A Victim Of Childhood Sexual Abuse

How responsible are parents for the mental stability of their children? The parents in JD Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, exhibit an unknownness of their children's needs; shown through Holden Caulfield, a mentally unstable individual that is astray from his parents. This novel highlights how Holden’s differentiating views of parenting and childhood connects back to his mental instability. Although Holden’s childhood experiences are not explicitly stated, his obsession with children juxtaposed with his negativity towards parenthood, suggest that the fear of growing up and mental instability stems from lack of concern and obliviousness of distant parents.

From Holden’s testimony of the event that led to his enrollment in my program, I have concluded that Holden suffers from anxiety disorders. More specifically panic attacks, and more seriously, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the story that Holden I see many examples of these two disorders, along with a strong fear and resentment of impending adulthood. This Mixture of confusion and dread, led him to me. I do, though, believe that Holden can recover and be admitted back into society.

J.D. Salinger 's "The Catcher in the Rye" portrays a troubled teen in New York City. Over the few days the novel depicts, the boy displays his critical and unhealthy mindset. Eventually he has a mental breakdown. Through psychoanalysis of Holden Caulfield, one may suggest that Allie 's death, social development, and an identity crisis are large contributing factors in Holden 's mental breakdown.

J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye features a complex narrative surrounding a troubled young student, Holden Caulfield. Difficulties he faces throughout the story force Holden to confront his fears of adulthood and maturation and the responsibilities therein through the difficulties he faces throughout the story. Academic controversy surrounds whether Holden learns from these confrontations and adjust accordingly, maturing throughout the story. While initially this seems rather subjective, a thorough analysis of Holden’s actions throughout the story as well as of the symbolism injected by Salinger makes it quite clear that Holden does undergo a significant maturity arc as the story progresses. Holden’s social development and maturation

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old boy, transitions from childhood to adulthood. The death of Holden’s little brother signifies the beginning his loss of innocence and growth of maturity. As he enters adulthood, Holden views society differently from his peers by characterizing most of his peers and adults he meets as “phonies.” Thus, Holden takes the impossible challenge of preserving the innocence in children because he wants to prevent children from experiencing the corruption in society. The Catcher In The Rye embodies Holden’s struggle to preserve the innocence of children and reveals the inevitability of and the necessity of encountering the harsh realities of life.

The isolation Holden experiences from his parents and other adults takes a toll on Holden which explains Holden’s immature relationships with women. For example, Holden suddenly declares his love for Sally and his desire to run away with her although in actuality he does not (Salinger 124). He also shows interest in the “hat-check girl” (Salinger 153) when she shows characteristics of a nurturing mother which is a result of his own mother’s neglect. Regarding his parents’ neglect and the timing of when Allie passed away is important, because Allie died while Holden was going through puberty, a stage that is already complicated for most people was made even more burdensome due to the lack of parental affection and the loss of a loved one. According to Saul McLeod, a Psychology Tutor at the University of Manchester and has a decade of experience teaching psychology at Wigan and Leigh College, Freud’s psychosexual work, which has been widely criticized, explains that the “genital stage” ranging from puberty to adulthood “is a time of adolescent sexual experimentation…” which Holden exhibits in the book through his constant references to intercourse and the opposite gender. However, during this time he had also experienced a deeply traumatic loss which might have triggered some oral fixation, which Freud characterizes as finding satisfaction through oral stimulation, causing him to start smoking and drinking. Holden seeks pleasure by regressing back to his infantile habits

In the novel “The Catcher in The Rye” Salinger, the author, uses Holden’s interactions to both criticize society as well as reveal Holden’s symptoms of his psychological problems. In the novel, Salinger presents how unsympathetic people can be towards each other especially if you are like Holden, an emotionally scarred male teenager dealing with past trauma. Salinger also shows us that due to those unsympathetic behaviors and the trauma that comes with dead family members.

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger, Salinger takes us into the mind of Holden, an immature, troubled young boy in 1950’s New York. Throughout Holden’s journey, Salinger expresses his urge to protect the young and innocent. Holden has this urge because when he was going through a traumatic event his parents never guided or helped him, instead they sent him away to a boarding school and he never wanted anyone else to feel as depressed and secluded as he did and is still experiencing. His actions makes us wonder if there is truly an extent to protecting the vulnerable. Should we keep our children sheltered and ignorant to the world, to the point where the do not know the simple meaning of f you or should we push them away, like Holden’s parents, and let them figure things out for themselves? No matter what we feel is right, we can not deny the fact that for a person in a healthy and balanced way, they must be guided by a guardian or a mentor. Whether the mentor or guardian is a good influence or a bad one, they would help mold a child’s personality with their teachings and guidance. Salinger shows us how important it is to remember that however one raises a child, that child will reflect how the guardians personality. Salinger shows us, in a detailed and realistic way, how crucial it is to guide the next generation.

Humans develop through childhood with innocence and purity, while remaining vulnerable to the corruption of society. The novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, reveals the complications of Holden Caulfield’s childhood and the loss of his innocence, which motivate Holden to protect other children from society’s darker aspects. His misunderstanding of a poem, Coming thro’ the Rye portrays his desire to “catch” children from falling into harmful situations. Holden continues to show his concern about society’s negative influence on children when he witnesses profanity and vandalism on the public buildings. In addition, the constancy of the carousel music pleases Holden because the music represents the eternal innocence of childhood.

Holden has shown many signs of having post traumatic stress. Some of the signs Holden had was as stated “triggers that can bring back memories of the trauma accompanied by intense emotional and physical reactions.” Holden always bring up Allie his brother, even when he wrote compositions for Stradlater, “So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie’s baseball mitt,”(Salinger,38) Holden always tends to bring up the past. This is one of the many signs that Holden shows as the book progress. In the text, “All of a sudden, on my way out to the lobby, I got old Jane Gallagher on the brain again,” (Salinger, 76). Holden continuously brings up many people that has made him feel this way about people. Holden also demonstrates a lack of control when it comes to talking to people. When Holden brother Allie died when Holden was just 13, he punched out all the windows out of the garage saying, “It was just for the hell of it,” (Salinger, 39). This indicates that Holden is not a healthy psychologically adolescent, as he can’t articulate the thoughts of his actions. Holden’s lack of control and ability not to let go of the past shows how Holden is not mentally

In result of this behavior by his parents, he was never able to learn to trust an adult. He didn’t even find one teacher at the multiple schools he attended that he could trust. One teacher he had some respect, but still no trust, for was Mr.Antolini, one of his old english teachers. Holden went to Mr. Antolini’s house, after visiting his sister, for a place to sleep since he could not stay at his house. While s at Mr. Antolini’s house, Holden fell asleep on the couch and he woke up to Mr. Antolini petting his hair from the ground. Not only did this incident freak Holden out, but it also reassured his negative view of adults.

Psychoanalysis would suggest that Holden lacks the maternal affection that he so desperately desires and fails to receive. Upon reviewing Holden’s behavior it appears as if he is a victim to various disorders such as Bipolar and PTSD disorder. HealthResources.info explains the differences between emotional and psychological trauma and also the possible effects in their article, “Emotional and Psychological Trauma: Causes and Effects, Symptoms and Treatment." One key factor in that causes traumatic stress is a product of, “traumatic stress in childhood that influences the brain is caused by a poor or inadequate relationship with a primary caretaker.” It is coherent that Holden’s world of pain is a result of the absence of both his mother

The traumatic approach against adult world that is possible to denote in the novel The Catcher in The Rye, could be linked to a traumatic event happened during Holden’s childhood, such as the death

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye has been pronounced a literary classic for its atypical portrayal of adolescence, to effectively convey the protagonist’s alienation and confusion. The introduction of The Catcher in the Rye is underpinned by disorder and confusion through a stream-of-consciousness narration, which digresses from one subject to another. Consequently, Holden’s multitudinous thoughts and feelings appear to lack a cohesive pattern. Additionally, Holden’s prevalent ascription of other students as “phony” (Salinger, p.3) alludes to his alienation and isolation as a form of self-protection; he rejects those he does not understand. Furthermore, the vocabulary encapsulates typical adolescence dialect of the 1940s, and resultantly, alienates contemporary reader. This is typified through Holden’s use of colloquial speech, in particular, his exclamation “that killed me” (Salinger, p.42) to express his amusement. Therefore, the introduction of Holden’s disjointed monologue in The Catcher in the Rye foreshadows Salinger’s unique interpretation of adolescence.

     J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye has captured the spirit of adolescence, dramatizing Holden Caulfield's vulgar language and melodramatic reactions. Written as the autobiographical account of a fictional teenage prep school student named Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye deals with material that is socially scandalous for the time (Gwynn, 1958). As an emotional, intelligent, and sensitive young man, Holden puts his inner world to the test through the sexual mores of his peers and elders, the teachings of his education, and his own emerging sense of self. Throughout the years, the language of the story has startled readers. Salinger's control of Holden's easy,