Does coming of age affect one's behavior? In The Catcher In the Rye by J. D. Salinger Holden Caulfield is a typical teenager who is struggling with finding his identity which is a typical area that teenagers suffer as whole but is even harder when dealing with grief of loved. People around Holden were mature compared to him and didn't focus on key details like Holden. He doesn't want the children of now to grow up to lose their innocence because Holden knows that after affect society can have in one's life. Holden is going through some trauma since his brother died that it has really taken a toll on his social , physical , and academic aspects of his life. His coming of age does have a big effect on his life because he is starting to see …show more content…
himself more clearer. He is starting to have sexual feeling,get interested in girls,and make decisions on his own. Holden is just an average teenager who is just struggling with changes in his life due to trauma of the lose of his brother and coming of age. The effect of losing Allie (Holden’s brother who died of cancer) has affected his outlook of life by making him feel that he is all alone in this world.
Allie was a younger brother, but they have a bond that could never be broken. So when Allie had died Holden just broke down. According to Holden he says,’’I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don't blame them. I really don't. 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. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do 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.” This shows how Holden had felt when Allie had died.Holden was feeling destructive of himself because he wanted to believe that Allie was alive, but when reality had given him a wake up call he started to have a mental breakdown.According to cruse.com it states,” Feelings of pain and distress following bereavement can be overwhelming and very frightening.” This means that when you lose your lovedd one who can go through a lot of pain because of the sense of feeling overwhelmed. You feel overwhelmed because the death of your loved one was too hard to cope with. So to help with the shock or disbelief you go into this protective …show more content…
mood of pain.This is the same mood Holden was going through. Another quote from cruse.com is,” Many bereaved people experience feelings of depression following the death of someone close. Life can feel like it no longer holds any meaning and some people say they too want to die”. This quote shows how losing your love one can make you go into depression because you feel that life has no meaning. This relates to Holden because throughout the book you see how Holden has used is brother’s grief to make his own life go down hill. Holden even isolated himself that time when Allie had died and just did that throughout the story (isolating himself from others) . This is a key example of Holden just being a normal teenager who is struggling with changes in his life. After eating way more than you should have, or having gone through half a bottle of wine, do you look back and ask yourself why? Common causes of cravings and excess eating are adrenal fatigue, insulin resistance, and other hormonal imbalances. Again, minimizing sugars, alcohol, dairy and wheat — although difficult — not only will help control cravings, but your digestive issues as well.”This means that when you have a hormonal imbalance you have to have cravings.When you have cravings that can be a key idea that you a imbalance of hormones.Holden does have cravings, but not necessarily food, but more of alcohol and drugs.According to Holden it states "At the end of the first act, we went out with all the other jerks for a cigarette. What a deal that was. You never saw so many phonies in all your life, everybody smoking their ears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear how sharp they were." ( Sallinger age. 126). This shows how Holden smokes as a way to help relieve pain of his loss of Allie and hormonal imbalance.He has an addiction to smoking and drinking because that is what he craves.Grief can also trigger clinical depression. When this occurs, the grieving person may start to feel hopeless or helpless, experience persistent fatigue, have difficulties sleeping and find it hard to concentrate. Depression also increases the risk of suicidal thoughts or actions. While it’s not uncommon for grief to elicit thoughts of wanting to be with the loved one who was lost, unresolved grief and depression can make suicide seem like the only way to end the unrelenting pain. Others may say that Holden has a mental issue of PTSD.Holden experiencing or seeing a terrifying event.It is natural to feel afraid during and after a traumatic situation.Fear triggers many split-second changes in the body to help defend against danger or to avoid it. This “fight-or-flight” response is a typical reaction meant to protect a person from harm. Nearly everyone will experience a range of reactions after trauma, yet most people recover from initial symptoms naturally. Those who continue to experience problems may be diagnosed with PTSD. People who have PTSD may feel stressed or frightened even when they are not in Danger https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml Holden had suffered a very serious trauma when his brother Allie had died.Allie and Holden were best friends.Allie had died from leukemia when Holden was 13 years old .Even though this trauma was 4 years ago,my patient is still having anxiety and having flashbacks which was triggered by his brother’s death.This is a strong claim about Holden suffering from PTSD which is a mental disorder which can be caused by grief of your loved ones.But that is a weak claim because Ptsd is caused when memories are been triggered and clearly throughout the story it does kind of plan that idea but Holden and Allie's connection is very different due that fact that he asks Allie for protection and guidance in his everyday life.According to Holden,”Anyway, I kept walking and walking up Fifth Avenue, without any tie on or anything.
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. I thought I'd just go down, down, down, and nobody'd ever see me again. Boy, did it scare me. You can't imagine. I started sweating like a bastard--my whole shirt and underwear and everything. Then I started doing something else. Every time I'd get to the end of a 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. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie." This shows how
Holden uses Allie as a angel.So Hodlen doesnt really suffer from PSTD but it is due to the fact of coming of age. The term is bereavement. Bereavement is the period of grief and mourning after a death. When you grieve, it's part of the normal process of reacting to a loss. You may experience grief as a mental, physical, social or emotional reaction. Mental reactions can include anger, guilt, anxiety, sadness and despair. Physical reactions can include sleeping problems, changes in appetite, physical problems or illness. How long bereavement lasts can depend on how close you were to the person who died, if the person's death was expected and other factors. Friends, family and faith may be sources of support. Grief counseling or grief therapy is also helpful to some people.(https://medlineplus.gov/bereavement.html) The idea of coming of age and grief does affect one’s life by changing their way outlook of life.Holden is an example of this because everything was okay when Allie was alive, but after Allie had died Holden did a whole 360 of his life. Coming of age is a way to come from childhood to adulthood.Certain things happen to one’s body emotional and physically.Already coming of age is stressful stage in ones life but one loses there love ones that begin to stress out due the fat thta the person was dr=ear to their heart.As a teenager you are still trying to find yourself but when obstacles interfere wuith that you go into panic mood.So this can go back two ways of whta Holden is suffering from.The only person to say what they are really suffering from is Holden,himself.
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.
Holden Caulfield, the teenage protagonist of Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, struggles with having to enter the adult world. Holden leaves school early and stays in New York by himself until he is ready to return home. Holden wants to be individual, yet he also wants to fit in and not grow up. The author uses symbolism to represent Holden’s internal struggle.
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.
When Allie was alive, his company comforts Holden because of how friendly and happy he was around him. When he dies, Holden does not know how to react, and could not hurt a particular person, so he hurt himself: ”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” (39). Because he was so hurt by the death of his brother, Holden releases his frustration physically rather than verbally. Also, he talks to Allie in order to feel less depressive after the prostitute, Sunny, leaves. Holden has not yet found a resolution to comfort him because he is so familiar with telling Allie how he feels.
In J.D. Sallinger's Catcher in the Rye, is based on the sullen life of Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old teen-ager is trying to find his sense of direction. Holden, a growing adult, cannot accept the responsibilities of an adult. Eventually realizing that there is no way to avoid the adult life, he can only but accept this alternative lifestyle. What Holden describes the adult world as a sinful, corrupted life, he avoids it for three important reasons: His hatred towards phonies and liars, unable to accept adult responsibilities, and thirdly to enshrine his childhood youth.
Holden Caulfield, portrayed in the J.D. Salinger novel Catcher in the Rye as an adolescent struggling to find his own identity, possesses many characteristics that easily link him to the typical teenager living today. The fact that the book was written many years ago clearly exemplifies the timeless nature of this work. Holden's actions are those that any teenager can clearly relate with. The desire for independence, the sexually related encounters, and the questioning of ones religion are issues that almost all teens have had or will have to deal with in their adolescent years. The novel and its main character's experiences can easily be related to and will forever link Holden with every member of society, because everyone in the world was or will be a teen sometime in their life.
In the novel, Allie has an immense impact on Holden through his journey. Allie is Holden’s brother that died of Cancer when Holden was young. Holden is always sad about Allie’s death and is always thinking about Allie. Allie’s impact on Holden’s life sparks from Holden feeling like Allie missed out on opportunities.Allie also brings Holden a sense of guilt and also pain because he feels that Allie is missing out and that it is unfair for him to experience life. Holden can never get over Allies death and Allie because of his guilt that stems from his beliefs of Allie’s inability to experience life. When talking to Phoebe he says, “I Know he’s dead? Dont 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 171). This quote shows Holden’s reluctance to not forget Allie, and move on with his life not living in regret of Allie’s...
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 ...
In The Catcher in The Rye, by J.D, the main character, Holden, can be seen as a troubled teenager growing up in a less than perfect society. Throughout the novel Holden struggles with the fact that many young and innocent kids will grow up and see the world from a different perspective. He naturally becomes worried for all future generations who will one day grow, as he did, and loose their innocence. The fixation of youth and innocence can be seen in the title of the book, as well as throughout the novel.
The novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by JD Salinger, touches on the themes of innocence, death, and the artifice and the authenticity in the world, while following the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, through his weekend trip to New York City. As the story unfolds, Holden, as narrator, becomes more vulnerable to the reader, and starts to express his feelings surrounding the death of his brother, Allie, as well as his feelings about himself. Holden is faced with a truth that has haunted him for many years: adulthood. Many of the qualities Holden exhibits, which he sees as negative, are those of the average person: struggle, loneliness, deep sadness. He is one of many classic protagonists that encourages the reader to relate to them on
This reveals Holden’s fantasy of an idealistic childhood and his role as the guardian of innocence. Preventing children from “going over the cliff” and losing their innocence is his way of vicariously protecting himself from growing up as well. Holden acknowledges that this is “crazy,” yet he cannot come up with a different lifestyle because he struggles to see the world for how it truly is, and fears not knowing what might happen next. Holden’s “catcher in the rye” fantasy reflects his innocence, his belief in a pure, uncorrupted youth, and his desire to protect it. This fantasy also represents his disconnection from reality, as he thinks he can stop the process of growing up, yet
Holden and the Complexity of Adult Life What was wrong with Holden, the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D.Salinger, was his moral revulsion against anything that was ugly, evil, cruel, or what he called "phoney" and his acute responsiveness to beauty and innocence, especially the innocence of the very young, in whom he saw reflected his own lost childhood. There is something wrong or lacking in the novels of despair and frustration of many writers. The sour note of bitterness and the recurring theme of sadism have become almost a convention, never thoroughly explained by the author's dependence on a psychoanalytical interpretation of a major character. The boys who are spoiled or turned into budding homosexuals by their mothers and a loveless home life are as familiar to us today as stalwart and dependable young heroes such as John Wayne were to an earlier generation. We have accepted this interpretation of the restlessness and bewilderment of our young men and boys because no one has anything better to offer.
In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden Caufield believes that innocence is corrupted by society. He exposes his self-inflicted emotional struggles as he is reminiscing the past. For Holden, teenage adolescence is a complicated time for him, his teenage mentality in allows him to transition from the teenage era to the reality of an adult in the real world. As he is struggling to find his own meaning of life, he cares less about others and worries about how he can be a hero not only to himself but also to the innocent youth. As Holden is grasping the idea of growing up, he sets his priorities of where he belongs and how to establish it. As he talks about how ‘phony’ the outside world is, he has specific recollections that signify importance to his life and he uses these time and time again because these memories are ones that he wont ever let go of. The death of his younger brother Allie has had a major impact on him emotionally and mentally. The freedom of the ducks in Central Park symbolize his ‘get away’ from reality into his own world. His ideology of letting kids grow up and breaking the chain loose to discover for themselves portrays the carrousel and the gold ring. These are three major moments that will be explored to understand the life of Holden Caufield and his significant personal encounters as he transitions from adolescence into manhood.
It takes many experiences in order for an immature child to become a responsible, well-rounded adult. In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger’s main character Holden Caulfield matures throughout the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Holden is a juvenile young man. However, through his experiences, Holden is able to learn, and is finally able to become somewhat mature by the end of the novel. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s story represents a coming of age for all young adults.
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s vision of nature of childhood and adulthood are not as separate as Holden believes them to be. Holden tries to battle through the pressures of adulthood while staying in his childish frame of mind. He feels that if he acts childish, he can go back to that. He also feels the need to be an adult and do his own thing. Holden is at war with himself trying to see what he really is- a child or an adult. Although, Holden thinks he is being an adult by drinking and smoking, he is actually becoming more childish.