Romans 12:14-18 says, “Emotional maturity is demonstrated by the kindness with which you treat those who mistreat or misunderstand you.” This is shown in the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. In the novel the main character, Holden, is misunderstood by many people and always feels alone. Later in the novel, Holden learns to overcome these negative feelings and begins to miss the people he hated. Holden's increasing maturity as the novel progresses classifies The Catcher in the Rye as a Bildungsroman. The novel The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger can be classified as a Bildungsroman because it has as its theme the desire to preserve innocence, Holden gives up his desire to make others happy and regrets old decisions he made. JD Salinger's Rye can be classified as a Bildungsroman because its theme is the desire to preserve innocence. He shows his desire to preserve innocence when Phoebe asks him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said, “What I have to do, I have to catch everyone who starts falling off the cliff – I mean, if they're running and not looking where they're going, I have to go out somewhere and catch them.” (224). He wants to preserve innocence of the children. He lived in New York alone for a couple of days and saw many bad things happen. He wants to prevent the children from seeing these bad things happen. At the beginning of the novel Holden was indifferent and has no goals, he doesn't care not even failing most of his classes, however now he is concerned with preserving innocence and has a purpose in his life, he is starting to gain a new perspective on his life change... halfway through the paper... I think I even miss that damn Maurice. It's funny. Never say anything to anyone. If you do that, you start to miss everyone's actions he accomplished; he misses the people he was mean to. He always insulted Stradlater and thought Ackley was very dirty and disgusting. He always treated them badly and never considered them friends. When he was at Pencey one of the last things he did, before running away, was to insult Stradlater and start arguing with him. He also misses Maurice, a pimp who stole five dollars from him. He is forgiving the people who mistreated and misunderstood him, this shows that he is maturing. At the beginning of the book he hated everyone, even the people who wanted the best for him, but now he has gained the maturity to not only miss the good people in his life but also the ones who hurt him..