Examples Of Grief In Catcher In The Rye

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Maddie Poulin Mrs. Morgan EN100 29 January, 2018 In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, his incomplete stages of grief leads to Holden’s emotional paralysis as demonstrated through Holden’s hand. When Holden was thirteen, his brother, Allie, had been diagnosed with leukemia and past away. The night Allie died, Holden slept in the garage and broke all of the windows in there with his fist. He says he would have broken the windows in his family’s station wagon as well if his hand was not as broken as it was. Because of this, Holden obviously broke his hand and, “[His] hand still hurts [him] once in a while when it rains and all, and [he] can't make a real fist any more – not a tight one,” (Salinger 39). Holden’s hand is symbolizing Holden’s