The Negative Effects on Kids

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Recommended: Relationship between parents and children

In the United States there is one in forty-five children that are either on their own or they don’t have parents according to American Institutes for Research. In the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Holden has lost his younger brother when he was thirteen. Now he is sixteen and has been through three schools flunking out of all of them. Holden is moving on to his 4th school, where he also flunks out. After he leaves school he is wondering around New York trying to find himself. Holden lies to multiple of the people he meets because he does not like to talk about his real life. He lies so he can escape reality and be in this new world where everything is better. Throughout the novel J.D. Salinger shows many themes two of the themes are lack of parenting has a negative effect on children and alienation for the means of protection.
In the novel the Catcher and the Rye J.D Salinger shows lack of parenting has a negative effect on children. Holden mentions “Allie got leukemia and died… on July 18, 1946” (38). Holden was never the same after his brother’s death. At the time Holden was only thirteen and now is sixteen and he is still suffering from the loss of his brother Allie. Holden’s parents can not even help him because they are suffering from Allie’s death. The only way his parents deal with him is to ship him off to school because he’s too much for them. Holden says this “[he] broke all the windows in the garage… [He] even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon”. (39) Holden’s parents don’t even try to help him get over the fact that his brother died. The death of Allie as had a major effect on him because he has been through three schools and is now making it four. When he flunks out his parents don’t ask or try...

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...nd and makes it sound like the person comforting him is doing wrong. Just like when he was leaving Mr. Antolini’s house he said “[He] was sweating… That kind of stuff’s happened to [him] about twenty times since[he] was a kid”.(192) He just isn't used to being comforted because his parents were never really there for him. The only person who was there for Holden was his brother Allie but it seems like everything got worse when he died.
J.D. Salinger shows many themes two of the themes are lack of parenting has a negative effect on children and alienation for the means of protection. Without parent support with the child will lead to a negative effect later in life. It can lead them to alienate themselves for protection so they feel better about themselves. So parents need to be more involved with their children's life unless they want it to leave a negative effect.

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