Theme Of Death In Catcher In The Rye

Death has a Shadow

Dying is an event that nobody looks forward to do, and every organism dies at some point or another. A question that one who fantasizes and wonders about it asks, “When will I die?” Death can come on accident or purpose. While death affects the person, it can have impacts that can affect others as well. Death can cause others to become depressed or to lose happiness for awhile, and in this instance, it drives one teenager insane because the thought of dying is overcoming of his mental stability. Holden Caulfield, a perceptive, imaginative, and indented young teenager who has a rough childhood, struggles and deals with the concept of death. Because Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger has experienced the death of

Allie, his brother; his trip to the museum to visit the Egyptians and the mummy essay; and his fantasy of being the catcher in the rye, he is more skeptical on life, internally conflicted, and more understanding of the outside world than his fellow peers.
Holden Caulfield is greatly impacted in the death of his brother, Allie. Allie, whose death was sad and tragic, died at 11 years old. He was a smart, a red-headed and left handed young boy. He died of a long battle with Leukemia, therefore we don’t hear him talk. Holden’s initial reaction about his brother’s death says something about his character: “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 destroyed all of the garage windows and had to be restrained and hospitalized. This act describes him as an angry, sad, and rageful Holden. One night, when Stradlater, Holden’s roommate, asks him to write an essay for his history class, he writes about Allie’s old baseball glove. Holden keeps Allie in his heart through the remembrance of Allie’s old mitt. Eventually, Stradlater and Holden get into a conflict because of Holden’s mistake. When Phoebe asks Holden who his best friend is, he responds with Allie, and this response explains his love and idealizing of his dead brother. Holden acts like Allie is still alive: “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” (171). Allie has greatly impacted Holden in how he thinks of the outside world. He gives an argument saying that everyone, except Allie and Phoebe, are phonies. Although Allie is dead, Holden treats him as if he is still alive and active in everything Holden does. Death does not only affect Holden through literal death like Allie, but simple and inanimate objects too.
When Holden visits the museum finding the Egyptian site, and when he writes an essay on mummies for Mr. Spencer greatly affects his understanding of life and of death. Holden decides to visit the museum, in which he finds an Egyptian section, and he also sees children there on a field trip. When he sees these children talking and communicating, he thinks about Phoebe, his little sister, and Allie, as well as their innocence and purity. He realizes that he would love to stay as a child, young and full of energy like Phoebe, instead of grow up and become a “phony”. When he goes back and forth, seeing and investigating the Egyptians over and over again, he notices a different aspect in himself. Holden behaves like everything, including him, evolves into a new form: “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move” (121). Holden notices changes, bringing up a debate if he wants to stay young or become an adult. Holden asks the question, “Is it possible to change mentally, and not physically?” He is ordered by Mr. Spencer, his History teacher, to write an essay about mummies. Holden, who is a failing student, does not know anything about them. While Holden is a great writer, he creates a disaster and fails the exam. Holden, after recalling little about the exam or mummies, is asked by the two boys in the museum about mummies, and he responds: “It’s very interesting. They wrapped their faces up in these cloths that were treated with some secret chemical. That way they could be buried in their tombs for thousands of years and their faces wouldn’t rot or anything. Nobody knows how to do it except the Egyptians” (203). Holden then does not want his own face to rot, wishing he was young again. Holden doesn’t want to die and rot, but instead be like a mummy and “live forever.”
To be a catcher in the rye, according to Holden, is to catch children falling off a cliff, and this adage allows Holden decide what he wants to do with his life.

Holden tries to correct the mistake of the children, who, in this instance, are playing in a wheat field, and he could save them from accidently falling over this cliff. When Phoebe asks him what he wants to do, he responds that he wants to be a catcher in the rye. He remembers an encounter on the streets of New York with a boy who was seeing “If a body catch a body comin’ thro the rye.” Although this idea of being a “catcher in the rye” is not a real job, it is what he wants to do instead of school or other duties. Holden acts like a savior: “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 where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them” (173). This saying could also represent saving innocent children from the “phonies” or adults of the real world. A “phony” in the mind of Holden is a mature and grown person with no personality or too fake and ordinary. He does not want these children to become older and becoming fake, valuing the essence of

childhood.
Holden is doubting and questioning his life and is influenced by death because of his dead brother Allie, the Egyptians in the museum, and being the “catcher in the rye.” Holden, who is greatly impacted and stricken by these deaths and figures of death, has a very hard time trying to learn and cope with them. Holden’s desire of death identifies him as a pessimist: “I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it” (141). While death is often sad or unpleasant, we should also remember and cherish the fun and cheerful moments we had with those people. If we celebrate and remember the time we spent with them, it is easier to cope and get along with our lives, while keeping our lost ones in memory. Because death can shape or round a character into becoming gloomy and depressing, we need to learn as people to cope with death and move along with our lives.