Holden Caulfield's Immaturity in The Catcher in the Rye

When Holden is faced with a problem, instead of facing it and slowly working his way through it, he tries to get rid of it entirely. He does not want to be thrown into the real world and will do anything to not be put in those “adult like situations”. I believe that Holden’s issues arose about the time when his younger brother Allie passed away due to leukemia when he was only eleven. Holden has the choice to either act like an adult or play like a child when he comes across a problem. But not surprisingly, he can’t choose which path to follow, so he stays stuck in the middle.

Where was he right now? Jeremiah felt a lack of distance from his dad. He found out that Lois Ann and his father had a thing going on. On page 99 it says “He didn’t know that Lois Ann and his father had a thing going on, a heavy thing that would eventually break the family apart”. This shows that Jeremiah is not happy with his family and is very distant from them.

Doodle’s disabilities affected him from birth so he was not treated equal and his brother wanted him to learn the things he should already know. What prompted Doodle’s brother to help him was embarrassment which over came all of his feelings. Being different was hard for Doodle but at times it was harder for his brother to put up with because, as the narrator states, “Doodle was my brother and he was going to cling to me forever, no matter what I did.”(Hurts 159). Unfortunately Doodle was told he would never live and because of that he was never taught anything as a child. It would take Doodle a long time to learn everything.

When he misses his final exam, his parents talk the school into letting him pass. This is an example as to how excessive his parents are about Crabbe following their dreams. If he did follow everything his parents wanted him to do, he would become a non-independent thinker. Crabbe was becoming depressed for he was not enjoying life. Crabbe was depressed because when his parents planed out his whole life, he did not want to do those things and wanted to portray that he is independent.

In the beginning of the novel, Perry was an uncertain teen who didn’t know where his place in life was “The real question was what I was doing, what any of us were doing, in Nam” (69). By the middle of the book, Perry started to become doubtful of himself and started to say Jenkins and Carroll died because of him “In a way i felt real bad just for being alive to write it” (110). And by the last few chapters he really starts to lose his way and lose his judgement from right and wrong “Maybe when we all got back to the world and everybody thought we were heroes for winning it, then it would seem right from there” (229). During my reading of Fallen Angels, I began to notice the theme, and I think the theme is that War is devastating to people because it can totally mess you up psychologically and physically. Perry for example was already uncertain of his future and his knee injury already had him on edge.

He uses the depression and angst that coincides with the struggles of youth, an age that is an uncouth time for all. Speaking of how youth have to hid in order to “pass” among heterosexual peers. The hopes of marriage and a family that young people aspire to is out of the reach of these budding youth. In order to pass, these youth develop a structured life, centered around a career or academics, but this can lead to an overwhelming depression, as Sullivan presented in his description of a man who, while living his structured life, woke up one morning to find himself paralyzed. There was no forward,

Being with this if Chris was to be still alive he would mostly like think of his foolish young adult ways and childhood that caused him to upbring traits that were no good for his travels and life around the people who loved him the most. His ignorance was lead to by his upbringing of family drama, how his death came upon him, and the people who cared for him in which he had no intention of listening to before he stepped into the

Actions of the judge early in the novel blatantly show prominent hypocrisy. Huck’s father is an uneducated alcoholic, who abuses his son frequently. Pap does not appear in Huck’s life again until he discovers news of Huck’s newfound fortune, exhibiting the irony of only showing up in his child’s life when the kid has something he wants, which is the reverse ideal of a father. “‘That’s why I come. You git me that money to-morrow - I want it,’” (30) explains patently that he is an inadequate father, from his poor morals.

He had fled the claustrophobic confines of his family. He’d successfully kept Jan Burres and Wayne Westerberg at arm’s length, flitting out of their lives before anything was expected of him. And now he’d slipped painlessly out of Ron Franz’s life as well,” every time someone tried to become close to him, he pushed him or her away. When Ronald Franz asked to adopt him, Chris told him that they would talk about it when he returns from Alaska. Chris’ problems with his father affected his ability to form new, close relationships, and ultimately sent him to his death.

Shortly after Christopher’s death, Turing began to avoid thinking and talking about Christopher. These are symptoms associated with Childhood Traumatic Grief (CTG). CTG is defined as a traumatic reaction that takes place after a sudden, unexpected, or anticipated death (NCTSN, 2014). Following Christopher’s death, Turing immersed himself in his studies, but his professors systematically complained about his lack of appropriate English grammar and untidiness, rather than encourage his genius and foster his strengths. As he grew older, Turing became more socially withdrawn, but actively sought much greater intimacy of expression.