Accepting Realities : The Catcher Of The Rye

One of the hardships Holden must cope with is his inability to come to terms with death, in particular that of his younger brother, Allie. Holden seems to have experienced a

The death of Holden’s brother Allie at a young age adds to Holden’s negativity as well as stopping Holden from accepting inevitable change. Allie dies immaturely of leukemia. “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” (p. 39). Holden is in the hospital because he broke his fist, and he was unable to attend Allie’s funeral. Holden has trouble accepting Allie’s death because he never said goodbye to Allie. His relationship with Allie is similar to his maturity. Just as Holden is unable to accept his brother’s death, Holden is not able to accept that

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J.D. Salinger. It is narrated by Holden Caulfield, a cynical teenager who recently got expelled from his fourth school. Though Holden is the narrator and main character of the story, the focus of Salinger’s tale is not on Caulfield, but of the world in which we live. The Catcher in the Rye is an insatiable account of the realities we face daily seen through the eyes of a bright young man whose visions of the world are painfully truthful, if not a bit jaded. Salinger’s book is a must-read because its relatable symbolism draws on the reader’s emotions and can easily keep the attention of anyone.

To start off with, Holden has symptoms of Post traumatic stress disorder, such as flashbacks and mistrust. He often has flashbacks about his disesaed brother Allie. One example from the novel says,”[Allie] got lukemia and died when we were up in maine, july 18th, 1946”. That is a very specific thing for somebody to remember, considering he doesnt do well in school, proving thatthis event still remains clear in his head. As does his brother. He describes him as” He

In J. D Salinger 's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden, goes through many hardships in his journey to self-knowledge. In the beginning, Holden has to deal with being kicked out of school and not having any place to call home. He is also struggling with the unfortunate tragedy of the death of his beloved younger brother Allie. At the same time, Holden is trying to deal with growing up and accepting the adult world. Throughout the novel Salinger addresses the conflicts faced by a young man struggling with the trials and tribulations of growing up while also confronting personal loss and loneliness along the way.

Holden Caulfield encounters himself facing issues of acceptance of death, growing up, and parental neglecting that prevents him from completely understanding why it is that he is severely depressed. One of the hardships Holden must cope with is his inability to come to terms with death, of his younger brother, Allie. We often discover

Holden’s little brother, Allie, had died and Holden is still not over his death. “I get very depressed, I keep saying to him, Holden says, “Okay. Go home and get your bike and meet me in front of Bobby’s house. Hurry up.” (Salinger, 99). There is many moments where Holden thinks of Allie, and even talks to him. Whenever Holden thinks about Allie he gets very upset and doesn’t want to do anything.

Holden does not understand his own feelings. In the story you can tell he is very confused and lost. Holden is very lonesome and does not only not understand his own feelings or other people's feelings. Holden tries to portray himself as someone he is not. One example is when Holden is at the nightclub while there he tries to portray himself as sophisticated and lied about who he knows. “The only way I could even half enjoy myself dragging her around was if I amused myself a little. So I told her I just saw Gary Cooper, the movie star, on the other side of the floor.” This is an example of Holden not understanding his feelings because he does not want to grow up and hates adults in a way, but tries to fit in with adults and be like adults. Another example is when Holden constantly talks about his brother Allie. “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. Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie." This is an example of Holden not understanding his feelings because Allie is dead and it seems as though Holden cannot accept that he is dead.

I felt so depressed, you can't imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed. I keep telling him to go home and get his bike and meet me in front of Bobby Fallon's house.”(Salinger) This quote clearly shows Holden isn’t over the death of his brother. He loved Allie and still, when he gets very depressed, talks to him. If Holden had received proper treatment earlier for his depression and was able to talk with someone about the death of his brother, he would most likely not failed out of numerous schools. He wasn’t failing; he was trying to cope.

This demonstrates the recklessness of youth theme, as Holden does not think farther ahead into the future, but chooses to live in the present and deal with the consequences of his actions later. In addition, his actions show that Allie’s death had a serious impact on his mental health, as his parents were going to have him psychoanalyzed. Allie’s death was the Cataracts from Heaven archetype, because it destroyed Holden’s Golden Age and changed his world completely. This also leads to many other problems for Holden as he struggles with his mental and emotional problems while navigating his way to adulthood. As the book progresses, so does Holden’s mental issues. He begins to think illogically and imagines terrifying things happening to him. Not only does his actions reflect his issues, but a close look at his thoughts also confirm his growing insanity. When Holden was walking, he notes, “Every time I came to the end of a road I get the feeling that I’d never get to the other side of the street… Then I started doing something else. 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. Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie,

Holden never going to Allie’s funeral gives us insight into why Holden is still holding onto Allie. After Allie’s death, Holden still went through experiences that caused his BPD, neglect and separation. During the time following Allie’s death, Holden’s family was in great grieving, making Holden feel isolated and not getting the attention he needed to fully grow mentally as a child (“National Allegiance on Mental Health”). Holden also expresses twice, that his mother is still grieving over Allie’s death by stating his mother, “still isn’t over my brother Allie yet” (Salinger 155). Holden is also never close to anyone. He meets with his family a limited amount of time throughout the year, and is kicked out of schools, giving him no permanent guidance in his life. Holden constantly describes his expulsion as, getting “the ax” (107). He shows a continuous changing in guardians, because of his attachment to both Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini, both old school teachers from schools he flunked out of. He also dealt with the separation from D.B. his other brother, who moved to Hollywood, Holden seems to be very inspired by him throughout the novel, but is mad that he left (1).

As grief consumed Holden since, he never could get over his brother’s death. He says, “I don’t care if it’s a sad goodbye or a bad goodbye, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse”(Salinger 7). Holden didn’t get any sort of goodbye from Allie because of his untimely passing. He was full of rage and hurt his hand which put him in the hospital, missing Allie’s funeral. Holden refusing to become an adult and desperately trying to cling to his younger self is a sign of his past experience with change. When Allie left without a goodbye, it changed Holden’s perception of the world around

There relationship was left open ended because Holden didn’t attend to Allie’s funeral. Therefore he never got to say goodbye. The book states “They all came when Allie died, the whole goddam stupid bunch of them. I have this one stupid aunt with halitosis that kept saying how peaceful he looked lying there, D.B. told me. I wasn't there. I was still in the hospital. I had to go to the hospital and all after I hurt my hand.” (Salinger 171) This quote reveals to us that Holden never went to the funeral. Which means he never really got to say his last goodbyes. Therefore, their relationship is still open ended (it isn’t closed, there wasn’t any closure). This is why Holden acts the way he does he is afraid that if he becomes close to someone he will lose them without saying goodbye or he would lose them in general. This is why Holden pushes people away and doesn’t have any

Throughout the book, Holden discusses and makes references to his younger brother Allie. Allie had died of leukemia three years before Holden starts telling his story. Leukemia is a type of cancer and almost all of the people diagnosed with it had passed away back then. According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the first chemotherapy drugs had started to be put in use around the mid-1950s. Allie’s death affects Holden in so many ways during the course of the novel. If they were in the 21st century, Allie would have had more like an 80% of a survival rate (“Child Leukemia” 15), instead of 0%. Holden would have been a much different character. Allie’s death had shaped him to who he was and pretty much scarred him. He never stopped grieving.

When the reader looks back at Holden’s history they can make assumptions as to why Holden wants things to stay the way they are. The general assumption would be because Holden is very distant to people who are dear to him. He mentions his younger sister, Phoebe frequently but cannot connect with her in any way due to Holden’s enrollment in a relatively distant school. Holden also recalls his two brothers, Allie and D.B., whom he is exiled from in result of Allie’s tragic fate and D.B.’s migration to California. The death of Holden’s favorite person, Allie, results ultimately in the unstable mental condition that controls Holden. Holden’s fascination with children and their mentalities is driven from Holden’s mourning of Allie’s death. While Holden tries to resist changing, he is identifying himself with Allie. Critic, Hermit Vanderbilt, agrees that, “Obviously despairing at the cosmic injustice of such an early death, Holden falls into a schizophrenic disorder interested in keeping him from growing up and keeping the role of Allie alive.” (Vanderbilt 299). In addition to the laments of personal loss, Holden also desires a stagnancy of time because of his fear of losing his moral purity. This is shown when Holden speaks about how his older brother, D.B., has lost his moral standards in the pursuit of fame. Holden feels D.B. has strayed far from his truly respectable writing when D.B. “sold himself out” to the expectations of Hollywood. Holden refers to D.B. as a