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How Is Holden Caulfield A Liar

803 Words4 Pages

Catcher in the Rye RAFT
For the duration of his life, Holden Caulfield has become an image of constant anger, anxiety, and depression: and he is only a young adult in college. It seems very clear that Holden has been troubled since a young age, flunking out of many schools and expressing dislike for practically everything he comes across. Holden’s thoughts and actions, reveal that he is not emotionally sound. Holden lacks self-control and often acts hasty. He tends to be a frequent liar and often for no reason at all. This habit among others results in the abandonment of healthy relationships in his lifetime. Although Holden’s mental state is never revealed, His mental instability is inferred through his lack of self-control, his constant lying, …show more content…

Holden Caulfield consistently demonstrates a severe lack of control over his actions. When Holden was just thirteen years old, his younger brother, Allie, died due to leukemia. Overwhelmed with different types of emotion, Holden punched out all the windows in the garage. He claims that it was “just for the hell of it”. This alone indicates that he is not a psychologically healthy adolescent, as he cannot express the thought process behind his foolish actions. Although Holden cannot explain why he did it, he stated that, “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 (54)”. While Holden was smart enough to understand that his brutal actions were unwise, he could not control himself. This is accurate evidence that at times he has no control of his actions

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His most common acts of defiance are running away and being a liar. Holden ran away from Pencey, and avoided going home just to avoid the punishment his father would dish out upon him. Phoebe says exactly what he would do to him: "Daddy's going to kill you." (173) Holden lied many times, broke many laws, and is a general hypocrite in this sense. He attempts to get sympathy quite a few times throughout the story, going so far as to claim he has a “tiny little tumor on the brain” (58) when asked why he was getting out of school so early by Ernest Morrow’s mother.

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Holden Caulfield is an extremely troubled individual with unparalleled depression. This all rooted from the slow and painful death of his younger brother, Allie Caulfield, to cancer at a young age. This has led him down a decreasing path in his life resulting in the expulsion of Holden from two boarding schools and the forming of an alcoholic addiction. After leaving his last boarding school, Pencey Prep, he went to New York where he went through a emotional rollercoaster. Overall his mental health is terrible and treatment is highly recommended with medication and therapy session's.

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417 Words | 2 Pages

In fact, Holden's predisposition for lying stems from a desire to escape reality and all reminders of his dead younger brother Allie, who is the source of Holden's grief. Holden exhibits great

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1193 Words | 5 Pages

After Holden lost his brother Allie it sent him into a rage. It caused him to shatter all of the windows in his garage and breaking his hand with them. Holden was sent to the hospital immediately after breaking his hand and because of Holden's hospitalization, he was unable to attend Allie's funeral to say his final goodbye. Due to Holden’s absence at the funeral, he has a hard time letting go of Allie. “You don’t like anything that’s happening…

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227 Words | 1 Pages

When he has a conversation with his roommate Stradlater, he feels disconnected from his classmates. Holden's isolation has a bad effect on his mental state and he begins to have a negative and out of touch mentality with the world around him. He criticizes the "phoniness" of other people and their behavior in almost always a

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1114 Words | 5 Pages

Keeping these things in mind, Holden Caulfield is presented much like the author. Caulfield has a very immature attitude that fall under the category of Ego-Defensive. The Ego-Defensive category has four subcategories within itself called; denial, repression, projective, and rationalization, that are labeled as defense mechanisms through psychological lenses. According to McGraw-Hill’s Dictionary of Modern Medicine, denial is the “primitive–ego defense–mechanism by which a person unconsciously negates the existence of a disease or other stress-producing reality in his environment, by disavowing thoughts, feelings, wishes, needs, or external reality factors that are consciously intolerable.” Holden presents his state of denial in the way he tries to maintain his relationship with his deceased brother, Allie.

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1022 Words | 5 Pages

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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871 Words | 4 Pages

old at the time of his brother’s death, which is a lot for someone to handle at such an age. Holden felt betrayed, lonely, he was lost and didn’t know what to do. Holden, due to his brother’s death, snapped and went on a destructive rampage around his house, smashing all the windows in the garage and about smashed all the windows on his family's car. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddamn windows with my fist, just for the hell of it,” (Salinger ). This event scarred him badly, and made him create trust issues with anyone he meets, making him not able to form relationships, making him lonely when he really craves for

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656 Words | 3 Pages

In Holden’s mind becoming “the catcher in the rye “means that he can still catch Allie from falling off the cliff. This is relevant to Holden’s depression because everything around him is telling him to grow up but instead he runs away from it in fear that is will pull him farther apart from his relationship with his brother Allie. Holden is on the edge of becoming an adult which creates more pressure and leads him to

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783 Words | 4 Pages

The first cause of Holden 's mental illness that readers notice is that he lacks control over his actions. As Holden was 13 years old, his brother Allie died of leukemia. Holdens behavior in response to his brothers death was very violent. “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 (Holden Caulfield 39).” Holden admits that he didn’t know he was doing it, but says it was a stupid thing to do.

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1378 Words | 6 Pages

Holden lies as a result of his depression, in order to hide the fact that he’s lonely and bored with his life, to divert any questions which he believes are too personal, and to create his own reality. In this way, Salinger illustrates how, during difficult times, people resort to lying as a coping mechanism. In the beginning of the story, Holden lied to divert questions in order to protect his personal information.

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837 Words | 4 Pages

Holden struggles with growing up and facing reality. There are many examples of Holden’s immaturity that are displayed in many forms such as facing responsibilities, his speech, his actions, and etc. Holden’s outlook on adult life is that it is superficial and brimming with phonies, but childhood was all about looking pleasing and innocent. He wants everything to stay the same and for time to stop. As Holden progresses in age, he will discover more about becoming mature in the

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1238 Words | 5 Pages

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a common mental disorder that is caused by genetics, the environment, brain structure, and chemistry. Bipolar disorder can often be misdiagnosed in teenagers since they are going through changes in their body and mind. One could see mood swings in a teenager and make the mistake of thinking he or she is going through normal changes. However, if one looks deeper into Holden’s character, one realizes that his mood swings, along with his excessive desire for sexual experiences, are actually symptoms of bipolar disorder. The first warning sign of his mental condition is when he buys Sunny, the prostitute, for the night.

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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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366 Words | 2 Pages

Along with Holden’s many health problems, he is also mentally unstable in that he makes very erratic and irresponsible decisions, particularly when it comes

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