The past is always there, it’s part of life and can affect someone in a positive and negative manner. Certain events can truly change someone's life however, in Holden's case the past has shaped him to be who he is today. Holden Caulfield has been kicked out of multiple schools and he tends not to care about school. After, he gets kicked out of Pencey Prep he spends the next few days alone in New York, recalling his past. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger uses past events in Holden's life such as, the death of his brother, his absent father, and his experience with abuse to display Holden’s loss of innocence. The death of his brother, Allie, forced Holden to deal with emotions he shouldn't have to at such a young age which therefore, shows his loss of innocence. After Allie passes away Holden begins to break down and he is seen struggling to deal with his emotions. An example of this is when …show more content…
Holden was extremely uncomfortable when Mr. Antolini touched his head and this eventually lead to him stating “That kind of stuff’s happened to me about twenty times since I was a kid” (Salinger 213). This quote is clearly a sign that Holden has had something happened in the past and is very cautious when it comes to older men. Although, Mr. Antolini didn't necessarily do anything wrong, the way Holden handled the situation showed that he was uncomfortable and has experienced something similar in the past. Earlier, in the novel we also see evidence of Holden's abuse when he points out Mr. Spencer being in a robe. When Holden was visiting Mr. Spencer he talked a lot about how he hated the fact that he was in a robe and this helps demonstrated how Holden is very cautious even with people he is close to. Overall, after analyzing the book it can very well be assumed that Holden has had some kind of abuse in his life because of the way he reacts to certain
So he stays the night at his former teacher, Mr. Antolini’s place. While Holden for the most part thinks of everyone as a phony, Mr. Antolini is one of very few exceptions. He makes it clear that this teacher was one that he trusted and was close to. Since Holden’s views holds him back from having close relationships with his peers, his relationship with his former teacher becomes more important. While he was sleeping on Mr. Antolini’s couch, Holden says that something happens. “Boy, it really scared the hell out of me.” He says. He wakes up to find Mr. Antolini patting his head. “Boy, was I nervous!” He admits he felt very uncomfortable in the situation and quickly ran out. An adult he had managed to form a trusting relationship with, something that was very rare for Holden, had done something to make him very uncomfortable. While it is unclear, it is very possible that Holden is misinterpreting Mr. Antolini’s actions. In his eyes, it is a “flitty pass.” It is made clear, however, that Mr. Antolini had been drinking and most likely he was not in his right mind. Once again, Holden’s views and the reality of the situation aren’t the same and he sees it as a
Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood. Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child.
To begin with, you must first take in to consideration Holden’s feelings towards his little brother Allie. Holden consider Allie “the smartest person in their family”. “..it wasn’t just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest …. God, he was a nice kid, though” (5.7).This means that Holden looked
The reason Holden has a hard time talking to people about his feelings is because in the time period he lives in people have a stereotypical image of not sharing emotional feelings with others. Losing his brother, Holden has to adjust to keep his composure without having the direct outlet of Allie to comfort
One of the most impactful events in Holden’s past is the death of his brother. Jos death definitely took a big piece of Holden’s innocence. One of the main causes of his depression is the death of Allie’s and it had a tremendous impact on his life. Allie inset rarely mentioned, his passing had a great impact on Holden. Leukemia took is younger brothers innocents and this deeply saddened him and he promise himself to that he would do whatever he could not to let that happen to other innocent kids. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. It was a very stupid thing to do, I’ll admit, but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie”
Holden’s apparent desire to be separated from the majority of his family and friends appears to have been triggered by the death of his younger brother Allie. From Allie’s there has been a downward spiral in Holden’s relationships, as he begins to avoid contact with others and isolate himself more. The reason I believe this is because we can see how immense his anger is after Allie’s death, ‘I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist’. The death of Allie has become like an awakening to Holden, and has alerted him how precious childhood innocence is, when Holden comes to this realisation he convinces himself to do everything within his power to protect the innocence of himself and those around him, to protect them from what he sees as a false adult world. Although Holden clearly fails to protect himself, as he falls into all sorts of situations which hardly boasts of innocence and virt... ...
Immediately after Allie’s death, Holden changes immensely. His very first act after Allie died was smashing all his garage windows with his fist. Following this aggressive act, he becomes a recluse and judges every person he crosses to- I assume- Allie, because of how much he still reminded Holden of innocence, and will for the rest of his life. Cynthia Barron states, “Holden is sixteen… in a unique position, caught in the limbo between childhood and adulthood. Thus faced with their inability to adapt to an adult world that is hypocritical and corrupt, both boys seek a return to the realm of childhood” (Barron). In my personal opinion, i believe that he ...
However, his feelings suggest that the true reason for his depression is his loss of innocence. When he was 13 years old, he lost his little brother Allie to leukemia. Allie meant a lot to Holden. He even became a symbol in the book. Allie is the one who keeps Holden from falling off the cliff, he’s the reason that he hasn’t lost his innocence yet.
The Catcher in the Rye Holden Gets Influenced Everyone gets influenced by someone, even heroes do. The Catcher in the Rye, a novel written by J. D. Salinger, talks about Holden Caulfield, a 16 year old boy that is trying to live through his problems. Holden tries to learn from his experiences as well as from the ones of others. He goes through many hard times, but he always takes them as a chance to imagine how it could have ended if he had done something about them or what cold had happened if he was not so “yellow”.
First, Holden attempts to cope with the loss of his brother Allie, but continues to feel depressed and alone. As a result of Allie’s death, it immediately affected Holden and his actions. This is where his anger began to develop. His immediate response was to lash out despite the consequences he would face. Later he would find out that consequence would be not attending the funeral. His parents “were going to have [him] psychoanalyzed and all, because [he] broke all the windows in the garage” (Salinger 44). Also, Holden breaking his hand could have been a cry for attention and his regret. At one point he had wished his brother was dead, but then when he actually died Holden was devastated. By lashing out and injuring his hand he was full of anger, but also “he received the attention and sympathy which were denied him during Allie's illness” (Miller).
The origins of Holden’s disillusionment and the reason that it all started is the death of his younger brother which he was very fond of and admired, Allie, three years ago. The death of Allie is very significant in Holden’s mind since it is an event which he remembers quite clearly at multiple occasions during the book. For example, when Holden is writing a descriptive composition for his roommate Stradlater, he decides to write about Allie’s baseball mitt since it is the only thing on his mind. “My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder’s mitt. He was
Even though Holden acts like everything is alright, his worsening physical symptoms show that he is actually depressed from trauma. At the start of the novel, Holden describes himself, “The one side of my head -the right side- is full of millions of gray hairs. I’ve had them ever since I was a kid” (12). As Holden is young, his grey hairs are most likely due to stress - as opposed to aging. Moreover, already, it is clear that his mind has been subjected to a great deal of stress ever since he was young, yet as his family seems to be financially secure and early grade school is generally not demanding, the only troubling moment from Holden’s youth that the reader learns of directly is Allie’s death (43). This suggests that
A traumatic past can shape a person’s overall view on the world. Many times, the memories of the past negatively affect the person. In the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the author develops Holden’s cynical attitude by connecting him to painful memories and events such as Allie’s death, losing touch with Jane, and losing his trust in adulthood.
Holden Caulfield suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder throughout the course of the novel. In fact, the root of all his problems come from Allie’s passing; he died from leukemia. Holden used to be extremely close with him and his imminent death changed his entire life and psyche. Holden seems to relive the event of his beloved little brother Allie’s death over and over. “What is clear, however, is that many of the symptoms Holden displays in the course of the novel mirror the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The death of his younger brother, Allie was a traumatic event in Holden Caulfield’s life and is perhaps at the root of the depression he battles in the novel. The death of a sibling can trigger post-traumati...
Holden's nervous impulse to protect women seems to have sprung up in his psyche from a very young age. After his brother, Allie, started to experience more severe symptoms of leukemia, Holden notes that his mother seemed "nervous as hell." His own mother's emotional problems (Lombardi) transfer to Holden on a very deep, psychological level because he feels partially responsible for his brother's fate in the first place. Seeing his mother in such a distraught state makes him feel even guiltier. The unintended consequence of this is that Holden grows up with a constant fear that he is going to hurt any woman that he grows close to. This manifests itself many times during his time in New York, with one of the earliest examples being his meeting with Sunny in the hotel room. Holden protects her innocence, but not for any particularly noble reason. He hangs her dress back up and insists that he just wants to talk, but Holden did not do this in an attempt to be some paragon of righteousness. Holden, on a deep, psychological lev...