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Causes Of Grief In Catcher In The Rye

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Alyssa Gruenberg Ms. Zirbes English 10B, Period 3 17 February 2023 How Does Grief Affect Someone’s Behavior? At some point in our lives, people are bound to go through grief and be in the unknown or uncertain within personal experiences, whether it's during adulthood or childhood, it can be difficult to cope with during hard times. In J.D. Salinger's 1950s novel The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is a teenage boy who continues living a life of grief. The novel reveals who Holden is as a person, who is constantly living a life full of destructive thoughts toward the world around him. Holden struggles with his overall behavior and keeping his innocence after the death of his brother Allie; Holden tends to constantly judge people without …show more content…

As the narrator progresses with this story, Holden continuously goes on rants about judging people in such a descriptive way. Holden says, “They laugh like hyenas at stuff that wasn’t even funny. I didn’t even enjoy sitting next to them in the movies” (Salinger 48). Holden tends to constantly judge people without getting to know them, which instead of Holden being seen as petty or selfish, it is more of a trauma response that is being disclosed. He frequently is sarcastic and scornful towards the judgemental thoughts which causes him to continuously call them “phonies”. Holden uses this immature word to describe people who he thinks are not honest and people who just annoy him. This is a trauma response that happens to Holden instead of being genuine and not verbally harming …show more content…

Since Holden has gone through a lot of change over the years, Holden has a fear of change. The readers have a difficult time understanding him since his fear of change causes him to become very nonchalant and always wants to stay young, innocent, and never wants to die. One place Holden feels the most comfortable is the museum he visits. Salinger writes, “I knew that whole museum the kid with the skate key meant. I knew that whole museum routine like a book” (Salinger 16). The significance of this museum is that Holden has a fear of change because he has had a hard time adjusting to his different and newer life without Allie; he is worried about anything and everything changing. Holden enjoys the museum because it reminds him of his childhood and the fact that it doesn’t change. Holden is being ostracized from society to adjust and be a new person instantly and at the correct time. Holden doesn’t want anything to change because once his brother died he was forced to change

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When staring at a frequently visited museum by Holden as a child, he remembers his past experiences connecting back to his childhood trauma. Earlier in this scene, Holden goes to look for Sally when he encounters young boys who direct him towards the museum. Holden then starts to inform us that he used to visit here, and how he remembered certain factors. Holden remembers certain aspects of these museums like the flooring and a huge important idea, that nothing moves. Holden says, "The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was.

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While waiting for his sister to come meet him at the museum to say goodbye two kids approach him asking him if he knows where the mummies are in the museum. The is the first time Holden comes across the mummies in the novel. The significance of the mummies is that it brings him back to the museum, and the museum reminds Holden of his childhood. This reminder of childhood gives more evidence that Holden is scared to grow up. This can be seen by whenever Holden visits the museum another time and says,“The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was.”

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The Catcher in the Rye In the novel The Catcher in the Rye J.D Salinger writes about a teenager struggling to find his place within the existence of the reality of others. Salinger creates shocking events that lay out the foundation of the the main character Holden Caulfield’s life in the novel. Salinger uses Holden’s characteristics throughout the novel such as Holden’s stubbornness to establish a much bigger theme in the book along with many other symbols.

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463 Words | 2 Pages

Holden copes with his insecurities in many ways, including calling other people phonies as well as judging and making fun of them, and there are many different examples of this in the text. For instance, on page 209, Holden says, “Then I lit another cigarette - it was my last one. I must’ve smoked about three cartons that day.” Smoking, drinking alcohol, and having sex are some of the ways Holden copes with the stresses and hardships in his life, and from this quote specifically, we can see how extremely nervous he was the day he came

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656 Words | 3 Pages

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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969 Words | 4 Pages

It wouldn't be that exactly. You'd just be different, that's all” (135). Holden likes the Natural History museum because, it always stayed the same, even though he was changing. This represent how he does not like change, which includes the change of childhood to

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697 Words | 3 Pages

He thought that the best thing about the whole museum is that “Nobody’d move[... ]Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you” (135). Holden hates change and wants his life always to be the same. He does not want himself to grow up and become an adult.

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The only thing that would be different would be you” (Salinger 135). Holden throughout the novel is depicted as someone who finds it hard to move on in life and is unable to deal with change. In specification to the Museum of Natural History, everything seemingly stays the same, even after an extended period of time. In this case, Holden desires to be similar to the museum in the sense that he wishes to be frozen in time. This dismissal of change and wanting things to stay the same can also relate to how Holden views the museum as a safe haven for him to escape to whenever life becomes too hard for him.

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2021 Words | 9 Pages

The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger in 1951, is the story of an angst-ridden sixteen year old Holden Caulfield as he learns to deal with growing up. The story follows Holden through his three day experience through New York as he learns about the truth about innocence, sex, and mortality, making The Catcher in the Rye one of America’s most notable coming-of-age stories. One of the largest influences on Holden’s life was his younger brother Allie who died from leukemia at age eleven when Holden was thirteen. The death of Holden’s brother had a profound effect on Holden emotional state, which eventually caused his complete mental breakdown by the end of the novel.

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The effects of Holden constantly isolating himself can be seen especially through his improper speech and how he speaks to others. For example in chapter two Holden says “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies (pg 14).” In this Holden is exhibiting his poor vocabulary and shows how he does not put thought into the things he says. When he uses the word phonies to describe the boys at Elkton Hills in reality he means he thinks they are boys whom he is not friends with and does not like. In many other cases Holden appears to immediately result to the word phony when describing something or someone he does not like.

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In the Heat of the Night is mystery drama film directed by Norman Jewson in 1967 which based on John Ball’s 1965 novel of the same name. It tells the story of Virgil Tibbs, a black police detective from Philadelphia, who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a racist small town in Mississippi. Phillip Colbert, a wealthy industrialist from Chicago was murdered. He was constructing a factory in Sparta and staying with his wife during construction. Police Officer Sam Wood during his motor patrol of Sparta found his body on a pavement at the front of a pathway entrance onto Main Street.

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1077 Words | 5 Pages

Holden is a very judgemental and immature character and often has vulgar language. Holden often criticizes everyone he comes in contact with and does not try to comprehend the mindset they may have. His childish nature and vocabulary are what make most of his comments laughable. “It was funny. You could tell the waiter didn’t like her much, you could tell even the Navy guy didn’t like her much, even though he was dating her.

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1018 Words | 5 Pages

This shows us that this was a happy place for him and maybe even a coping mechanism for him now on trying to escape his reality and again cling to his past. Holden also states “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket.” This quote is a clear example of how Holden hates change and doesn't want to move

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Out of all the places he visits in NYC, the two most notable ones are the Museum of Natural History and Central Park. The museum is an illusion of how Holden wishes the world was. In the novel, he says: “Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.” (Salinger 123).

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1113 Words | 5 Pages

The time of Early Modern Europe proved to be a time of great change in many areas of the world. During this period in Europe, new ideas that changed the world started to emerge, and many advances were made in politics, religion, and economics. During early modern europe, the way people interacted with one another as well as their lives changed forever due to social factors, such as inequality between the classes, and ideas about Religion and Government. From the start of the Early Modern Period, it was clear that there were going to be new divisions between the rich and the poor. The rise of the bourgeoisie, or the middle class after the fall of feudalism introduced a mid point between the peasants and the upper class, which had never existed

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