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Causes Of Loss In Catcher In The Rye

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Zimon Li English 9- Bailey 2/1/2023 Catcher in Rye Essay First Draft In The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger, Holden’s mental health collapses from his dependence on Allie and inability to overcome grief. Holden’s inability to deal with Allie’s death causes his mental breakdown.Early on in the book, Holden is deeply traumatized by Allie’s death in their childhood.The loss of someone he deeply valued led him to sleep “in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddamn windows with my fist, just for the hell of it” (Salinger 50). Holden is devastated to the point of isolating himself in the garage so no one can replace Allie. He is so upset that he “broke all the goddamn windows” so by losing someone so close to him he begins to develop a feeling of anger and loneliness. Because of this trauma Holden begins …show more content…

This is again later shown in the book when loneliness engulfs Holden as we see him drinking and then wandering out into the park late at night. We then see him begin to think deeply about Allie,“I know it's only his body and all that’s in the cemetery and his soul’s in Heaven and all that crap, but I couldn’t stand it, anyway. I just wish he wasn’t there” (202). He then realizes that he is alone in the middle of the night at the park out of denial of Allie’s death. This implies that when he is battling with his own thoughts about Allie this causes him to isolate himself from other people. By not being able to come to terms with Allie's death Holden's mental health worsens and eventually leads him to breakdown. Despite isolating himself Holden is very reliant on Allie’s memory. When he gets an irrational fear of suddenly disappearing between each block, he talks to the imaginary Allie, “Allie,

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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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809 Words | 4 Pages

In those three days he frequently talks about his dead brother Allie and how he misses him, off the wall subjects, supposed friendships and sex talk. Because of Allies death Holden's grief has made him became a loner who is as immature as a thirteen year old and needs to say goodbye. Holden is a loner a person who shuns people not a people person whatever

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Allie was very intelligent, kind, and one of the few people Holden truly loved. When he passed away from leukemia, Holden broke down and stayed a night in his garage, where he destroyed all of the windows with his fists. Allie’s death left both psychological and physical scars on Holden, which have a subtle, but important influence on the rest of the novel. Although I have

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Gloria Huang Mr. Webster English 10 30 October 2014 Missing Chapter Rationale My missing chapter focuses on Holden clinging on to the past, dreaming of Allie. I chose this because Holden always talks to Allie when he’s depressed, he’s scared of what will happen to his family when he dies, and he doesn’t want to grow up.

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Holden says “I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I’d say to him “Allie, don’t let me disappear (Sallinger 199)”. This is a big example of Holden’s emotional problems that have been caused by the death of Allie and it is very evident he is experiencing the depression phase as he talking to his dead brother asking him for help. To summarize, Holden is emotionally distraught because he is still grieving the death of his

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Throughout the story, Holden’s decisions and attitude were manipulated by constant grief and sorrow. The remnant of pain from Allie’s death made Holden obsessed with the idea of preserving childhood youth, which came with his fear of growing

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Holden punching out the windows and wanting to move out west showed that he had angry outbursts without thinking about the consequences of his actions. Oddly enough, throughout the story, Holden imagines he sees Allie, and he talks with him. I think that this is a way for Holden to push away the fact that Allie has passed away. I also think that Holden longs to

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People do not expect the death of a loved one to occur at such a young age, and so abruptly like Allie 's death. The smashing of the windows shows the huge impact that he had on Holden, and how upset he was that he no longer had his brother by his side. Holden was uncertain in how to deal with this upsetting change in his life, resulted in aggressive behavior. Holden was also exposed to another traumatic event in his life during his time at Pencey. After being introduced to one of Holden 's classmates Castle he states, ¨Finally, what he did, instead of

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He fears the future and feels he cannot handle it. Allie’s death holds him captive, and Holden does nothing to overcome this fear. Death holds people captive, causing them to be unable to handle the pain associated with it. One eventually reaches their limit and channels their pain and suffering into horrific actions. Allie’s death pushes Holden to his breaking

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Holden has an innate fight or flight instinct that kicks in whenever he is confronted with conflict. He must realize that in order to succeed in the world he has to learn how to keep quiet at comments that he doesn't like or doesn't agree with. The greatest internal conflict Holden faces throughout the book is his inability to deal with his brother Allie’s death. Holden tries hard to move past Allie but fails time and time again due to the fact that he believes he is alone in the world. In chapter 7, Holden is so lonely that decides to reach out to Ackley who lives in the room next to his and paints himself as a social outcast, “Then I went over and laid down on Ely's bed.

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Allie never grew up, and Holden does not want to mature without him. At the novel’s end, Holden proclaims, “Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody”(Salinger 234). Although Holden's narration throughout the novel indicates his dislike for most people he interacts with, Holden misses all of the people he said he did not like. Holden’s carefree persona is an act to mask all the complexities in his mind.

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Throughout the book, Holden is struggling to get by. The death of his brother Allie has left him in a tough spot. Holden doesn’t exactly know how to deal with this. The different stages of grief are represented through Holden. Holden shows denial and anger when he flashbacks to one of his memories after his brother’s death.

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Holden is stuck in a part of his life that doesn’t exist anymore. He holds onto the past, and isn’t making anything of his future. His brothers death is the biggest part of why Holden is lonely. Allie and Holden were close, and Allie was there for Holden when he needed someone to motivate him, or help push him to be great.

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In remembering the events, Holden resorts to accusing readers by saying, “... and you didn’t know Allie.” He does so to provide justification for his reckless behavior. This statement implies that it was Allie’s special character and personality that justify Holden’s violence. Since Holden insists Allie is so much of a better person than anyone else in the world, moving on from his death is a challenge that Holden never conquers. When speaking of his brother’s death, Holden recalls, “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all” (39).

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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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