Holden's PTSD In The Catcher In 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

Holden’s deep depression arose from Allie’s death, and at Holden’s lowest moments, he starts to think about Allie. His depression started when Holden “broke all the goddamn windows with [his] fist” (39). Holden is unable to properly grieve for his brother leaving him in bitter depression with the lingering memories of Allie to bring him comfort. At the park, Holden’s contemplation on his own death leads him back to thoughts about Allie at the cemetery. Holden recalls the feeling of guilt he felt when he had to leave Allie at the cemetery so eventually he stopped going. Allie brings Holden back to reality at the park making him go see Phoebe and eventually Allie’s death reminds Holden of why he can’t leave Phoebe. The pain Holden constantly feels because of Allie’s death drags him deeper into depression, but also gives him some comfort in his toughest times. Holden’s contrast of emotions about Allie portrays his inability to stop thinking about Allie and to accept that Allie is gone.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric sequel to a stressful event or situation of an exceptionally threatening or catastrophic nature. It develops after a person is involved in a horrifying ordeal that involved physical maltreatment or the threat of physical harm. These events can include combat or military experience, abuse during childhood or adulthood (physical or sexual), terrorist attacks, serious accidents or natural disasters. This person may have been the one that was harmed, witnessed a harmful event or had a loved one who was harmed. It is normal for the body’s fight or flight mechanism to engage in times of danger. With a person who has PTSD, that mechanism is damaged and the person feels this even when they are not in danger. Symptoms can be categorized into four different areas – re-experiencing symptoms (flashbacks, bad dreams, frightening thoughts) , avoiding situations that remind the person of the event, negative changes in beliefs and feelings (may be fear, guilt, shame or losing interest in those activities that once were enjoyable) and hypervigilence (always feeling keyed up, trouble concentrating or sleeping). There are also feelings of hopelessness, despair, depression or anxiety, alcohol or substance abuse, physical symptoms or chronic pain and problems with employment and relationships.

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

Holden seems to struggle with depression. In many places throughout the novel, Holden describes to us his deep sadness. A lot of times his depression is unpredictable and triggered by tense situations. In one situation while he was explaining his feelings about the Elkton Hills headmaster’s phony and rather boring conversations with well-built and

Instead of dealing with his problems Holden drank. This negatively affects him. Instead of getting help with his emotions he would drink them away so he would feel less. Drinking is seen persistently throughout the novel. Some may think that Holden has a severe drinking problem, which he does. A majority of his money is spent on alcohol at the bars he goes to. Holden is a minor and it is illegal for him to drink (57). Holden feels as if he is older when he drinks and likes the feeling because he does not want to be seen as one of the “phony” guys that he often speaks about throughout the novel. One night he gets so drunk he just does not know what is going on. It feels good for him. It is often mentioned that Holden drank when he had nothing else to do. He would stay out late because he wasn’t tired and had nothing else to do, and he was lonely. Holden feels a need to be drunk whenever he is around the “jerky preps” (85). He says “I can’t sit in a corny place like this cold sober” (70). He feels as if they are phony and he is unlike them. He often feels like getting out of the bars, but doesn’t because he doesn’t want to leave to become lonely. “I felt like getting out of the place. It was too depressing” (80).

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 experiences extreme difficulty accepting his current realities and one of the main factors causing this is the lasting negative impact his brother Allies death had on his life. Firstly, when Holden decides to leave his school, he tells readers , “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, 4). Holden’s need for closure is evident in this quote. When Allie died, it was very unexpected and he was not prepared to let him go, resulting in his denial that his brother is actually

Holden knows the reaction his parents are going to give but does not want to be there when it happens. This proves Holden’s disconnection and lack of communication within his family, he is not the son his family intended as that was his younger brother Allie, this makes it clear for Holden to be unable to emotionally connect with his parents. Moreover, during the night of Allie’s death, Holden took affect by the news and reacted by punching all the windows in his garage causing major cuts in his hands, being rushed to the hospital, and psychoanalyzed, he argued, “I was only thirteen, and they had me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage.” (Salinger 38). Holden tells the reader what happened to him during the night of Allie’s death and how he reacted, but also hints how is parents took control of his situation. Instead of trying to connect with their son and communicate with him to handle his problems, Holden’s parents rather had him psychoanalyzed and spend money and rely on other people to fix Holden. Holden does not have a strong connection/relationship with either of his parents than other families do with each

Post-traumatic stress disorder most often occurs after a traumatic event that leaves the person emotionally and psychologically scarred. Some traumatic events that could result in the disorder include war, natural disasters, car crashes, death of a loved one, assault or abuse. In Holden Caulfield’s case, the death of his brother Allie, whom he grew very close to, was the cause of his pain and suffering. Holden’s case is not uncommon among those with the disorder according to helpguide.org who stated, “It (PTSD) can even occur in the friends or family members of those who went through the actual trauma”(Smith). Although, post-traumatic stress disorder more commonly occurs in those

Holden has experienced clusters of severe trauma throughout his entire life. His brother Allie died of Leukemia a few years ago and Holden was so upset that he punched all of the windows out in his garage that night. Neither Holden, nor his family have yet to deal with the loss of Allie, which clearly affected Holden very much. Also Holden was a witness to James Castle’s suicide at a private school that he once attended. James Castle had been bullied and could no longer handle the situation, so he resorted to suicide by hurling himself out of a building window and falling to his death. Although Holden was not incredibly close with James Castle, he was still affected deeply by the sight of the incident.

Few people actually know what PTSD is and the symptoms that occur with it because they have not had to deal with it personally. PTSD is defined by the experts as an illness affecting a person going through hard times and experiencing demanding thoughts after a traumatic event has occurred in their life (Sudden Bereavement:). People suffering with PTSD want to forget the hard times they are going through, therefore they resort to depression, substance abuse, and anxiety disorder (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)). These actions are similar to the things Holden does Catcher in the Rye. In this novel, Holden does things such as drink alcohol, smoke, and hires a prostitute so he can try to forget the pain he is feeling and dealing with constantly. “7.7 million Americans 18 and older have PTSD” (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)). Provided that, about 2

Holden is not physically wounded, but he is emotionally wounded. He feels as if he is the only person at the bar who is drink their sorrows away. He even reveals how he put present a false depiction of who he truly is because he states that he must conceal is wounds, meaning he wants to appear stronger than he is in real life. Ironically, he is in fact wounded greatly, and he feels alone and desperate. He reveals these feelings when he says, “I was crying and all. I don’t know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (p. 169). Holden knows he is hurting, but can attempts to create a false fantasy situation in which he is not

It is a ghastly trauma that takes time to let it go, but continues to influence their lives to look back at them and move on. Holden experiences two dreadful deaths that trigger his depressed emotional state. He thinks about the brutality of the world when an Elkton Hills student, James Castle, committed suicide (Salinger 170) by being tormented by seven boys. This is one of the reasons why he strongly hates society around him.