Every day, someone loses their innocence because of a defining moment that changes their life forever. This concept of lost innocence is depicted in both the novel The Catcher in the Rye and the film Rebel Without a Cause. Protagonists Holden Caulfield and Jim Stark strive to preserve the innocence of others in order to protect them from the troubles they see every day in the real world. Likewise, both highly developed characters take on the role of protecting someone they care deeply about. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Rebel Without a Cause, Jim befriends a boy named Plato who has trouble fitting in with the other teenagers at their school. When the two friends and Judy go late at night to an abandoned mansion, Plato confides and shares his belief that his parents have completely cast him aside. It's obvious to Jim that his friend is starting to see the true colors of the world, so he steps in to try to preserve his friend's innocence for as long as he can. He and Judy pretend to be a couple who are visiting the mansion in hopes of finding a new home for themselves and their children. Plato begins by posing as the real estate broker, but quickly transitions to portraying their son when Jim begins to act as a parental figure to him. By acting like a father to his friend, Jim allows him to experience the youth that Plato fears he has already lost. However, in The Catcher in the Rye, Holden talks with his little sister Phoebe about what he really wants to be; a catcher in the rye. He explains what this means when he says "what I have to do, I have to catch everyone if they start to go over the cliff" (Salinger 173). The “cliff” that Holden refers to is the pivotal moment in which innocence is lost. He wants to “catch” them or prevent them from “passing” or growing. Holden knows what it's like to fall off a cliff and see what the world is really like, so he wants to keep them happy and oblivious to the metaphorical cliff they're constantly getting closer to. Holden and Jim share the belief that almost all adults are impostors because they no longer have the innocence that made them comfortable in their own skin. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden constantly uses this term to negatively refer to many adults he encounters. Speaking of parents and high-ranking people, such as priests, he said: “I don't see why they can't speak with their natural voice. They sound so fake when they talk” (Salinger 100). He's trying to say that people who don't "speak with their natural voice" are not authentic and are extremely fake. The reason why Holden wants to preserve the innocence of others is so that they don't have to camouflage themselves with a false identity. Instead of thinking that everyone who has lost their innocence is a fraud, Jim simply believes that they are making false excuses for their own behavior. While trying to open up to his parents about her involvement in Buzz's death, his mother reluctantly states that they are going to move again. Jim tries to explain that they can't just run away from the event because she doesn't want to deal with it. He blames her for her actions and says that she always uses any false excuse she can find to move instead of facing the problem at hand. She denies it again, which doesn't surprise Jim because he knows that adults aren't genuine and will use any reason they can think of to get out of their problems. In both stories,].