Holden's Leukemia In The Catcher In The Rye

Throughout the book, Holden discusses and makes several references to his younger brother Allie. Allie had died of leukemia roughly three years before Holden starts telling the story of his weekend adventure in the Big Apple. Leukemia is a type of cancer and almost all of the people diagnosed with it had passed away back years. According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, doctors started to put the first chemotherapy drugs in use around the mid-1950s. Allie’s death affects Holden in so various ways during the course of the novel. However, if they were in the 21st century, Allie would have had approximately an 80% chance of survival (“Child Leukemia” 15). But if that were true, Holden would have been a much different character. Allie’s death had shaped him to who he was and essentially scarred him; he never stopped mourning. The novel takes place during the post-World War II/start of the Cold War era. To begin with, in 1944, the GI Bill of Rights was ratified and that gave money to veterans coming from World War II to buy house, attend college, and/or to buy a farm. Holden’s brother D.B. participated in the war for four years. This decree probably

First of all, Holden mentions the play in chapter 16. He does not like it that much, but he does bring up the fact that Hamlet is supposed to be a “sad, screwed-up type guy” (Salinger 152). Little does he know, he and Hamlet have that in common. Holden was always calling everything depressing; he was very sad and miserable. They both had mental issues. Maybe this was because they both had a loved one that passed away. Hamlet had lost his dad and Holden had lost Allie. In Hamlet, he pretends to go mad. As the play progresses, though, the audience begins to question if Hamlet was even acting anymore. In the novel, Holden repeatedly refers to himself as crazy or a madman. The two main characters in these works had an awfully similar