Catcher In The Rye Persuasive Essay
In chapter five of The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the reader learns about the death of Allie, Holden’s younger brother. Holden and Allie were very close, and his death left a mark on Holden both mentally, and emotionally. It is inferred that Holden feels Allie did not deserve to die. “You’d have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent.” (Salinger, Page 38). “He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody.” (Salinger, Page 38). Allie was innocent, and essentially everything Holden could be/wants to be. He frequently calls himself a liar (“I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.” (Salinger, Page 16)) and dumb. The opposite of his brother. If anything, Holden feels he should’ve died, not Allie, because he (Allie) was too young and innocent. …show more content…
His parents sent him to three different prep schools, all of which he had been kicked out of. Without a solid environment, Holden has been unable to make many friends in which he can find sympathy and comfort. This makes him become an introvert. “…I was standing way the hell up on top of Thompsen Hill…” (Salinger, Page 2). He finds it hard to relate to people because they don’t understand him or his circumstances. “People never notice anything.” (Salinger, Page 9). “…but he wouldn’t believe me. People never believe you.” (Salinger, Page 37). Holden feels helpless and alone. In summary, Allie’s death plays a large role in forming Holden’s personality. He tries to graze over the subject without much emotion because Allie’s death was sudden and tragic, and he has been unable to seek support for most of his
Examples Of Mental Illness In Catcher In The Rye
881 Words | 4 PagesThrough the traumatic life event that was the death of Allie, he was frozen in time psychologically, as the immature creature he is seen as now. The aforementioned habit of calling others phony is quite immature and childish, similar to how a child would call someone names when angered. “Traumatic life events can cause the child to become ‘stuck’ at a particular level of psychological development... s/he may, therefore, often seem immature.” (Hosier, 1) Allie’s death is something in Holden’s life that he has been unable to come to terms with, as he was never given closure.
How Is Holden Caulfield Fake
484 Words | 2 PagesHolden still sees Allie was the person he aspires to be but unlike Horatio, Allie is just a memory Holden has. These individuals were the people in both of their lives that always seemed to see passed all the faults they had and helped them became who they wanted to
How Does Holden Caulfield Contradiction
138 Words | 1 PagesWhile doing Stradlater’s assignment, Holden mentions his younger brother, Allie. Recalling Allie and his baseball mitt, Holden said, “he’s dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You’d have liked him” (Salinger 49). Holden showed a contrast and contradiction with this quote.
What Makes Holden Misunderstood
403 Words | 2 PagesThe loss of Allie links directly to Holden's loss of innocence. “…the night he [Allie] died…I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it…I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie” (Salinger 39). Salinger uses Holden
Examples Of Loss In Catcher In The Rye
1021 Words | 5 PagesWhile Allie does not physically appear in the novel, his absence significantly affects Holden and his actions. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
Strengths Of Holden
1193 Words | 5 Pages“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.” (110). When Holden is feeling completely awful and can not deal with the real world anymore he goes into an almost alternate reality, talking to Allie as if he were really there sitting in the room with him.
Holden Caulfield Grief Essay
1118 Words | 5 PagesArrested development works in more than one fashion for Holden Caulfield, as not only does he desperately cling to the past, but his five stages of grief are similarly slowly processed—namely denial. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye follows Holden as he adapts to life alone in the city, and is forced to deal with the consequences of living in the real world. After projecting his issues onto others throughout the novel, only by accepting his own shortcomings does Holden finally start taking steps towards changing his life for the better. Holden’s little brother, Allie, passed away some years before the story takes place, and is one of the biggest factors in his refusal to let go of the past.
Catcher In The Rye Grief Analysis
656 Words | 3 PagesThroughout the book, Holden is struggling to get by. The death of his brother Allie has left him in a tough spot. Holden doesn’t exactly know how to deal with this. The different stages of grief are represented through Holden. Holden shows denial and anger when he flashbacks to one of his memories after his brother’s death.
Flashbacks In Holden Caulfield's Life
220 Words | 1 PagesHolden Caulfield experiences flashbacks to the traumatic events that have occurred in his life. Holden is constantly reminded of his younger brother Allie who passed away when he was 11 years old. “So what I did, I wrote about… did, and he had very red hair,” (Salinger 38). The reader can see that Holden is constantly thinking of Allie, and that Allie was one of the people in Holden’s life that made him happy. Holden’s ability to remember the vivid details of Allie and his life prove that these traumatic events, occurring upon those who brought him joy, will always be with him.
The Mentor Of Holden In Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer
819 Words | 4 PagesHolden meets few prominent mentors throughout the novel, who offer ephemeral relief to his problems, allowing for itinerantly to the past instead of living in the present. Allie, Holden’s brother, is a significant mentor who makes Holden reminisce on positive experiences with him before he passes away. Furthermore, Holden struggles long-term when Allie passes away and violently reacts, displaying his impaired judgement due to the stress of losing a family member ( Salinger 38-39). Holden admires his brother for being able to work past hardships and emotionally express himself through his unique poetry on his baseball mitt, which becomes a symbolic item to Holden when remembering Allie. Holden’s other prominent mentor is his sister, Phoebe, who sticks by his side,
How Does Holden Present Grief In Catcher In The Rye
1184 Words | 5 PagesBut that one day, I didn’t. He didn’t get sore about it– he never got sore about anything– but I keep thinking about it anyway, when I get very depressed.” (Salinger 110) Holden is melancholy looking back on this because he wishes he could spend more time with his little brother, who passed away when Holden was only 13. There’s nothing Holden can do to change that now, but he feels like being able to go back and change that moment would bring him some kind of peace. Guilt can also be a big part of the bargaining experience, so Holden thinking back specifically to the occasion when he turned away Allie is not surprising at all.
Holden's Loss Of Innocence In Catcher In The Rye
1230 Words | 5 PagesA. Allie’s death causes Holden to become obsessed with death and this obsession makes him believe that growing up and becoming a “phonie” is like dying; this belief that is planted inside Holden’s head when Allie died is what sends him on a quest to preserve children’s innocence and save them from the “death” of growing up. B. Salinger includes the traumatic story of Allies death that happened years in advance to provide an explanation for Holden’s obsession with death and how he sees loss of innocence as equivalent to dying. Allie died with his innocence still intact, so Holden does not want other children to grow up and have their innocence “die”. C. Holden even admits to being mentally unstable after his brother’s traumatic death when he says, “I was only 13, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all
Catcher In The Rye Allie's Mitt Analysis
779 Words | 4 PagesIn this quote he tells that his brother died. This shows his brother died when he was young. Furthermore he dies as an innocent child who was not exposed to the adult world or the “phoniness.” Allie's death was tragic to Holden but maybe, in some ways Holden wanted the death himself, he wanted to preserve his innocence. Another point that shows Allie's mitt represents innocence is when Holden says Allie used to read poems on his glove while playing baseball which he wrote before the game so he wouldn’t be bored.
Examples Of Change In Catcher In The Rye
1022 Words | 5 PagesAfter talking about his childhood memories with his brother he states, ¨He is dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You´d have like him.¨ Then after talking about Allie’s old baseball mitt he said, ¨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¨(43-44). Allie’s death is used to show the unexpected change that Holden had experienced during his life. Allie was only eleven when he died, and Holden was thirteen.
Catcher In The Rye Maturity
1814 Words | 8 PagesSalinger portrays the impact Allie’s death has on Holden’s immediate actions. Holden describes the physical damage he inflicted in his reaction to his brother’s death: 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”
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