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Catcher In The Rye Mental Illness Research Paper

1253 Words6 Pages

Mental illness affects many people throughout the world. Most of the time, many of the people diagnosed with the illness do not seek treatment because they are unaware that they have been diagnosed with the illness. There are several different types of mental illnesses in which a person can be diagnosed with multiple disorders at the same time. Two of the most common disorders that people struggle with are PTSD and Bipolar disorder. PTSD is also known as post traumatic stress disorder is a serious disorder that people struggle with but this disorder is when something traumatic happens in someone 's life. Before PTSD there is an even more common disorder that you see in people and that illness is called Bipolar disorder which is also known …show more content…

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield shows that he has been struggling with everything he has come across after his brother 's death. Holden clearly suffers with PTSD and he showed it when he asked “ Would you care for a cigarette I asked her she looked around. I don 't believe this is a smoker rudolf she said Rudolf that killed me” (Salinger 55). Holden is one of the adolescents that shows symptoms of PTSD by heavily smoking. He 's different compared to every other adolescent, you can tell he 's struggling because it 's not normal to be smoking at a young age. Holden 's brother was named Allie and “He got Leukemia and died when we were up in Maine on July 18,1946 you 'd like him” (Salinger 49). Holden got PTSD from his brothers lost. Allie 's death was the horrifying event that happened in Holden 's life because Allie and Holden were really close. Holden said in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye “I was only thirteen and they were going to have me 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” (Salinger 78). On the night of Allie’s death Holden had reacted in a different way then another teenager would. On that night his parents thought he was crazy and Holden had a lack of family support just like many others

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