden show that he is caught between two states, childhood and adulthood, much like the pond, which was "partly frozen and partly not frozen".
             One of Holden's biggest fears is his fear of change. He is terrified of change because it is unpredictable. Holden says that "Certain things shou
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