The Past Affects the Present Essay

Holden can’t get over the loss of his brother’s death, Allie, and even blames himself partially for his death. Holen in the book says “Anyway, that’s what I wrote about Stradlater’s composition about. Old Allie's baseball mitt. ”(Salinger 39). These two quotes both explain how Holden feels on the inside and the outside.

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.

Later, Mal Brossard and Holden decide to go to Agerstown to see a movie, despite the fact that Holden hates seeing movies. Out of sympathy, he asks Mal if he can invite Ackley along. The three embark to Agerstown, but it becomes apparent that Brossard and Ackley had already seen the film, so the three end up eating hamburgers and playing pinball for a few hours instead. They return to the dorm, where Mal begins searching for a game of bridge and Ackley immediately begins picking his face. Holden begins to drop hints for Ackley to leave, but Ackley is too stupid to pick up on that. Eventually, Holden kicks Ackley out so he can begin to write Stradler’s composition. The composition was supposed to be based on describing a room or a house, but Holden decides to write a heartfelt composition about his dead brother’s baseball glove, which is covered in poems in green ink. Holden’s brother, Allie, died of leukemia. The composition idealizes Allie for his intelligence and sensitivity. It is evident that the loss of Allie was an extremely traumatic event for Holden and the pain is still very much real. The loss of Allie may attribute to Holden’s cynicism and bitter tones. Holden continues to discuss how on the night of Allie’s death, he slept in garage, where he broke all of the windows with his fist “just for the hell of

Holden begins to get upset while she is there, when she leaves he is even more depressed than before. He lit a few cigarettes and started talking out loud to his brother Allie. We find out earlier in the book that Allie died when they were younger from Leukemia. Holden thinks of a time when they were younger and he was going to shoot BB guns with his friend Bobby

One of the hardest parts of life is accepting the loss of a well-loved family member or friend. Although death happens in the span of only a few moments, the ghost of the memories linger long after the loss. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden lost his younger brother Allie to leukemia when he was only thirteen. The rest of the novel details Holden’s travels through New York City before checking into a hospital for his mental health. Allie died years prior, but much of Holden's mindset as a sixteen year- old is drawn from his brother's death.

Holden was writing a composition for Stradlater when he thinks of his little brother. Allie -Holden’s brother- is two years younger than Holden and passed away from cancer. The tone of the story changes when Allie is brought into Holden’s thoughts. Holden misses him dearly. This is foreshadowing that we will hear more about Holden’s little brother and their time together.

Holden lost Allie to cancer. Conrad lost his brother to a boating accident. Holden idolized Allie. Allie was special; he had red hair, he was left handed, he wrote poems on his baseball mitt. Allie was sensitive and caring, and to us Holden made Allie sound like a saint. Allie’s death played a major role in Holden’s life. The day Holden found out, anger took over, causing him to break the windows in the garage, hospitalizing him with a broken hand. Holden’s depression was caused by the death of his brother, and because of that, he is

Jane is a girl who Holden became very close to when she used to live nearby to him, and he has always had very strong feelings for her. When Ward Stradlater, Holden’s roommate at Pencey, has a date with her, he becomes very worried and nervous that they would like each other and that the date would go a little too well. However, when Stradlater says Holden can go out to see her too if he really wants to, he makes an excuse. He is too shy to confront her, and he is also too shy to tell Stradlater how he feels about Jane. Holden even gets in a physical fight with Stradlater after his date with Jane. Although Holden tried to act like he was just angry because of what a moron Stradlater was, he is mad because he is jealous, but of course, he does not say this. After Holden left Pencey Prep, every time he came across a phone he would always debate whether or not to call up Jane. He would always end up make an excuse such as ‘I didn’t feel like it’ or ‘I just wasn’t in the mood’, anything to avoid facing his real feelings for this girl. However, it was clear that he was just too shy to talk to her, and he distracted himself from his relationship problems with Jane by constantly unsuccessfully trying to hook up with other girls. Holden has many reflections on their past together, like when they used to play games together and watch movies with each other. When Jane was

Holden really is in love with Jane, but has emotional issues that prevent him from showing Jane he wants to be with her. The two have been together through thick and thin, and Holden has seen some of Jane’s darkest times. For example, when Jane’s drunken step-dad makes her feel uncomfortable, Holden is right there comforting and “kissing her all over- any-where-her eyes, her nose, her forehead and all, her ears- her whole face except her mouth and all” (Salinger 102). Holden and Jane had previously been intimate, but once Holden is in the city he could not find the strength to talk to her. He “gave old Jane a buzz again, but her phone didn’t answer so I had to hang up”(Salinger 176).

Holden decided to write about his dead brother, Allie's baseball glove. Holden felt opening up to Stradlater and talking about this topic would create a stronger connection between the two. Holden remembers his brother with his baseball glove. “My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder's mitt. He was left-handed.

Holden Caulfield, a name synonymous with rebellion, alienation, and cynicism, is the protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Throughout such novel, many problems plague Holden, one of the largest being his inability to reach closure over the death of his younger brother, Allie. To Holden, Allie represents an ideal persona that he subconsciously looks for in people. Allie was an intelligent, enthusiastic young boy who Holden admired, in a way. When Holden talks about Allie, he only ever has positives, heaping praise upon his brother. All to mention that he had died of Leukemia at a young age. Holden responded at first, saying, “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just

Holden is devastated by Allie’s death and carries around a baseball glove on which Allie used to write poems in green ink. Because Allie died so young, Holden thought that his innocence was taken away from him. I do not think Allie influenced Holden in a good way, because in reaction to his death Holden felt it was his responsibility to protect the innocence of all children. And this is not a healthy feeling, a boy of Holden’s age should not feel responsible for the innocence of children, he should have been able to accept that everyone is going to be an

More of Holden's feelings are revealed about Jane. He claims that Jane is the only other person he has shown Allie’s mitten to. Allie’s glove symbolizes Holden’s emotions, he keeps it hidden and precious to his heart. I believe the baseball mitt has a connection to his feeling which he reserves for a few. I think this shows the amount of trust he has in Jane and the level of comfort he feels. In some parts of the book Holden has mentioned sexual things he has heard from his friends or how close he came to having intercourse with someone on his dates. It was surprising to know that Holden's memory of Jane were un-sexual. He describes how they held hands and played checkers most of the times. Holden portrays Jane as an innocent girl that he likes

Particularly, Holden reminisces on how Jane’s dog relieved himself on the Caulfields’ lawn often and how Holden’s mother went off on Jane’s mother for allowing the dog to do so. From that moment on, Holden and Jane were close friends. He even shares the fact that Jane was the only other person Holden shared Allie’s baseball mitt with. Holden also reminisces on the time when he and Jane were playing checkers on Jane’s porch when Jane’s alcoholic stepfather came out and began to yell at her in an attempt to find cigarettes. This act really upset Jane, making her cry immensely. Holden recalls the only time when he and Jane were even remotely intimate, as he held Jane, kissed her face, and comforted her for quite some time, but never really learned what it was that upset Jane so much about the