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A major event in Holden’s life, in “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger is when Holden’s brother Allie dies. Allie’s death leads holden to being unable to let go of the past, he does not like any form of change, and he is afraid of being alone. Due to Allie dieing, Holden is unable to let go of the past. One example of this is when Stradlater, Holden’s roommate at Pencey goes on a date with Jane Gallagher, a girl that Holden used to know Holden says that “I kept thinking about Jane, and about Stradlater having a date with her and all. It made me so nervous I nearly went crazy” (Salinger 34). Holden is incapable of moving on past the fact that someone he used to know is going on a date with someone he used to know. Next is when holden is reminiscing about his brother, and when he went to the cemetery he is buried in Holden mentions that “...twice-twice-we were there it started to rain. It was awful. It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass …show more content…
The first example of this is when holden is talking about the Museum of Natural History, holden says that “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be finished catching those two fish... Nobody’d be different.” (salinger 121). Holden finds comfort in the fact that the museum never changes, and that whenever someone goes there, it is still the same as the last time showing how much holden does not like change. Another example is when holden sneaks into his house, he says “I certainly knew I was home though.. Our foyer has a funny smell that doesn’t smell like anyplace else. I don’t know what the hell it is... but you always know you’re home.(Salinger 158). Holden finds comfort in the fact that the smell of his house never changed, showing more of how Holden does not like
In J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in The Rye Salinger writes about the main character Holden Caulfield and his life. Holden is a teenager who comes from a wealthy family, he loves his family and lives very happy until the death of his brother Allie. After his brother died Holden becomes troubled, being kicked out of school again and again developing a negative view of the world. Holden throughout the book shows anger,denial, and acceptance over the loss of his brother.
In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity. 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.
The catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger is about a boy named Holden Caulfield and his struggles in one part of his life. Holden seem very normal to people around him and those he interacts with. However, Holden is showing many sighs of depression. A couple of those signs that are shown are: trouble sleeping, drinking, smoking, not eating right, and he talk about committing suicide a couple times during the book. On top of that Holden feel alienated plus the death of Holden’s brother Allie left Holden thinking he and no where to go in life.
There is one universal truth that will exist through out all of time and space that affects all that live to experience it. That truth is known as grief. We all experience grief, and for Holden Caulfield, grief is a major aspect of his life, the force that drives him to do everything he does in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. There are seven stages to this emotion known as grief: denial, depression, anger, bargaining, guilt, reconstruction, and finally, acceptance. There are many parts in the novel that could have influenced Holden’s grief, but the main one that most people who read the novel have figured it out was the death of his little brother Allie. The root to Holden’s grief lies with his brother which cause Holden’s to act and change the way he does in the novel.
Imagine if your best friend or someone close to you suddenly dies of a fatal disease. The death of this person would physically and mentally inflict trauma. All though the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is a grieving seventeen year old because he endures a traumatic experience at the age of 13. His 11 year old brother, Allie, dies of leukemia, and this affects Holden throughout the novel. It causes him to yearn for his innocence and childhood back because he wants to return to the stage in his life when there are no worries. He realizes that it is not realistic to become a child again, and he begins to accept the fact that he must grow up and set an example for his sister, Phoebe. Growing up with the loss of a close brother, Holden wants to be a protector of all innocence, and later in the novel, he begins to notice he must find a solution to his traumatic experiences in order to become successful in his lifetime.
Holden feels as if he is stuck in his 13 year old self. Although he is aging he isn’t necessarily maturing the way his classmates and other people are around him. This is due to the fact that he never received closure when Allie died. When he starts picturing his own funeral because he might get pneumonia and die, he remembers D.B. telling him about his brother's funeral. He stated, “I wasn’t there. I was still in the hospital. I had to go to the hospital and all after I hurt my hand” (Salinger 171). Since he never attended the funeral he never got to say his final goodbyes to the one person he truly loved. Holden feels as if he can’t connect with anyone else in the world like he did with Allie. If he did then he would most likely push them away, so he wouldn’t have to experience the trauma of loss again, because it greatly impacted his life the first time. The trauma Holden experienced when he was younger resulted in him not being able to form stronger relationships with people which made him more depressed and
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is a popular novel that was originally published in the 1950’s. In the book, Salinger explores various themes through the main character Holden and his interactions with others. Some of these themes include, alienation, loss and betrayal. Holden constantly feels betrayed throughout the novel by several people, including his roommate, teacher, and sister.
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, portrays Holden Cawfield a New York City teenager in the 1950's as a manic-depressive. Holden's depression starts with the death of his brother, Allie . Holden is expelled from numerous schools due to his poor academics which are brought on by his depression. Manic depression, compulsive lying, and immaturity throughout the novel characterize Holden.
Holden was walking in Fifth Avenue and overtime he came to the end of the block he began to feel extremely nervous. He sad he felt as if he was going to “disappear”(Salinger 198). Holden says, “Boy did it scare me… Every time I’d get to the end of the block I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I’d say to him ‘Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie don’t let me disappear… Please, Allie,’ ” (Salinger 198). When Holden is nervous he is nervous because he doesn’t want to “disappear” (Salinger 198). Holden is nervous because he doesn’t want to “disappear” at “the end of the block ” (Salinger 198). By this he really means he does’t want to die at the end of his life, like Allie died at the end of his life. He steers clear from using the words die and at the end of life, because he is in denial that Allies life is over and that he is dead. Although his conscious mind logically knows that Allie is not alive anymore, subconsciously his mind refuses to accept that, and this is where there is conflict. To cope with that conflict he begins to fantasize that Allie is with him giving him advice and watching over him. To Holden Allie is like a child's imaginary friend, when he doesn’t need Allie it is not like Allie doesn’t exist in his subconscious mind, his conscious mind simply takes over. Although when he is scared, or something is triggered to cope he begins to fantasize Allie and take comfort in Allie even though consciously he knows it is impossible for him to be talking to Allie. I relate to Allie in the manner that I went through a denial phase why coping with my grandfathers loss, also denial was not nearly as sever as Allie’s. When my grandpa first died it was hard to truly accept that he wasn’t with us any more. Again, I was little when he died so I kept trying to convince that he wasn’t dead, although eventually I really
In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, The main character Holden, is a lost individual that has certain people that have immense impact on his life although they never appear in the novel. Holden’s Journey starts when he runs away from his school and travels to New York City. In the city he has many experiences with girls and other people that eventually make him realize home is where he needs to be. Holden finally decides to go home to his family and especially to see his sister, Phoebe. Allie and Jane are two characters that Holden talks in thinks about a good amount in the novel, and because of it they impact his thoughts as well as his behaviors throughout his time in New York City, and in the novel as a whole.
Both Holden and Charlie are full of self-loathing and depression, both experiencing the traumatic loss of a family member at a very young age. "I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake – especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're alive and all.” (Salinger 222-223) In this quote Holden talks with his sister about the loss of his brother, Allie. Holden can't seem to move on ever since his brother's death. He needs to learn how to live his life in the present and not dwell on the past. Every day Holden relates everything he does and everything that happens back to Allie’s death. “Hey, Candace. I killed Aunt Helen, didn't I? She died getting my birthday present, so I guess I killed her right?
Holden’s little brother, Allie, also influences a lot on him. For example, Holden states, “…You’d have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent…He was also the nicest member of the family in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody…” Holden always thinks of his brother Allie as a good and intelligent boy. When Holden thinks about Allie, Holden shows his love for him and how much he likes him. Another important scene is when Holden says, “…I kept walking and walking up Fifth Avenue…Then all of a sudden, something very spooky started happening. Every time I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddam curb, I had this feeling that I’d never get to the other side of the street.
There are several instances within J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye in which Holden expresses his misapprehension of death. In Chapter 5, on page 38 Holden provides a long excursus on Allie, specifying the particulars of his life and death. The consequential point comes at the close of the digression when Holden discloses his own reaction to Allie’s death. In this Chapter Holden first poses the question of why did Allie have to die at such a young age.
This novel by J.D Salinger is about a rebellious teenage, Holden Caulfield. Holden's brother, Allie death affects Holden academics and future. Holden goes through many different experiences that make his pyschoanalytic traits stand out.
Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he expresses this attitude through his dialogue, tone, and diction.