Child? or Adult?

So far in the chapters we have read its clear now that Holden is going through the phase of transitioning from a child to an adult. When Holden and Stradlater are fighting, its obvious that Holden is being a bit of a child. But another thing that Holden does where he acts like a child is handling situations. For example... when Allie died Holden punched out the garage windows, that to me shows that he doesn't know how to handle situations like that. And in no way do i think that its all Holden's fault, because his parents should be helping him cope with it a healthy way. But at the same time it isn't necessarily his parents fault either- because they might not know how to handle situations well either. But by not handling situations well, it goes to him always flunking out of school. As Morgan said in class "Holden might be afraid to stay in one spot for to long because he starts to get connected to it. Then he gets scared and doesn't know what to do, so he leaves." Also by acting out Holden may be trying to get attention. And since i think he doesn't want to be like his brother (good) because he is afraid, so he trys to get attention the bad way. I think that acting out or doing bad things is a way to get attention. Also it may be to get attention from his parents...to get them to care for him as they did Allie

The Adult things that Holden does is he is able to look at life with reality. He lets himself know and not sugar coat things and realizes them for what they truly are. Also as Holden's sympathetic kicks in you can see that he tells people what they want to hear. During chapter eight he does this a lot. Holden tells a classmates mother about how popular and modest her son is. But in reality in Holden's perspective he is really a bastard. Reading chapters 9-11 it showed me that Holden is trying to act old. This is shown when he decides to hit on the woman and attempts to pick them up. Also when he is in the lounge place and trys to order himself an alcholholic beverage.

The way Holden acts between child and adult is what i think a lot of teens are going through today because they are trying to show/prove to an adult figure that they are mature so the other adult gives them a higher level of respect. But also like Holden we want to hold on to that innocence of not always being in control of what we do.