Homework task: How Holden acts like a child and how Holden acts like an adult

Holden behaves (language, actions, reactions) like an adolescent.	Holden behaves (language, actions, reactions) like an adult.
"..I kept standing there, of giving old Jane a buzz- I mean calling her long distance at B.M... The only reason I didn't call him was because I wasn't in the mood." (pg. 63) He is afraid to call her because he thinks she will judge him	Holden’s strong focus of the ducks in the lake and where they go, is symbolic to life and where he will go into life. "I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away." (pg. 13). Even if he doesn’t want to grow up, he slowly does.
He asks a complete stranger that is his cab driver, "Would you care to stop on the way and join me for a cocktail"" (pg. 60. He doesn’t want to face the reality of being alone; where he has left school and needs to tell his parents of his situation of being expelled for failing academically.	When Holden visits Central Park and sees the lake he has a realisation, "Then, I finally found it. What it was, it was partly frozen and partly not frozen." The lake is transitioning into two states, frozen and not frozen. Which is ultimately a symbol of what he is doing; transitioning into adulthood from adolescence.
"Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it though, the same week I made it- the same night, as a matter of fact." (pg. 63). He tries to make up rules like an adult, but ends up breaking them almost immediately.	"I started giving the three witches at the next table the eye again. That is, the blond one... I just gave all three of them this very cool glance and all." (pg. 70). Tries to act grown up in front of these 3 ladies.
"The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deer would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket." (pg. 121). This shows that he wishes that everything would stay the same, so he wouldn’t have to be an adult and stay a child forever.	."..this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if I'm going to apply myself with I go back to school next September. It's such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you do it? The answer is you don't. I think I am, but how do I know"" (pg. 213). He snaps back to reality and realises that he will apply himself better at school.
He finds the adultword repulsive and show-offy. "The band was putrid." (pg. 69) and "They were mostly old and show-offy looking guys" (pg. 69)	When Holden is at Phoebe’s school and he sees the words “Fuck you” on walls, he rubs it out.
"I think they should've at least offered to pay their drinks they had before I joined them..." (pg. 75). Due to his innocence and how young he looks and acts, the 3 ladies left him to pay the bill.	He drinks, smokes, even orders a prostitute.
Holden deities his siblings and anyone who is a child and not an adult: as if they are all child prodigys. He says of his sister Phoebe, "You should see her. You never saw a little kid so pretty and smart in your life. She's really smart." (pg. 67).
His red hunting hat symbolises his childish ways, but in special events he takes it off, saying it looks “childish” and “stupid.”
Comes up with unrealistic ideas, such as his plans to run away and live someplace far away and live a simple life.