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The Mentor Of Holden In Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

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Holden meets few prominent mentors throughout the novel, who offer ephemeral relief to his problems, allowing for itinerantly to the past instead of living in the present. Allie, Holden’s brother, is a significant mentor who makes Holden reminisce on positive experiences with him before he passes away. Furthermore, Holden struggles long-term when Allie passes away and violently reacts, displaying his impaired judgement due to the stress of losing a family member ( Salinger 38-39). Holden admires his brother for being able to work past hardships and emotionally express himself through his unique poetry on his baseball mitt, which becomes a symbolic item to Holden when remembering Allie. Holden’s other prominent mentor is his sister, Phoebe, who sticks by his side, …show more content…

Holden is able to face his problems because he has met the psychological “need of belonginess and love needs” when reaching his goals (Maslow’s Hierarchy). After forming a stronger relationship with Phoebe, more of his psychological needs are met; Holden feels safe trusting his sister and becomes more affiliated with others instead of using isolation as a defense mechanism. Holden’s bohemian ideology on people around him is very similar to Chris McCandless from Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild. They both struggle to form connections with others and have relationship issues with their family. “He acted like it was it was hard for him to be around people...It was pretty obvious he didn’t get along with his family” (Krakauer 63). McCandless, like Holden, possesses a negative relationship with his family that causes him to isolate himself from family which is similar to Holden wanting to run away after being kicked out of school to avoid facing judgement. Furthermore, Holden and McCandless both obtain stronger relationships with their sisters and undergo difficulty when faced with social situations, preferring to isolate themselves from

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