In The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Salinger established Holden Caulfield’s introverted character through his background and experiences. As a sixteen year old student, Holden had to encounter many life and death obstacles. He becomes traumatized from witnessing the deaths of people close to him. Holden’s experiences with death changed his perspective of the world. For example, Allie’s death allowed him to realize the weaknesses that death has upon everybody, old or young. These realizations made Holden who he is now: bad-tempered, depressed and disconnected with others but, helped establish a closer bond with his sibling. When Holden was notified about Allie’s death, Holden’s grieving turned into anger and depression. He …show more content…
For Holden, Allie’s death effect to Holden was truly devastating. However, his death gave Holden a chance to develop a closer bond with his younger sister, Phoebe. Losing a connection, like Holden and Allie’s can takes a toll over your life. But by learning from the past, he takes advantage of the time they get to spend with each other. Holden tries to recreate a connection as strong as he would have had with Allie through Phoebe. When Holden first reached to New York, she was one of the few people he constantly thought about. They both cared for each other’s well-being equally. Neither Holden nor Phoebe would want to leave each other behind. For instance, Phoebe decided to give Holden all her Christmas money showed the unquestionable love they have. The act of Phoebe was selflessness and without a doubt, Holden would have done the same under similar circumstances. The past allows for a clearer understanding in the reasons for Holden’s unusual actions throughout the story. Allie’s outcome unfortunately impacted Holden’s personality negatively the most. Holden came to develop a temper, a gloomy outlook and guarded personality due to the likelihood that he will revisit many undesirable factors from his past. Although the negative results are vividly expressed, Holden learns to favor the circumstances in his current life by dedicating time to family. The past is not something
Allie was Holden’s everything, he looked up to his brother and respected him. Holden never really had anyone to discipline him or tell him right from wrong. Even though Holden liked too seem as if he was already older then he actually is, he is still a young kid who needs his parents. Allie was Holden’s angel who took care of him while his parents couldn’t. Holden is a protagonist that has been through many harsh events throughout his
Holden view his sister as genuine and honest, not a “phony” like almost everyone else. When he arrives back in New York, one of his first thoughts is that he would like to call and speak with her. In the end of the novel, when Holden is getting ready to start his new life he decides he cannot leave without saying goodbye. Phoebe is the only character in the book who he actually cares about and sees no flaws in. He holds onto Phoebe so much because unlike everyone else surrounded by him, she still has her
Therefore, his rebellion both academically and socially in the schools he attends display his resistance to grow up. These behaviors he shows, are psychological effects he develops due to Allie’s death, hence creating a negative impact on his life. In addition to Allie’s death causing Holden to act out, it also seems to cause neglection in Holden’s life. Just like Holden, it seems his mother has not gotten over
This moment of recalling the moments he has with Allie, and looking back at what Allie was like was a heartfelt moment for Holden, and him choosing to write the essay about Allie’s mitt shows Holden’s connection and love for Allie and the relationship he had with him. Later on towards the end of the novel, we can see Holden frantically walking down the streets yet again, as he finds himself slowly losing touch of reality, and starting to do strange things. When this happens, Holden recognizes that his first instinct was to call for his brother to help him. Holden explains, “Then I started doing something else… I'd make believe I was
Throughout the book, Holden is struggling to get by. The death of his brother Allie has left him in a tough spot. Holden doesn’t exactly know how to deal with this. The different stages of grief are represented through Holden. Holden shows denial and anger when he flashbacks to one of his memories after his brother’s death.
The only motivator that Holden has to continue living is his younger sister, Phoebe, who is extraordinarily intelligent for her age. After he gets kicked out of Pencey, Holden is lost in life. He speaks to many people, seeking advice and comfort, but they are not able to help him find a human connection. Holden’s depression increases throughout the novel, almost to the point of suicide. He criticizes many people and ideas, labeling them as ‘phony’.
Holden Caulfield experiences flashbacks to the traumatic events that have occurred in his life. Holden is constantly reminded of his younger brother Allie who passed away when he was 11 years old. “So what I did, I wrote about… did, and he had very red hair,” (Salinger 38). The reader can see that Holden is constantly thinking of Allie, and that Allie was one of the people in Holden’s life that made him happy. Holden’s ability to remember the vivid details of Allie and his life prove that these traumatic events, occurring upon those who brought him joy, will always be with him.
Holden’s Struggle To Find Himself: Throughout the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden struggles to find himself and who he truly is in order to be happy. His struggles relate to many things that he does or say in particular. Holden lacks with a social status with women and his family, whether it’s a relationship or being antisocial. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield experiences the complexities and struggles involved with both physical and emotional relationships.
When Holden sees his sister coming to him with her bags packed, he almost faints. This forces Holden to finally see how his plans are affecting those he cares about. Holden harshly asks Phoebe, “‘ I thought you were supposed to be in a play at school and all. I thought you were supposed to be Benedict Arnold…’” The quote shows Holden realizing how much Phoebe will sacrifice in order to go with him.
A. Allie’s death causes Holden to become obsessed with death and this obsession makes him believe that growing up and becoming a “phonie” is like dying; this belief that is planted inside Holden’s head when Allie died is what sends him on a quest to preserve children’s innocence and save them from the “death” of growing up. B. Salinger includes the traumatic story of Allies death that happened years in advance to provide an explanation for Holden’s obsession with death and how he sees loss of innocence as equivalent to dying. Allie died with his innocence still intact, so Holden does not want other children to grow up and have their innocence “die”. C. Holden even admits to being mentally unstable after his brother’s traumatic death when he says, “I was only 13, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all
Furthermore, Holden starts to hate all the adults or loses faith in them, calls them phony. Holden has a second thought of becoming an adult he loses hope in his future and it seems to him nothing in the world matters to him anymore. We can see that throughout the book. He smokes, gets drunk, and does daring acts like getting a prostitute in his room. He also tries to escape all this guilt and grief by wasting time with unnecessary people he calls phony.
People do not expect the death of a loved one to occur at such a young age, and so abruptly like Allie 's death. The smashing of the windows shows the huge impact that he had on Holden, and how upset he was that he no longer had his brother by his side. Holden was uncertain in how to deal with this upsetting change in his life, resulted in aggressive behavior. Holden was also exposed to another traumatic event in his life during his time at Pencey. After being introduced to one of Holden 's classmates Castle he states, ¨Finally, what he did, instead of
The repercussions of Allie’s death had immediate effects on Holden’s
In The Catcher in the Rye, the author J.D. Salinger, introduces the protagonist; Holden Caulfield. Holden feels the sense that he cannot choose between the two worlds. For example, he makes it seem as both of them are complete opposites from each other. In the book, Holden wants to keep his innocence, but he also wants to grow up and toss that innocence away. He still keeps his childhood personality by constantly obsessing over things that shouldn’t matter.
Holden becomes increasingly attracted to the idea and comes close to obsession, as his mind is flooded with thoughts of death and disappearance, as well as questions which are revealed throughout the novel. Holden experiences two deaths prior to the events in the novel that impact him profoundly. The most significant death was the death of his younger brother, Allie. Allie died of leukemia three years before the events of the novel.