Holden Caulfield Change

While Holden undergoes hardships and fears of the adult world, his heroic characteristics slowly reveal. Holden often thinks everyone is phony because of his loneliness in life. During the conversation with Mr. Spencer, Holden asserts “Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side…Nothing. No game”(Salinger 8). From the beginning of the story Holden commented on the game of life, testifying his true feelings of isolation and unfortunate contradicting his identity as the son of an intellectual lawyer, having access to a favorable education, and immense wealth. In addition, Holden also encounters a rough relationship with both men and woman, as seen in the text, Holden got in a fight with his amorous and arrogant roommate Stradlater, then another conflict with the deal of the prostitute Sunny. However, the death of Holden’s beloved brother Allie clearly framed an abhorrent impact on him. As evidence from the book where Holden portrayed his behavior after realizing the death of Allie, “I slept in the garage that night he died…just for the hell of it.”(Salinger 39). The effect was undoubtedly painful and fearful, that led Holden into a depressive break down state, and it may have altered Holden’s concept of getting along with others.

One of the hardships Holden must cope with is his inability to come to terms with death, in particular that of his younger brother, Allie. Holden seems to have experienced a

The death of Holden’s brother Allie at a young age adds to Holden’s negativity as well as stopping Holden from accepting inevitable change. Allie dies immaturely of leukemia. “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” (p. 39). Holden is in the hospital because he broke his fist, and he was unable to attend Allie’s funeral. Holden has trouble accepting Allie’s death because he never said goodbye to Allie. His relationship with Allie is similar to his maturity. Just as Holden is unable to accept his brother’s death, Holden is not able to accept that

Holden constantly talks about his brother Allie, who had leukemia and passed away while they were still at a young age. Asking him how he felt during those grievous time he says, "I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed

Holden remembers everything about the mitt from being left handed to the poems all over the fingers of the glove. Allie would write them on the fingers of the glove “so that he’d have something to read when he was on the field and nobody was up at bat” (38). Holden tears up the composition because he gets upset that his roommate, Stradlater, says that Holden’s writing about his brothers glove is not related to the assignment. The glove is valued by Holden because it is a constant reminder of his brother and how much Holden cared about him.

The death of Holden’s brother also take a significant toll on him and his innocence. The death of his brother sparks off the road to the loss of Holden’s innocence, and Holden starts realizing the phoniness in people. Holden labels everyone who is “corrupted” and not pure to themselves as phonies. Holden depicts almost everyone as fake and not true to themselves, except Allie and Phoebe. When describing Allie Holden says “it wasn’t just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest …. God, he was a nice kid, though”. In Holden’s eyes Allie represents innocence and this confuses Holden because how can something so innocent die so young? Another death that changed Holden is James Castle a boy that committed

Holden Caulfield encounters himself facing issues of acceptance of death, growing up, and parental neglecting that prevents him from completely understanding why it is that he is severely depressed. One of the hardships Holden must cope with is his inability to come to terms with death, of his younger brother, Allie. We often discover

The ducks are first brought to the reader’s attention while Holden is visiting his teacher, Mr. Spencer, regarding his removal from Pencey. While conversing with Mr. Spencer, however, Holden’s mind drifts elsewhere. His mind drifts back to New York as he wonders to himself if the lagoon in Central Park is frozen over, and if so, where do the ducks go? A direct parallel can be drawn from the ducks in the lagoon to Holden’s present situation. He is mandated to leave Pencey, but has no idea where he belongs after leaving. Just like the ducks in the lagoon, “Holden is essentially homeless, frozen out” (Trowbridge par. 1). Holden’s life has not been filled with an abundance of stability and now what little he had is gone, albeit due to faults of his own, and he sees an unsure and hazy future. Holden inquires about the state of the ducks to the driver of the first cab he catches in New York, and the driver believes that he is kidding. Later on, he asks another cab driver if somebody came around “in a truck or something to take them away” or if they flew away “by themselves” (Salinger 81-82). Knowing what happens to these ducks, knowing that they are safe and secure even though the lagoon is frozen would provide Holden with a sense of comfort about his current state of affairs. What seems to be a ridiculous and meaningless question to the

After the excursion, Mal went off to look for a bridge game, and Ackley sits on Holden’s bed squeezing pimples and making up stories about a girl he had sex with during the summer before. Holden gets him to leave by working on the English assignment for Stradlater. Stradlater said composition was supposed to be an easy description of a room, a house, something on point. But Holden cannot think of anything to say about a house or a room. So he writes about a baseball glove that his brother Allie used to copy poems by using a green

Holden experiences extreme difficulty accepting his current realities and one of the main factors causing this is the lasting negative impact his brother Allies death had on his life. Firstly, when Holden decides to leave his school, he tells readers , “I don’t care if it’s a sad goodbye or a bad goodbye, but when I leave a place, I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse” (Salinger, 4). Holden’s need for closure is evident in this quote. When Allie died, it was very unexpected and he was not prepared to let him go, resulting in his denial that his brother is actually

Over the course of the novel The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield matured in many ways. He traveled to New York and found out what life really becomes as you get older. He got hurt physically and emotionally, but he also got help from people like Mr. Antolini. This affected him in a couple of ways because towards the end of this novel he decides that it would be better if he stopped hating everyone, and everything, and went back to school. In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is considered to have never of changed from the beginning of the novel till the end, however some people believe he did change.

Holden never going to Allie’s funeral gives us insight into why Holden is still holding onto Allie. After Allie’s death, Holden still went through experiences that caused his BPD, neglect and separation. During the time following Allie’s death, Holden’s family was in great grieving, making Holden feel isolated and not getting the attention he needed to fully grow mentally as a child (“National Allegiance on Mental Health”). Holden also expresses twice, that his mother is still grieving over Allie’s death by stating his mother, “still isn’t over my brother Allie yet” (Salinger 155). Holden is also never close to anyone. He meets with his family a limited amount of time throughout the year, and is kicked out of schools, giving him no permanent guidance in his life. Holden constantly describes his expulsion as, getting “the ax” (107). He shows a continuous changing in guardians, because of his attachment to both Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini, both old school teachers from schools he flunked out of. He also dealt with the separation from D.B. his other brother, who moved to Hollywood, Holden seems to be very inspired by him throughout the novel, but is mad that he left (1).

Death is a concept to which Holden is no stranger. He speaks lovingly of his brother, Allie, who died of leukemia. "He was terrifically intelligent....But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody....He used to laugh so hard at something he thought of at the dinner table that he just about fell off his chair" (38).

Holden acknowledges that, “I don’t care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse.” (4). A chapter of Holden’s life is ending, but he makes it known that he is allowing the chapter to close, letting it go. Following the traumatic death of his brother Allie, Holden has at last reached the final stage of grief,

Holden’s connection with his little brother Allie was very special to him. This is evident in the way he talks about Allie. He holds Allie up to these great expectations, saying “You’d have liked him” (Salinger, 1945-6, p.33) and convincing you how great he was and how intelligent and special he was. You are now able to connect and sympathise for Holden, because he has told you all about the things that mean most to him, and you can’t help but feel a little sorry for him.