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Catcher In The Rye Holden's Journey

974 Words4 Pages

“‘I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.’” (Salinger 173), ... Indubitably, The Catcher in the Rye is a staple novel in every high school literature course. Author, J.D. Salinger enchant his audience to read between the lines of Holden Caulfield’s troublesome life. As a child Holden is hit with an adult situation that ultimately affect the rest of his teen years. Unfortunately, Holden has to go through his days without his younger, brother Allie. For three years, now Allie has been dead, but it is evident that Holden is still distraught by his death. This arduous journey of grievance proves difficult for Holden as he struggles with authenticity, death and innocence. Holden’s lawyer father and grieving mother make this journey no easier. …show more content…

Allie’s tragic death opens the door of adulthood for Holden. With age Holden learns that adulthood is filled with sadness, responsibility and unknownness. The death of his childhood, and change is something Holden very much fears. With this Holden becomes very denial of his situation. By the means of Susan Heitler, Holden’s immature defense of denial is a sign of emotional childness (Heitler). "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 it was very stupid I have to admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it, and you didn't know Allie (Salinger, 39)." Holden breaking the windows and not admitting why is a perfect example of his denial and struggles with the death of his brother. Furthermore, Holden’s impending fear of adulthood becomes more prominent with James Castle’s “suicide” at Elkton Hills. In comparison, Holden’s brother died of innocence, while Castle’s life was lost to the world. Castle’s death causes Holden to fear death by society and want to delay his transition into …show more content…

Allie’s young death unquestionably plays a role in Holden’s resistance to adulthood, his preserved innocence may be the very reason why Holden wants to be the Catcher in the Rye. Physically Holden is approaching adulthood and with this wants to play the part, but this proves difficult due to Holden’s psychological age. When Holden brings a prostitute to his room he refuses to have sex with her. Instead Holden insists on having a conversation with her in order to fill his void of loneliness. Indubitably this is a prime example of Holden’s emotional age, not to mention his impulsivity. Another sign of emotional childness is impulsivity (Heitler). “Adults pause, resisting the impulse to shoot out hurtful words or actions. They calm themselves. They then think through the problem, seeking more information and analyzing options . Similarly, instead of listening to others' viewpoints, they impulsively interrupt them.” (Heitler). Emotionally Holden is not ready for a sexual relationship, in spite of what he may tell his readers. Holden does not take the time to think the elevator operator’s offer through. Anxious, Holden views the offer for sex as a void to fill his

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Ever since Allie died he has been a mess. He talks about how after Allie died, “[His parents] were going to have [him] psychoanalyzed and all, because [he] broke all the windows in the garage” (Salinger 39). He develops a negative outlook on life. This is the cause of Holden’s continuous downward spiral. He becomes more and more disturbed and eventually ends up in a mental institution.

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220 Words | 1 Pages

Not only does Allie pass away, but Holden’s close friend, James Castle, jumped out of the window and committed suicide. “Finally, what he did… didn’t even go to jail,”

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808 Words | 4 Pages

The loss of his older brother and the absent parents have really affected Holden’s behavior. He lives a life without any care but with exception of younger children. Holden has a fascination with younger children and their innocence possibly because he wasn’t able to enjoy his adolescent years and nor did his brother. Holden mentions “‘Every time I'd get to the end of a block I'd make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I'd say to him, "Allie, don't let me disappear.

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873 Words | 4 Pages

    To begin, as Holden copes with the loss of

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455 Words | 2 Pages

The book The Catcher in the Rye is a story of internal conflicts and the shallowness of adulthood. The main character, Holden, is struggling to maintain his strong voice of innocence in a fight only involving himself. One of the many reasons for Holden’s emotional devastation is the death of his younger brother Allie. Allie passed away three years earlier from leukemia and this of course highly affected Holden’s mental state at the time even if he didn’t know it. Salinger’s tone held the most importance of this book.

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2377 Words | 10 Pages

After his brother Allie died, the first thing Holden did was punch out all the windows in his garage. He also attacked Stradlater after he refuses to use Holden’s essay because he felt Stradlater was dissing Allie. Most grievers bargain with God, but Holden is not religious so he bargains directly to Allie, praying to keep him from disappearing. Holden Begins to feel adulthood as he’s maturing from childhood. He does not only grieve for the death of Allie, but also for the death of his childhood.

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Bob Shaw. Born on August 16th 1952, Hamilton. Died peacefully on March 24th 2004. Resting at Crestmount Funeral Home. Burial planned at Woodlands Cemetery.

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The novel “The Catcher in the Rye” was about the journey of a adolescent boy finding his way to adulthood. In the book Holden Caulfield was unsuccessful in finding his way to adulthood. Holden’s attitude in the novel throughout his journey was very immature. He also can't accept the fact that innocence can’t be forever protected. Lastly, Holden calls everyone a phony when in reality he is the real phony.

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1022 Words | 5 Pages

After 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.

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680 Words | 3 Pages

The book illustrates a dramatic struggle against death and growing up. Neither of which Holden wants to experience. Holden is grieving because his brother Allie passed away. Him and his brother were close

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723 Words | 3 Pages

A big debate over The Catcher in the Rye is whether or not the book is mainly about Holden growing up and maturing novel or a novel on coming to terms with loss and grief. Both topics are related to each other and the book is about both of them, but the book is mostly about Holden getting older and maturing. The reason that people think it is about coming to terms with loss and grief is because as the Holden grows up, he has to learn how to deal with the loss and grief he feels from the death of his brother Allie. At one point Holden is talking about Allie’s death and says, “I was only thirteen” (44) which must have made Allie’s death traumatizing for him at the time. However, Holden’s actions which are more common for adults than for teenagers

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656 Words | 3 Pages

In Holden’s mind becoming “the catcher in the rye “means that he can still catch Allie from falling off the cliff. This is relevant to Holden’s depression because everything around him is telling him to grow up but instead he runs away from it in fear that is will pull him farther apart from his relationship with his brother Allie. Holden is on the edge of becoming an adult which creates more pressure and leads him to

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720 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the novel, the topic of death is reoccurring in Holden 's mind. Whether he 's in school, doing homework, or aimlessly walking around New York City, Allie 's presence or lack thereof is always looming. It escalates to the point that Holden is always thinking about his own death, but more more specifically he 's fear of being forgotten: "Every time I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddamn curb, I had this feeling that I 'd never get to the other side of the street. I thought I 'd just go down, down, down and nobody 'd ever see me again. Boy did it scare me"(256).

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728 Words | 3 Pages

Holden begins trying to be older than he actually is, still scared to lose innocence he grasps so hard to be a different person. He is a teenage boy in a grown up’s world. Trying to be an adult isn 't as easy as it seems and Holden is starting to learn that. “She had a terrifically nice smile. She really did.

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1230 Words | 5 Pages

A. 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

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