Examples Of Grief In Catcher In The Rye

The Grief of Holden Caulfield

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.

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

up to Allie, in a way, even though Holden was indeed Allie’s older brother.
Unfortunately, Holden lost his brother to Leukemia on July 18, 1946, and this is where his grief begins.

Holden begins his story of his grieving process when he tells of his memory of his night in the garage the same night Allie had died. This is when Holden expresses the step anger and denial. Holden tells of how he broke the windows in the garage. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddamn windows with my fist, just for the hell of it… it was very stupid I have to admit, but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie (Salinger, 39).” Holden expresses his anger through the physical force he applied to the windows, and he expresses his denial when he does not clearly state why he does it and does not fully own up to his actions that he committed that

night.
After Holden goes on his long journey of social isolation (his struggle of fitting in with society views of “perfect”) Holden begins to reveal another memory which he possible takes with him for the rest of his life. This is the memory he reveals to his little sister Phoebe about becoming the “Catcher in the Rye”. This means that he wants to be the one to catch all of the children who are falling off the cliff of adulthood. “And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look over where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. (Salinger 173).” This reveals his depression, denial, and his acceptance towards the death of his brother Allie. For one, he wants to prevent any kids, including Allie and Phoebe; from falling off the cliff (this means that Holden still does not believe that Allie is dead). He also denies the fact that he would ever grow up (falling off the cliff), and fears of the day when he does (depression). But, honestly Holden never does accept the fact that he never will escape the hands of time and the fact that he will grow up one day and lose the very childhood innocence he that he vows to protect (even though throughout the novel he already lost his innocence).
So, in conclusion, The Catcher in the Rye represents Holden’s conflict with the pollutants of the adult world. Holden’s experiences the adult world up close and personal and vows to protect the innocence of children so that way they will never have to experience those struggles in their life time. However, even though Holden promises this vow, he is unfortunately not able to keep it. He is on the brink of falling off himself and doesn’t realize that he is to grow up one day, too.