Trying New ThingsExperiences. Every day people carry out countless activities that influence their lives. However, there are some people who, for one reason or another, are unable to experience these things. In the realistic fiction book Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden sometimes wishes for more chances to experience new things. Holden is a teenager who is expelled from a private school. He drops out of school but doesn't tell his parents and ends up wandering around New York for a few days. He does activities that an average teenager would do during this time period, meets many people, and realizes some things about himself. Throughout the book, Holden slowly grows in many ways. If children are able to mature and become responsible adults, they cannot be held back from an activity and need to experience more things, they need to jump out of their comfort zone and encounter new things, and should not be confined to social norms or how someone else sees them. Children need to experience things by trying more than one thing and not be bound by that one thing. Holden decides to go to Mr. Antolini's house because he has not yet told his parents that he has been expelled from school. He's talking about how he didn't like oral expression because he wasn't allowed to ramble. He says he likes it when people ramble but Mr. Antolini asks why a person doesn't just talk about what they rambled about instead of rambling. Holden responds, “But what I mean is, a lot of the time you don't know what you're most interested in until you start talking about something you're not most interested in. I mean, sometimes you can't help it” (Salinger 184). This quote is a metaphor not only for when people talk, b... middle of paper... and jump out of their comfort zone. People should find their own direction and not listen when someone else tells them what to do and achieve in life. This relates to today's society as sometimes people don't experience enough things. They find something they like and stick with it even if they don't necessarily like it. Sometimes children feel pressured to play a sport or musical instrument even if they don't like the activity. Adults should let children find their purpose and hobbies in life, only slightly helping to lead the child in a certain direction. The theme is powerful because everyone can learn a lesson from it and try new things. There's always something new to do, even if you think you've done everything. People should never stop trying new things and try as many things as possible, without letting social norms define who they are.