Catcher In The Rye Grief Analysis

Amira subsides his personality because he feels that Bubba is so distant and not understanding the Bible would have preferred a different child more like a

On the night of Allie’s death Holden had reacted in a different way then another teenager would. On that night his parents thought he was crazy and Holden had a lack of family support just like many others

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” (Salinger 38-39). Holden got to the point maybe because of anger issues and him not knowing how to cope with the death of his brother. Holden is very young when he loses his brother, which could be the reason he does not know how to deal with the situation correctly. Throughout the novel, Holden continues to think about Allie.

Holden’s obsession stems from his fear that he may become a phony one day. So, he spends the book running from adulthood by doing childish things and struggling to keep his life from changing. We see Holden’s fear of phonies shine throughout The Catcher in the Rye. Why does he have this fear?

However rather than finding the peace his father wanted him to find his mind fills with the desire of revenge against his own creation. Unable to handle the emotional pressure he pursues a lonely trip to the valley of Chamounix. Here the mood then begins fluctuating as he purses internal peace but his guilt keeps tormenting his mind. He first “ceased to fear, or to bend before any being less almighty” (Shelly 107) and “a tingling long-lost sense of pleasure often came across [him] (Shelley 107), however then he found himself “fettered again to grief and indulging in the misery of reflection” showing the nature of his internal conflict.

In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger portrays a fascinating juvenile misfit character extensively named Holden Caulfield. Holden goes to school at the age of sixteen and is said to be a misfit in society. However, even though society is corrupt in some ways, Holden Caulfield is a misfit no matter if people say he is misunderstood in the eyes of society. To understand why the character Holden Caulfield is a misfit, it must be understood. A misfit is a person that is not suited or is unable to adjust to the circumstances of one's particular situation.

The protagonist Holden Caulfield is liberated from his warped personality and finally begins to realize his aversion of the grown-up life that change is inevitable and always accompanied by a sense of loss. Not accepting the changes in the surroundings and his actions makes him immature and not a trusted narrator. Avoiding issues by not facing them in the first place makes him being followed by disappointment constantly. For instance, in the beginning of the book Caulfield mentions his own opinion on leaving places and we know that when he was thirteen years old his little brother died.

This illustrates a moment of traumatic agony for Holden and evokes the significance of the relationship he had with his brother. By smashing the windows, it suggests that Holden was unable to control his feelings. The reader would have an enormous amount of sympathy for a young child having just lost a family member, perhaps Salinger wanted to highlight this moment of pathos, and how it would have the potential to ruin a childhood

J.D Salinger, in the novel The Catcher in the Rye demonstrates how Holden is affected by the tragic death of his brother Allie. Allie’s death is the root of Holden’s depression and negative choices. The first literary device J.D Salinger utilizes is Holden Caulfield's character. Allie's death at a young age may have resulted in Holden not wanting to grow up himself.

After Allie died, Holden went into his family’s garage and broke all the windows with his bare hands. The result of this was a broken hand and the inability to attend Allie’s funeral. This plays a meaningful role in the novel because funerals represent closure and acceptance of the loss of a loved one, because Holden did not attend the funeral,

This shows, Holden expressed his emotions the same now as he did when he was 13 years old. This also demonstrates, that Holden even as a kid couldnt channel his grief into a healthy outlet and the only thing he could think of, like with stradlater, is violence. When Holden is imagining what he wants to be he says, “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody 's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I 'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.

He was forced to condone feelings that he was not ready to feel yet. Because of this Holden acted out and decided to act different so he did not have to deal with the pain he felt. Since Holden felt his innocence was taken away from him he felt that he was no responsible to protect their innocence. His job was to be "a catcher in the rye", which was explained as how Holden stood at the edge of a cliff to catch kids that fell off. If Allie did not die, Holden would not feel the need to be the protector of innocence.

The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger in 1951, is the story of an angst-ridden sixteen year old Holden Caulfield as he learns to deal with growing up. The story follows Holden through his three day experience through New York as he learns about the truth about innocence, sex, and mortality, making The Catcher in the Rye one of America’s most notable coming-of-age stories. One of the largest influences on Holden’s life was his younger brother Allie who died from leukemia at age eleven when Holden was thirteen. The death of Holden’s brother had a profound effect on Holden emotional state, which eventually caused his complete mental breakdown by the end of the novel.

“New York's terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed. I kept wishing I could go home and shoot the bull for a while with old Phoebe,” explains in The Catcher in the Rye, a novel written by J.D. Salinger, that Holden suffers with hopelessness when he hears other person’s happiness. (81) Holden starts off his story in a boarding school, the fourth one in insert amount of years, and is flunking out.

In J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, the coming of age archetype is inevitable, as the protagonist matures greatly throughout his physical journey. Holden starts off blinding his eyes to the difficulty of accepting the loss of his brother, Allie. More Often, dark thoughts spiral out of control in Holden's mind, constantly disrupting his state of tranquility, and giving way to his physical journey. Grief causes a sense of sadness, and the deterioration of Holden; however, it does not kill him, it only makes him stronger. This journey that Holden prolongs, explains a lot about himself, and the reason for each location he attends.