Help in narrowing down my essay topic on ‘The Catcher in the Rye’?

Question

The topic is: Holden is an innocent confused child, rather than an antagonist

What do I write ?

-how he trys to preserve children’s innocence (that doesn’t mean he has to be innocent in order to do that! Example: a mother can be bad, but is trying to preserve innocence of her children)

-he’s mentally sick (I can’t write a whole paragraph on this! All I can state is that he’s in a mental hospital..!)

HELP ME PLEASEEE!!!!

Answer 1

I'm confused. If the essay topic is that Holden is an innocent confused child, rather than an antagonist - you can point out several instances in the text that back up this statement.

For example: his hunting hat and the way he'll put it on and act silly is an example of his innocent confusion

For example: when he tries to wipe off the "f** you's" from the wall at his little sister's school is a solid piece of evidence he's not antagonistic

Answer 2

From wikipedia (Yes, I am wikipasting):
Holden tries to maintain the innocence of anything possible. One situation Holden finds himself in is when he is in his dorm in Pencey prep and is ready to leave for the movies and begins to "[pack] a snowball with [his] bare hands…," and then admits "I didn’t throw it at anything, though. I started to throw it. At a car that was parked across the street. But I changed my mind. The car looked so nice and white. Then I started to throw it at a hydrant, but that looked too nice and white, too. Finally I didn’t throw it at anything." When Holden talks about how nice and white the car and hydrant looks Salinger implies how pure both the car and the hydrant are. The color white is used as a symbol for chastity or continence. Holden decides not to throw it because he attempts to preserve that purity they both have and puts the snowball down. Another situation where Holden is irritated by the ugliness of the adult world is when he notices a "**** You" on a wall. In disgust, after trying to rub it off the wall, he claims, "If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t rub out even half the "**** You" signs in the world." To Holden, the "**** You"s represent the things that remove the innocence of people like his sister Phoebe

Answer 3

I think you should write about the fact that he is a brilliant but cynical person take the ingenious line"Television steals your memories" you can write like 1000000 pages on what that particular line means ..you would get mega points for that too..because your analyzing one line and drawing conclusions from it..such as what that means..it steals your memories because your not making any ..your sitting around watching TV...i think it would really be creative and a way to think outside the box