Holden Caulfield Grief

    Holden Caulfield, the main character in J.D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher In The Rye, feels that he needs to protect people around him, because he failed to protect his brother Allie from death. Holden feels that he has to care for those close to him. He watches over Jane, Phoebe, and even Mrs. Murrow when he meets her on the train. Holden tries to shield these people from distress. He does not want to fail anyone else.

In Chapters V and VI, Holden’s feelings of anguish and anger are expressed in his actions. Holden describes the death of his younger brother, Allie. As a result of his overwhelming emotions, he broke all the windows in his garage with his fist. “It was a very stupid thing to do, I’ll admit, but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie.” (page 39) Holden couldn’t control his actions and acted recklessly. He does acknowledge that it was dumb to take out his anger by punching windows, but he did it on impulse.

The Catcher in the Rye is one of J. D. Salinger's world-famous books about the disgruntled youth. Holden Caulfield is the main character and he is a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Navigating his way through the challenges of growing up, Holden separates the “phony” aspects of society, and the “phonies” themselves. Some of these “phony” people in his life are the headmaster whose friendliness depends on the wealth of the parents, and his roommate who scores with girls using sickly-sweet affection. This book deals with the complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. Holden senses these feelings most of the time and is guilty about many things in

“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” This quote was said by Holden Caulfield. The main character experiences the death of his brother. Holden’s brothers name is Allie Caulfield. Allie Caulfield was the smartest of the Caulfield’s he died three years before the start of the book and Holden still is taking it hard. The puritans would not approve of the Novel The Catcher in the Rye due to characters did not live sin-free lives, women were not submissive, and characters would swear.

After that incident Holden grew up fast it was not helpful that he was set in a boarding school environment surrounded by other influences of teenage boys. After he Ally’s death he breaks all the windows in his garage. I think that he meant that to release the grief and anger, but he was sent in a downward spiral to trouble.

Much of Holden’s inner turmoil comes from the lack of closure he had from his brother’s death. Regarding Allie, we can see that he struggles a lot with death and depression in general and we are shown this multiple times throughout the book for example in chapter one he describes himself as "wanting to disappear", introducing the reader to a first glimpse of Holden's frustration, saying, "I don’t even know what I was running for- I guess I felt like it. After I got across the road, I felt like I was sort of disappearing. It was that kind of crazy afternoon, terrifically cold and no sun out or anything…" This quote is important to the theme of unresolved grief because it reveals the fragility of Holden’s mental state. Salinger often uses second-person narration that addresses in the novel to show us that Holden is trying to disconnect from his problems and emotions by addressing the reader, proving that Holden has fallen negatively to the impacts of unresolved grief This also helps to make him feel less lonely and alienated. The personification of the "crazy afternoon" is a subtle nod to Holden’s damaging mental state about the effects of Allie's death. The windows are mentioned often and symbolize a barrier between himself and the people and world around him. Salinger was competently able to address the theme of unresolved grief, creating a novel that is untouched by any other in terms of quality and messages

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 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.

Holden Caulfield, a boy who doesn’t seem to know what he wants to do with his life, finally figures it out. He decides that he wants to become a catcher in the rye, but without the influence of his little sister Phoebe, none of this would be possible. Holden started off as a lost and depressed character who did everything along and who also didn’t like many people. Holden’s actions may have been because of his past experiences or because of his childhood. To try to overcome his lost and depressing ways, Holden spends most of the book doing adult-like things.

Which tells us that he is emotionally unstable. This is true because when Holden found out about Allie’s dead he broke all of the windows in the garage with his own hands. He also, slept in the garage that night. In the book Holden states “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have my psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don't blame them. I really don't. 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. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it. It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it, and you didn't know Allie.” (Salinger 44) This tells us that Holden is mentally unstable at this point and this leads to the reason why he wasn’t at his brothers funeral. It also, leads to Holden not wanting to make friends and pushing people away. As you can see there is a chain reaction that happens here. This is example is just to show us what leads up to why Holden doesn’t want to make

On the night of Allie’s death, Holden says, “ I slept in the garage the night he (Allie) died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it . . . but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it. . .”(50)When holden slept in the “garage”, this tells the reader that he purposely isolated himself from people since most people don’t sleep in garages when they learn about an important death. This was his way of cutting off people because no one would try to talk to him because he seems to make it clear that he wants to be alone by sleeping where he did. The fact that he doesn’t know why he hurt himself so bad shows that this is strange way of coping with his brother’s death since he did the same the night allie died, almost as if it was a trigger for Holden to get physical because that’s what he needs to do to calm down.

In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is a hero that wants to protect the innocence and health of young children. He is constantly helping other people, whether it is by preserving children from adulthood or protecting their physical well-being; yet Holden never really helps himself, even in the worst times. He takes care of other people more than he takes care of himself, showing that he would risk his own health in order to save other people.

In J.D. Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye, Salinger explores the complicated relationships between family members through his protagonist and narrator, Holden Caulfield. Holden is a 17 year old troubled teen with a history of flunking out of schools and making poor choices, who tells the story of his 16 year old self’s short adventure in Manhattan. His family consists of his mother, father, older brother D.B., younger brother Allie, who passed away previous to the start of the book, and his little sister Phoebe. Each one influences Holden in unique ways, from his choices to his view of the world. Holden’s relationship with his family reveal the complex ways in which families,both intentionally and unintentionally, affect each other.

In the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, written by J.D Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield has spent the past few years of his life jumping from boarding school to boarding school. The novel begins by Holden informing the reader that he has just been kicked out of his latest preparatory school, Pencey Preparatory School. At the age of just thirteen years old, Holden’s younger brother Allie, died of leukemia. Allies death has impacted the way Holden goes about his everyday life. Throughout the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, the main character, Holden Caulfield has shown many signs of being in between the anger and depression stage as described in the article, The Five Stages of Grief by

The Catcher in the Rye is narrated by Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old boy who has just flunked out of his third private boarding school. Unwilling to remain at school until the end of the term, Holden runs away to New York City. He does not contact his parents, who live there, but instead drifts around the city for two days. The bulk of the novel is an account, at once hilariously funny and tragically moving, of Holden's adventures in Manhattan. These include disillusioning encounters with two nuns, a suave ex-schoolmate, a prostitute named Sunny, and a sympathetic former teacher who may be homosexual. Finally, drawn by his affection for his ten-year-old sister, Phoebe, Holden abandons his spree and returns home.