Many people connect Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Catcher in the Rye as similar Coming of Age stories. Both stories have a key death that impacts the main character. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is impacted by the death of his brother. In Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie is impacted by the death of his aunt. There are some similarities in the way the main character in each story reacts to the death, however there are also some significant differences. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden struggles throughout the book to comprehend his brother Allie’s death from leukemia. 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 …show more content…
wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it.” (39) This shows that Holden is angry about his brother's death. Holden is hospitalized for his broken hand and misses Allie’s funeral. When Holden is alone and depressed he speaks to Allie. He says “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.’ and then when I'd reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I'd thank him.” (197-198) This is the way that Holden copes with his depression and loneliness to feel better. He never asks others for help or believe that he has a problem. He blames other people for the way he feels. In Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie has to deal with the death of his Aunt Helen who died in a car accident on Christmas Eve.
When Charlie was younger, Aunt Helen used to take advantage of him and molest him. Charlie forgave Aunt Helen but he was very traumatized. He says, “Despite everything my mom and doctor and dad have said to me about blame, I can't stop thinking what I know. And I know that my Aunt Helen would still be alive today if she just bought me one present like everyone else. She would be alive if I was born on a day that didn't snow. I would do anything to make this go away. I miss her terribly. I have to stop writing now because I feel too sad.” (92) Charlie feels guilty about Aunt Helen’s death because she went to get him an extra present. No one else but Aunt Helen got him a second present for his birthday. Charlie thinks Aunt Helen is the best person ever because she was the only one that hugged him. He feels alone at the beginning of the story but he doesn’t stay away from his friends. Eventually he realizes that he has a
problem. There are also some similarities in the stories. Both stories are about teenage boys at part of their adolescent lives when they’re trying to figure out the world around them. Charlie and Holden each react differently to the death of a family member they were close to. Another similarity is that both Holden and Charlie missed the funerals. Holden is hospitalized for his broken hand. Charlie misses his Aunt Helen’s funeral because he is too emotionally distressed. Another similarity happens at the end of both The Catcher in the Rye and Perks of Being a Wallflower. Both characters end up in a mental hospital after trying to deal with the death of loved ones. Both stories have similarities and differences. They have a key death that impacts the main character. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is angry about his brother’s death. He blames others for the way he feels. He speaks to his dead brother Allie to help him deal with the way he feels. Holden doesn’t believe he has a problem and eventually ends up in a mental hospital. In Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie feels guilty. He believes that it’s his fault that his Aunt Helen died. He blames himself but eventually realizes that he has a problem and he also ends up at a mental hospital. Even though the stories have some significant differences and were written over 40 years apart they have a lot of similarities.
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
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.
First, Holden attempts to cope with the loss of his brother Allie, but continues to feel depressed and alone. As a result of Allie’s death, it immediately affected Holden and his actions. This is where his anger began to develop. His immediate response was to lash out despite the consequences he would face. Later he would find out that consequence would be not attending the funeral. His parents “were going to have [him] psychoanalyzed and all, because [he] broke all the windows in the garage” (Salinger 44). Also, Holden breaking his hand could have been a cry for attention and his regret. At one point he had wished his brother was dead, but then when he actually died Holden was devastated. By lashing out and injuring his hand he was full of anger, but also “he received the attention and sympathy which were denied him during Allie's illness” (Miller).
Allie, Holden's young brother who died several years earlier, was a major symbol throughout the story. When Holden remembers incidents from his past involving Allie, his attitude changes, such as when he writes the composition about Allie's baseball glove or when Holden broke his hand after punching all of the windows after Allie died. "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) He feels that Allie was one of the few people who were not phony in a world full of phonies. More importantly, Allie represents the innocence and childhood that Holden strives to find throughout his three-day journey. In Holden's opinion, Allie represents the purity that Holden looks for in the world. Holden admits that he admires Allie more than he admires Jesus, and even prays to Allie at one point, rather than Jesus. Allie is Holden's role model, whom he judges the rest of the world according to. When Allie dies, it creates turbulence in Holden's life.
One of the most impactful events in Holden’s past is the death of his brother. Jos death definitely took a big piece of Holden’s innocence. One of the main causes of his depression is the death of Allie’s and it had a tremendous impact on his life. Allie inset rarely mentioned, his passing had a great impact on Holden. Leukemia took is younger brothers innocents and this deeply saddened him and he promise himself to that he would do whatever he could not to let that happen to other innocent kids. “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. 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”
Holden’s apparent desire to be separated from the majority of his family and friends appears to have been triggered by the death of his younger brother Allie. From Allie’s there has been a downward spiral in Holden’s relationships, as he begins to avoid contact with others and isolate himself more. The reason I believe this is because we can see how immense his anger is after Allie’s death, ‘I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist’. The death of Allie has become like an awakening to Holden, and has alerted him how precious childhood innocence is, when Holden comes to this realisation he convinces himself to do everything within his power to protect the innocence of himself and those around him, to protect them from what he sees as a false adult world. Although Holden clearly fails to protect himself, as he falls into all sorts of situations which hardly boasts of innocence and virt... ...
“That's the whole trouble. When you're feeling very depressed, you can't even think.” (Salinger) In both the novels, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, the main characters Holden Caulfield and Charlie are depressed and troubled teens. Although both teenagers grow up in different time periods they share many similar teenage difficulties. Both novels portray a male protagonist growing up while trying to find his identity, yet constantly loathing their lives.
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 ...
No one really thinks about how devastating it might be to lose a sibling when you're young. However, Holden Caulfield, the main character in J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” has to experience this devastation. Holden is merely 13 years old when his 11 year old brother Allie dies of leukemia. The two boys were extremely close and Holden is traumatized, he spends that night punching out windows with his bare hands. Many articles have been written about the adverse effects of a sibling’s death has on a child, even later in life, and Holden was surely effected. After Allie’s death, Holden isolates himself, begins to do worse in school, and grasps onto the concept on innocence and childhood and cannot let go.
However, his feelings suggest that the true reason for his depression is his loss of Innocence. When he was 13 years old, he lost his little brother Allie to leukemia. Allie meant a lot to Holden. He even becomes a symbol in the book. Allie is the one who keeps Holden from falling of the cliff, he’s the reason that he hasn’t lost his innocence yet. “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." And then when I'd reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I'd thank him.” (Sallinger) In this part, Allie plays the role as the Catcher in the Rye and keeps Holden from falling of the cliff. This is why i believe that Holden wants to become a “ Catcher in the Rye”. He wants to help people like Allie has helped him. He feels that it's what he’d meant to do with his
The Catcher in the Rye Holden often finds himself questioning his faith and pondering why an innocent adolescent like his brother Allie has to die. By the close of the novel Holden learns to accept not only death but life as well. 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.
Holden has a near obsession with the death of his younger brother Allie, who died at age thirteen due to leukemia. Holden had punched and broke all the windows in the garage out of anger; he says that his hands still hurt from the incident. Throughout the novel, Holden dwells on Allies’ death. From Holden's thoughts, it is obvious that he loves and misses Allie. In order to hold on to his brother and to minimize the pain of his loss, Holden brings Allie's baseball mitt along with him where ever he goes. The mitt has additional meaning and significance for Holden because Allie had written poetry, which Holden reads, from the baseball mitt. Towards the end of the book, Holden proves again that he can’t cope with death. Phoebe, his younger sister, is putting him on the spot by asking him what he likes, but Holden can only think of two nuns and a boy, James W. Castle. James W. Castle was a boy who Holden had lent his sweater to, Castle died unfortunately by being thrown out of a window wearing Holden’s sweater. Another thing that haunts Holden is the fact that during roll call in class, his last name always is called after Castles’ last name. After the brief moment of reminiscing, Holden irritates Phoebe by saying, “I like Allie…”. He has trouble acknowledging the death of his brother.
While societal attitudes attitudes may change over time, the challenges associated with the transition from childhood to adulthood remain constant. The ideas of individuality, alienation and loss of innocence fortify the theme of coming of age across the texts The Catcher in the Rye and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The Catcher in the Rye, a bildungsroman novel written by J.D. Salinger in 1951, focuses on teenager Holden Caulfield’s transition from childhood to adulthood in 1950’s America, whereas the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower directed by Stephen Chbosky in 2012 follows teenager Charlie experiencing a similar transition in 1990’s America. Despite their varying contexts, these ideas are presented in both texts through the use the
Because of the parties he attends with his new friends he has tried using some drugs. These new friends help Charlie see things with a positive perspective, and to be confident in himself. When his friends move away, Charlie experience isolation and has a mental crisis that leads him to be internalized in a clinic.
Towards the end of the year, Sam breaks up with Craig because she truly loves Charlie. Sam and Charlie are kissing and Sam touches the inside of his leg. Charlie stops and starts thinking of his Aunt Helen. When Sam and Patrick leave for college Charlie starts getting flashbacks of Aunt Helen. He calls his sister Candice and says that he is the reason Aunt Helen died. Charlie was taken to the hospital where the reader finds out what traumatizing event happened to Charlie. Charlie stops writing letters so that he can participate in life.