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Holden's Mental Breakdowns In The Catcher In The Rye

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Mental Breakdowns During High school many students struggle with grades and what they want to be when they are older. Holden Caulfield doesn’t worry about these things. He doesn’t apply himself in school which causes him to be kicked out repeatedly. Throughout the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Sallinger Holden struggles with depression and mental breakdowns. When Holden gets kicked out of his current school, Pencey, he decides to leave a few days early to spend a few days in New York City alone. During the trip Holden experiences many events that cause him to have mental breakdowns. Holden’s mental breakdowns with his fight with Stradilator, date with Sally and crying episode in the rain eventually lead to an appointment with a psychologist. …show more content…

The night Holden decides to leave Pencey he gets in a fight with stradilator about a girl he went on a date with. This isn’t just any girl; this is Jane, Holden’s best friend over the summer in Maine. When stardilator returns from the date Holden is interrogating him about how it went and what they did. Although, it is doubtful they did much because of Jane’s personality Stradilator tries to mess with Holden and he will not tell him. This makes Holden believe Stradilator took advantage of Jane so Holden “tried to sock him, with all his might” (43.) This act of violence is only the beginning to Holden’s sensitive collapse. A second event that night occurred moments after Holden swung at Stradilator. After Holden’s punch Stradilator pins Holden down and keeps punching him because Holden “kept calling him a sonuvabitch…All morons hate it when you call them a moron” (44.) This repetitive act of taunting Stradilator is an example of his lonesome and numbness to the world around him and, the want to feel something other than being

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