Examples Of Grief In Catcher In The Rye

The five stages of grief shape the way one deals with a loss. Denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance are the stages that generically follow the death of a loved one. Outsiders may not understand the need for these steps and force a griever back into daily life (Axelrod). In Catcher in the Rye, Holden endures many of the stages when he grieves for Allie, his little brother. Although it seems Holden never reaches any sort of closure or letting go, his voice in the novel gives clues of acceptance. The novel suggests that stages of the grieving process can be skipped over entirely, or other stages can be drawn out for much longer than expected. Friends and family attempt to push Holden back into society, but this only

He shares a memory from after Allie’s death. Through his anger, Holden breaks the windows in his garage with his fists. His actions symbolize the stages of denial and anger in the grieving process. He tells the reader, “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fists, just for the hell of it” (Salinger 39). Holden expresses his anger that night when he isolates himself in the garage. The anger stage of the grieving process normally comes first, and which is when it comes for Holden (Axelrod). Holden denies that he knows why he does it, saying, “It was a very stupid thing to do, I’ll admit, but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie” (Salinger 39). This action of not being able to admit that he broke the windows for the sake of Allie symbolizes that he will not believe Allie is dead yet. Holden again denies Allies death by telling Phoebe that he wants to be the catcher in the rye where he will catch little children from losing their innocence to adulthood if they begin to fall off the cliff. He does admit, “I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy” (Salinger 13) but really he is not admitting why he wants to be that. Holden only wants to be the catcher in rye because he is in the stage of denial. In his mind, being the catcher in the rye symbolizes that Holden still wants to catch Allie from falling off

His depression lasts for so long because he witnesses another tragic death in his life, which pushes him further into this stage. Holden is in tragic shock from seeing James Castle die in an instant. This scene puts Holden under another blanket of grief even though he did not know the kid that well. Holden describes, “he jumped out the window…he was dead” (Salinger 170). When Holden talks about the moment James Castle dies, he describes all of the people at the school and their feelings instead of his own state of being after witnessing a suicide jump. Holden is depressed, but instead of expressing himself, he hides from it by attempting to act casual. Almost the entire time Holden spends in New York City avoiding his family, is a part of the depression stage. Holden becomes uncontrollably drunk multiple times, and hallucinates at other times. He recalls “getting drunk as a bastard…I started that stupid business with the bullet in my guts again…I was concealing the fact that I was wounded sonuvabitch” (Salinger 150). When Holden says he does not want anyone to notice his wound, this symbolizes that he is depressed about Allie and he does not want anyone to know he is hurting inside. The bullet symbolizes the death of Allie that is killing him and soaking him in depression, or blood. He is drunk during this scene. One way he deals with the stage of