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Compare And Contrast Runaway Train And Catcher In The Rye

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Just like literature, music tells a story. Songs display thoughts and meaningful words that can help people get through hard times, just like a story can. You can relate yourself to literature and music because the artists and authors can share the same struggles you did. Both authors and artists hide behind their masterpieces, but when you read between the lines you find out their story and their struggle in life. You can always listen to songs and novels when you need advice. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden strongly relates to the song “Runaway Train”. Holden uses lies to run away from real life and this is shown through the line “runaway train, never goin ' back”. When Holden got kicked out of Pencey he decided to go to the …show more content…

This lyric “here I am just drowning ' in the rain” represent Holden 's struggle of accepting Allie’s death. Allie’s death played a huge role in Holden 's actions. Holden could essentially not deal with Allies death, which caused him extreme mental pain. Holden described ally as “terrifically intelligent” and the nicest person ever. Since Allie died so young Holden felt that his innocence was taken away from him. He was forced to condone feelings that he was not ready to feel yet. Because of this Holden acted out and decided to act different so he did not have to deal with the pain he felt. Since Holden felt his innocence was taken away from him he felt that he was no responsible to protect their innocence. His job was to be "a catcher in the rye", which was explained as how Holden stood at the edge of a cliff to catch kids that fell off. If Allie did not die, Holden would not feel the need to be the protector of innocence. Holden has always had great respect for Allie, and he always knew the Allie could save him if he ever failed. Holden finally breaks down when he calls for Allie. He suddenly realizes that it is inevitable to grow up. When he notices the damage he has done to himself and his life, he put into a psychiatric hospital, where he begins to change and accept himself. He stopped viewing everything negatively and started finding the positives. Because of Allie’s death, Holden was negatively impacted. The result of Holden calling out for Allie, made it

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522 Words | 3 Pages

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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808 Words | 4 Pages

Allie was Holden’s everything, he looked up to his brother and respected him. Holden never really had anyone to discipline him or tell him right from wrong. Even though Holden liked too seem as if he was already older then he actually is, he is still a young kid who needs his parents. Allie was Holden’s angel who took care of him while his parents couldn’t. Holden is a protagonist that has been through many harsh events throughout his

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873 Words | 4 Pages

Therefore, his rebellion both academically and socially in the schools he attends display his resistance to grow up. These behaviors he shows, are psychological effects he develops due to Allie’s death, hence creating a negative impact on his life. In addition to Allie’s death causing Holden to act out, it also seems to cause neglection in Holden’s life. Just like Holden, it seems his mother has not gotten over

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303 Words | 2 Pages

Holden feels helpless and alone. In summary, Allie’s death plays a large role in forming Holden’s personality. He tries to graze over the subject without much emotion because Allie’s death was sudden and tragic, and he has been unable to seek support for most of his

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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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484 Words | 2 Pages

Holden still sees Allie was the person he aspires to be but unlike Horatio, Allie is just a memory Holden has. These individuals were the people in both of their lives that always seemed to see passed all the faults they had and helped them became who they wanted to

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1370 Words | 6 Pages

Pained by the loss of his brother, Holden has delusions that if he tells Allie to join him, then he can change the past and be a better brother. Holden relives his past through schizophrenic episodes in attempt to bring his brother back, however, his mind has been exposed to shattering pain and his life will never be the same

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927 Words | 4 Pages

(National Alliance on Mental Illness). Holden frequently talks about his brother Allie who died at an early age, which was a very traumatic experience, therefore playing a role in his depression. Depression can be treated effectively through different types of therapy which can be even more helpful through mental institutions, which is what Holden ends up doing in order to

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851 Words | 4 Pages

Altogether, Holden wants to protect children to prevent them from dying at a young age because Allie’s death is already too much for him to handle. He is even going beyond the limits to do this, as he is willing to dedicate his life to it. Secondly, as Holden is walking through the school, he notices, “Somebody’d written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would se it…” (201)

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656 Words | 3 Pages

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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534 Words | 3 Pages

In Chapter 1 of the Catcher in the Rye we learn that the main character of the novel Holden Caulfield has been expelled from his school Pencey Prep in Agerstown,Pennsylvania which is his fourth school that he has been kicked out from. He is being expelled from Pencey due to the fact that he was “ flunking four subjects and not applying” himself “at all” [pg 6]. Holden keeps flunking schools because he refuses to, even after multiple warnings Holden continues to flunk his class and does not attempt to do better. Holden is self- destructive because he does not express any concern for his future by not making any effort to change.

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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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779 Words | 4 Pages

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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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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1046 Words | 5 Pages

What all goes into writing a song? How did the artist come up with that idea? What was going through their head? Writing a song can be a long process. For some artist it can take up to three months to write a song, for others they can write a song in five minutes or less.

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