preview

Examples Of Trauma In Catcher In The Rye

Decent Essays

Trauma is one of the main causes of Holden’s alienation and disillusionment. Most teenagers experience some degree alienation and disillusionment however with the death of his brother allie and a fellow classmate Holden has to undergo the five stages of grieving and this appears throughout the book. This engages the modern audience because the process grief has not changed with time, nor has the process of moving from childhood to adulthood, which confuses and alienates Holden. Salinger’s narrative treatment…this will then connect to the next paragraph. The book catcher in the rye (j.d. Salinger 1945) is a circular, stream of conscious narrative following a teenage boy Holden as he spends three days in New York after being expelled from school. Over the three days we follow Holden’s thought processes as he struggles with alienation, disillusionment and grief. The book uses a framing device where the reader sees Holden in a sanatorium at the beggining and at the end of the book. Holden uses al lot of slang that is associated with the 1940/50’s for example, “it killed me”, “it really did”, “crumby, lousy”, “sonofabitch”,….. Salinger also uses many symbols and motifs like ‘where do the ducks go in the winter’ the explain Holden’s alienation, disillusionment and grief. …show more content…

Denial and isolation, anger, bargaining and finally acceptance. We see Holden’s denial and isolation mostly in his Inability to understand. After Moreen punches him and he pretends to be shot, by doing this he is denying his mental state by pretending it’s a physical wound that will heal easily. “I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.” (Pg 48) he often shows his isolation through his longingness to have some human connection, eg the woman on the train, but denies himself the opportunity to connect properly. When Holden’s brother Allie dies he acts

Get Access