Examples Of Grief In Catcher In The Rye

A big debate over The Catcher in the Rye is whether or not the book is mainly about Holden growing up and maturing novel or a novel on coming to terms with loss and grief. Both topics are related to each other and the book is about both of them, but the book is mostly about Holden getting older and maturing. The reason that people think it is about coming to terms with loss and grief is because as the Holden grows up, he has to learn how to deal with the loss and grief he feels from the death of his brother Allie. At one point Holden is talking about Allie’s death and says, “I was only thirteen” (44) which must have made Allie’s death traumatizing for him at the time. However, Holden’s actions which are more common for adults than for teenagers

Most people who have been in the same situation as Holden would think about their brother often even if they have come to terms with it. However, most people would not run away for a few days and consider going to another state and living there forever just because they still have to come to terms with the death of their brother. If Holden was coming to terms with grief and loss he would have done more stuff that had to do with Allie. The entire time Holden was in New York, he never even went to Allie’s grave. It is unlikely that Holden is not visiting Allie’s grave because he doesn’t want to deal with it because he has gone to Allie’s grave before and was fine. The reader is able to tell that Holden is fine because it says, “they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage” (44) when Holden is talking about what he did after Allie’s death. Since, he hasn’t done anything close to that drastic in the book the reader can tell that Holden has come to terms with grief and loss already. Also, once Holden is in New York he doesn’t think about Allie much. He hardly thinks about Allie while he is while he is in the

Since Holden was still growing up when the book takes place it is likely that he was eager to grow up and that is why he ran away. Also, Holden does a lot of things that most teenagers don’t do but adults do. For example, he would go into bars and order cocktails despite his age and he would be walking around New York at 3 a.m. At one point the book Holden says, “I ordered a Scotch and soda, and told him not to mix it” (78) it is extremely unusual for a teenager to causally order alcohol. The fact that those are things that adults do shows that he wants to grow up. Another example of that is when he asks Sally to go with him and get married and live somewhere else. That also shows that the book is not about Holden learning to deal with his grief and loss because none of that stuff has to do with Allie and Holden would probably do at least some things related to Allie if the book was about dealing with grief and