How Is Holden Caulfield A Typical Teenager

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While some believe that a teenager acting rebellious is a symptom of a mental disorder, there is evidence to suggest that they rather are just developing and act that way due to how their brain works. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, is a fiction novel that places the main character Holden Caulfield in New York City for majority of his journey during the 1940’s. Two different articles “The Adolescent Brain” by Harvard Mental Health Letter and “Anxiety Disorders” by D’arcy Lyness are sources that provide information on the adolescent brain and scientific reasons as to why they act how they do. Holden is a typical teenager because he participates in normal teenage behaviors like stating his independence and being rebellious, lying, and …show more content…

In the article “The Adolescent Brain” by Harvard Mental Health Letter, it states that teens “need to assert their independence and explore their limits, by taking risks . . . and rebelling against parents”. One can say that Holden participates by going against he’s parents frequently and asserts his independence. For example when Holden leaves Pencey early to take time off for himself, “When I was all set to go . . . I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, ‘Sleep tight, ya morons!’ . . . Then I got the hell out.” (Salinger 52). Showing that Holden felt no guilt for leaving and becoming independent from his boarding school, where as a younger child might feel afraid to go out on their own and see the world alone like that. Furthermore, Holden also shows that he is excited to leave he’s normal environment and go test out the world around him by not showing any regret in his decision to leave.Some might say that Holden leaving campus early is a symptom of depression or some other form of mental disorder, as stated in “Bipolar Disorder” by Ann Marie T. Sullivan that behavioral changes occur with symptoms of “Increasing goal-directed activities, such as taking on new projects”. However Holden doesn’t view he’s leaving as taking on a new project, he views it as taking a break from the situation that he is in currently and then back to what he had previously started, …show more content…

In the article “Anxiety Disorders” written by D’Arcy Lyness it states that “Anxiety can be described as a sense of uneasiness, nervousness, worry, fear, or dread of what’s about to happen.” This can easily be seen in Holden by his sense of awareness for those around him and those he cares about, although he doesn’t always have anxiety when it can be applied, like to school work. For example Holden was extremely worried about his sister phoebe when she was riding around on the carousel, because he thought that she might fall off. “I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the damn horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything” (Salinger 211). It shows that Holden is afraid for his sister and people that he cares about, but in normal cases because she was standing up on a moving machine, which is a typical thing to be worried about when dealing with younger people. Also Holden can be seen having slight anxiety by leaving school early to go and be in NYC for a couple days on his own, he was too afraid to face his own parents because he knew they would be angry with him, so instead he decided to just take some time for himself and attempt to sort things out. Some might say that Holden is suffering from a more serious disorder, like bi-polar disorder because of his “impulsive behavior” (Bipolar Disorder) however Holden’s impulsive behavior is just a reaction to

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