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Causes Of Holden's Breakdown In Catcher In The Rye

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Holden Caulfield lives the bumpy life as a teenage boy. If being a teen wasn't stressful enough imagine being taken away from home and the ones you care about the most. Holden has faced many ups and downs in his life which has mentally and physically wore him out. Holden's breakdown is caused by all of the loneliness he experiences in his life whether it's having no friends, losing the ones he cared about, and his reserved and stuck up personality. Being a teenager is about living life, learning, and having fun. Holden was so lost in growing up that he is losing his childhood, and he won’t ever be able to get that back.Holden doesn't go out and live the fun teenage life that everyone loves to.Holden does something a little different. Football games are …show more content…

“But you could hear them all yelling, deep and terrific on the Pency side because practically the whole school except me was there” (Salinger 5)Holden seems to prefer to spend his time alone or he just does because he lacks friends. All the students are together having a good time and he's alone. When it is a weekend he stays home and decides to do his roommates homework for him which ends up not being appreciated. He stays home to write a paper for someone he doesn’t even like. This shows you how lonely Holden is that he does these types of things for people because he is lonely and has nothing better to do on a weekend night. These are just some of the few examples of him not living life to its fullest. Since he isn't doing the things that most teenagers do he attempts to do more grown up and nature activities. When he was alone in New York City he tried to purchase alcohol so he could drink. This would make him feel like a real adult

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Another way that Holden is a typical teen is that he feels all these emotions that he can't hide because he’s a kid. Holden has felt depressed, hopeless, and stressed by having to grow up too fast, like most teens. Holden desires good connections with his siblings, proving that he feels love and compassion, even a bit of romance; he is just a teen that has grown up too fast. " About all I know is that I sort of miss everybody" (214). Holden in the book shows emotions and can't hold them back because he is like everyone else.

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Holden is content with failing because he wants to be a child. When people are adults, life is hard, you have to pay taxes, work, and have a budget. As a 12/13 year old, you do not have to think about adult things. Holden can always read his brother's books made for kids, drink hot chocolate and not pay attention to anyone if he is or acts like a 13 year old boy. Also, Holden is talking to some sort of grandfather figure, Mr Spencer.

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Holden Caulfield’s early loss of innocence causes him to fiercely guard the innocence of others, resulting in pain for him when he realizes that his attempts are futile. Holden’s negative experiences with the adults in his life lead to his valuing the idea of innocence. Despite his bad role models, Holden clings to the concept that integrity is the most important quality in a person. While reflecting on one of his old boarding schools, he expresses his dislike for its “phony” headmaster, Mr. Haas. He complains, “[O]ld Haas went around shaking hands with everybody's parents when they drove up to school.

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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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Holden is a teenage boy who is going through the growing pains of the transition from child to adult. Holden has started seeing the reality of the real world, and how “fake” everyone in it is. Everywhere he looks, all he can see are phonies and fakes. The fakery of the real world bothers Holden very much, and most of the story is him trying to escape from the fakeness.

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This shows how Holden is his unwilling journey to adulthood but has also embraced some parts of which he enjoys but also as a child he does what he wants without following societies rules (not to be confused with a teen who ignores the rules of

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Holden Caulfield, in the book The Catcher in the Rye, goes through many different emotions on his journey, and consistently tries to be an adult, even though he is only 16. He starts at school, like most kids go through, but soon leaves and tries to act like he is older than he really is. Holden, being only 16, itches for adulthood by leaving school, trying alcohol, and trying to protect little kids from something he should be protected from. School is tough, and no one wants to go through it. Some kids suffer through it, and some rebel and rarely do work, or even try.

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He knows that the school doesn’t want him to be there anymore, his roommate almost beat him unconscious, and his parents will only be disappointed when they know that he has been expelled from yet another school. For Holden, it seems like there is no one else to turn to, except his younger sister Phoebe who he can’t see unless he goes home. Teenagers all across America feel this same sort of detachment from the rest of society. Only one thing going wrong could cause the rest of our worlds to collapse. Holden ended up trying to live on the streets when he ran out of money, and as the story progressed, he dug himself into a larger hole of loneliness.

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The beginning of Holden’s journey starts with the innocence and naivety of childhood. Childhood is the stage that ignorance is bliss with no care in the world. Holden goes to a prestigious boarding school for boys and he believes that everyone in that school is a phony in some way. Holden is an observant character as he stays in the background, but he can also cause the most trouble. Like a child, he asks many questions and he is very curious to the point that he can be annoying.

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He lives a very difficult life while growing up. He drops out of school and tries to talk to random strangers. He deals with a death from his younger brother, Allie. That is a reason why Holden is depressed and he doesn’t know how to deal with himself. Holden has thoughts of suicide, however does

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Furthermore, Holden starts to hate all the adults or loses faith in them, calls them phony. Holden has a second thought of becoming an adult he loses hope in his future and it seems to him nothing in the world matters to him anymore. We can see that throughout the book. He smokes, gets drunk, and does daring acts like getting a prostitute in his room. He also tries to escape all this guilt and grief by wasting time with unnecessary people he calls phony.

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Holden struggles with growing up and facing reality. There are many examples of Holden’s immaturity that are displayed in many forms such as facing responsibilities, his speech, his actions, and etc. Holden’s outlook on adult life is that it is superficial and brimming with phonies, but childhood was all about looking pleasing and innocent. He wants everything to stay the same and for time to stop. As Holden progresses in age, he will discover more about becoming mature in the

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830 Words | 4 Pages

He has trouble growing up and accepting life as it is. Holden thinks adults are "phony" which makes him hate the fact of growing up and staying innocent as much as he can while he is old enough to become an adult. He is frustrated with the world and people which makes him act with anger. His innocent childish dream is to be the Catcher in the Rye, to catch the kids before they become phonies like Holden says about adults. The moment he realizes that he cannot keep kids from falling or in other words, from growing up and becoming adults, he, reaches adulthood, and takes a big step towards it at the end of the novel.

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Although Holden is immature at the start of the novel, he matures and learns to accept loss of innocence in others and himself. At the start of the novel holden is far less mature and aware of his surroundings than at the end. Holden is sitting above the football game at Pencey telling the reader what happened, he says“ I left the foils and equipment and

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