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Catcher In The Rye Holden's Death

639 Words3 Pages

In The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Salinger established Holden Caulfield’s introverted character through his background and experiences. As a sixteen year old student, Holden had to encounter many life and death obstacles. He becomes traumatized from witnessing the deaths of people close to him. Holden’s experiences with death changed his perspective of the world. For example, Allie’s death allowed him to realize the weaknesses that death has upon everybody, old or young. These realizations made Holden who he is now: bad-tempered, depressed and disconnected with others but, helped establish a closer bond with his sibling. When Holden was notified about Allie’s death, Holden’s grieving turned into anger and depression. He …show more content…

For Holden, Allie’s death effect to Holden was truly devastating. However, his death gave Holden a chance to develop a closer bond with his younger sister, Phoebe. Losing a connection, like Holden and Allie’s can takes a toll over your life. But by learning from the past, he takes advantage of the time they get to spend with each other. Holden tries to recreate a connection as strong as he would have had with Allie through Phoebe. When Holden first reached to New York, she was one of the few people he constantly thought about. They both cared for each other’s well-being equally. Neither Holden nor Phoebe would want to leave each other behind. For instance, Phoebe decided to give Holden all her Christmas money showed the unquestionable love they have. The act of Phoebe was selflessness and without a doubt, Holden would have done the same under similar circumstances. The past allows for a clearer understanding in the reasons for Holden’s unusual actions throughout the story. Allie’s outcome unfortunately impacted Holden’s personality negatively the most. Holden came to develop a temper, a gloomy outlook and guarded personality due to the likelihood that he will revisit many undesirable factors from his past. Although the negative results are vividly expressed, Holden learns to favor the circumstances in his current life by dedicating time to family. The past is not something

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