How Holden Deals with Grief in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

Holden Caulfield faces a dilemma throughout “The Catcher in the Rye”. Holden wants to protect his innocence as a child. As he leaves Pencey Prep; venturing off into the vast city of new york, he tries to get somebody to listen to him and meaningfully respond to his fears about becoming an adult. Holden has grown six inches in the past year and one side of his head is full of grey hair, both symbols of the inevitability of the progression of time towards adulthood and its disappearance of innocence. He is so obsessed with protecting his innocence he can't even through a snowball at a car because, “it looks so nice and white.

From Holden’s testimony of the event that led to his enrollment in my program, I have concluded that Holden suffers from anxiety disorders. More specifically panic attacks, and more seriously, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the story that Holden I see many examples of these two disorders, along with a strong fear and resentment of impending adulthood. This Mixture of confusion and dread, led him to me. I do, though, believe that Holden can recover and be admitted back into society.

The many red flags seen in Holden throughout the book such as not sleeping or eating, excessive drinking, and wanting to commit suicide is seen in many teenagers around the world. Holden’s experiences can teach people to reach out to those showing signs of depression or those who are depressed to reach out to those who care about you to get help. While reading this novel I experienced great sympathy for Holden because someone who is desperately needing that help deserves and needs to get

Firstly, Holden’s first attack to adulthood is to try and avoid it by entering his own world where he is in control. The ‘museum’ is a very important place to Holden because it is a place where the normal ‘laws’ of the world do not exist. The museum serves as his escape from complicated adult life because unlike reality,

The Catcher in the Rye was about Holden, who admires in children attributes that he struggles to find in adults to talk to him and he is undergoing treatment in a mental hospital. Holden Caulfield,who is 16 year old teenager went to three schools, but fails four of his five subjects only passed English he also struggles with the fact that everyone has to grow up. In the novel, Holden tells the reader through a few days of his life, in which he flaunts his hostile environments. Throughout the book,

Holden has either left or been expelled from about four prep schools, three of which are: Whooton School, Elkton Hills, and Pencey Prep due to his poor academic effort and his dislike of those around him, he feels .."surrounded by phonies." (pg.13) When the novel first begins, Holden informs the reader he is not allowed back at Pencey, his most recent school, as he has failed all but his english class. "They kicked me out. I wasn't supposed to come back after Christmas vacation, on account of I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself at all." (pg. 4) Although Holden is fully capable of excelling in his classes, his only real reasoning for the failure in his education is because he just does not care enough to put forth any effort. Failure does not seem to concern Holden, which itself is concerning. However, disapointing his parents

Holden loved Allie, and was disturbed from the news of his death. Holden was hospitalized after punching his garage windows. When Holden explained Allie’s traits, he said, “But it wasn’t just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways” (Salinger 50).” Holden thought the most of Allie. He thought Allie had the most potential out of anybody he had ever met. He also thought Allie was a genuinely good person, and that he did not deserve to die. One of the greatest causes to depression is a death or a loss. When Holden finally came up with an answer to phoebe’s question to think of something that he liked, Holden’s answer was that he liked Allie. Phoebe told Holden that Allie is dead. Holden then said, “I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're alive and all" (Salinger 222-223). Holden was constantly depressed about Allie because he was always thinking of him. Allie was the nicest person Holden had ever met. The death of a person with an impact like that would cause anyone devastation. His mindset makes him believe that no one else will be as good to him as Allie was. He thought the best person that will ever be in his life was gone

Holden constantly talks about his brother Allie, who had leukemia and passed away while they were still at a young age. Asking him how he felt during those grievous time he says, "I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed

Holden mentions Allie in the book quite often when he is feeling down. Allie was everything that Holden’s not. “He was terrifically intelligent.” His teachers were always writing letters to my mother , telling her what a pleasure it was to have a

Holden starts his story from a mental hospital. “Im not going to tell you my whole goddamn autobiography or anything. Just this madman stuff that happened to me last christmas” says Holden. Holden is a sixteen-year-old junior who has just been expelled for academic failure from a school called Pencey Prep. After being expelled from your school every kid in america must feel pretty bad about themselves he was like all. Holden dint really fit in well with the other kids. He always though of the world as a bunch of phonies. The amount of criticism he gave the school was high class. He hated everyone except a handful of people. Holden's condition starts of alright, somewhere in the middle he hits rockbottom but fortunately by the end everything is good for him. Holden is literally about to crash. Near the beginning as well as the end of the novel, he feels that he will disappear or fall into an abyss when he steps off a curb to cross a street. Sometimes when this happens, he calls on his dead brother, Allie, for help. Part of Holden’s collapse is due to his inability to come to get over his brothers death.

Holden Caulfield, a 17 year old boy who is reminiscing a about his 16 year old self’s journey from childhood to adulthood. This in such journeys one tends to make big decisions and loses their innocence, but Holden refuses to. In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye one may only see Holden Caulfield as a rich boy with first world problems that are way too trivial to feel lost about. Throughout the duration of the novel Holden spent it in New York City, where he moped around for a few days. While there he found himself in different situations asking the same questions about change. Holden has immense issues with change, specifically growing up. Like any person growing up requires one to understand the benefits of change and to embraces them,

Images of the book title acted out- Holden wants to catch the children before they fall. Allie’s glove is representative of his creativity and uniqueness, and it shows a good side to Holden’s family that he evidently misses.

Holden is overwhelmed by change, and it leads him to prefer things that stay the same or do not change. We see that when Holden goes to the museum that he realizes that the only thing that ever changes is the people. At the museum the exhibits never

Along with the notion that the death of a loved one can affect a person’s relationship with themselves, is the idea that the death could also affect a person’s relationships with others. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye we can see that Holden is isolated from everyone else in the novel, yet before Allie’s death Holden appears to have had a normal childhood. Holden recalls playing checkers with Jane (Salinger 31) and going golfing (38), but after Allie’s death he seems to begin to pull away from society. Holden was very close to his brother, so it was probably difficult for him to continue with his normal life when nothing was the same anymore, even feeling wrong to continue living and having fun while Allie is gone and unable do these things

Catcher in the Rye starts off with Holden Caufield, the main character, alone at the top of Thomsen Hill above Pencey Prep. Holden has gotten kicked out of Pencey along with numerous other schools. Laziness is the reason of Holdens lack of success in school like many teenage boys. He goes back to his dorm and starts reading the book Out of Africa when his doofus roommate Robert Ackley walks in. His description to meet is just that awkwardly tall kid, like myself but with poor hygiene. Holdens roommate, Stradlater comes in and tells them about a date he is going on with none other than Holdens old fling named Jane Gallagher. Stradlater has a carefree attitude for her calling her by the wrong name multiple times. Stradlater also asks Holden to write an English composition for him since that is the only class Holden is not failing. Holden reluctantly agrees and that is when we get our first taste of why he is such an angry kid. He writes about his little brother named Allie who died a few years before of Leukemia. He specifically wrote about his baseball glove that he wrote poems on so he