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Holden's Loss In Catcher In The Rye

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Have you ever lost someone dear to you? after Holden's brother Allie passes away, he has strange ways of dealing with his loss. His mixed emotions and the actions caused by them show what a loss can do to impact someones life and can take a toll on themself. One raging emotion that Holden encounters is violent outbursts. “I was only thirteen and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. This took place the night that Allie died, he slept in the garage with his bare, busted and bloody hands. This quotes shoes that for an atheist, Holden he seems terrified at the thought of his own death and then sometimes he’s indifferent and objective to the notion. “If there’s ever another war, I’m going to sit right the hell on top of the atomic bomb. I’ll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.” He describes his won suicidal thoughts. The second of many emotions Holden goes through is depression. “I can’t stand that stuff. It drives me crazy. It makes me so depressed I go crazy. I hated that goddam Elkton Hills.” Holden does not speak about Allie’s death directly nor openly. There’s a link between his inability to articulate his feelings and his depressive state. He has a hard time to fully process it. It shows his inability to cope. His whole dissociation with himself shows he’s lost. The lack …show more content…

He lives in the past. His behavior over his death is the same way he reacts when anything else goes wrong in his life. He blames himself so his life resolution is to be the catcher in the rye. He dreams to save children from losing their innocence to make up for his remorse and regret of not being able to save his brother, the most innocent in his life. That’s all he focuses his life on. “I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all, I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.” This is how experienced dealing with

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The loss of his older brother and the absent parents have really affected Holden’s behavior. He lives a life without any care but with exception of younger children. Holden has a fascination with younger children and their innocence possibly because he wasn’t able to enjoy his adolescent years and nor did his brother. Holden mentions “‘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.

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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

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In The Catcher of the Rye, Holden barely mentions his late brother, barely opening up to others and confronting his emotions. When Allie died to Leukemia at a young age, his emotions of grief are illustrated with how he reacts to Allie’s death with Holden saying, “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” (Sallinger, 44). With Allie’s death, Holden shows signs of grief with much aggression as he destroys his windows with his fists at 13 years old after Allie’s death. Allie’s death results in Holden forming mental illnesses of depression from loneliness as displayed when Holden sat by himself smoking cigarettes when he says how he starts talking outloud when feeling depressed.

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I know it’s crazy” (Salinger 13) but really he is not admitting why he wants to be that. Holden only wants to be the catcher in rye because he is in the stage of denial. In his mind, being the catcher in the rye symbolizes that Holden still wants to catch Allie from falling off

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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.

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The first cause of Holden 's mental illness that readers notice is that he lacks control over his actions. As Holden was 13 years old, his brother Allie died of leukemia. Holdens behavior in response to his brothers death was very violent. “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 (Holden Caulfield 39).” Holden admits that he didn’t know he was doing it, but says it was a stupid thing to do.

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We learn later in the novel that Holden was sent to the hospital with permanent hand injuries. Allie’s death was clearly a very traumatic experience in Holden’s life and plays a significant role in why Holden cannot connect with other people. After his death, Holden compares everyone he sees with Allie and rejects people who he believes to have lost their innocence. Everyone that isn’t up to his standard are “phonies.” Even towards the end of the book, Holden could not get closure with his brother’s death and is constantly reminded of his dead brother whenever he is feeling

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Throughout the story we see Holden that suffers from a lot of illnesses like Post traumatic stress disorder, detachment, agitation, depression, denial, acceptance, sleep deprivation, and loneliness. Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder characterized by failure to recover after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. I believe Holden was diagnosed with this disorder after the death of his younger brother Allie. Like any other human being losing a younger sibling is a life changing event especially the way Holden lost his brother. After Holden found out his brother died he was so angry that he punched the windows out of his old summer home and broke his hand.

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“I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage” (Salinger 38). This illustrates that Holden has had many flashbacks related to Allie’s death that have lasted for over four years, which makes him liable for the diagnosis of PTSD. Another symptom of PTSD that Holden encounters is increase of alcohol usage. “The symptoms of PTSD are difficult to cope with, and they often lead people to use more unhealthy ways of coping, such as alcohol or drug use” (Tull). This quote from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder expert, Matthew Tull; demonstrates that some symptoms of of PTSD lead to alcohol or drug use.

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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

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Throughout the novel, the topic of death is reoccurring in Holden 's mind. Whether he 's in school, doing homework, or aimlessly walking around New York City, Allie 's presence or lack thereof is always looming. It escalates to the point that Holden is always thinking about his own death, but more more specifically he 's fear of being forgotten: "Every time I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddamn 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"(256).

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