Holden Caulfield Character Analysis Essay

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.

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

Salinger highlights the struggle after a loved one’s death through the protagonist, Holden, who accounts the memories of his brother Allie: “He used to laugh so hard at something he thought of at the dinner table that he just about fell off his chair. I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don't blame them” (Salinger 38). At an adolescent age, Holden had to go through the tragedy of his brother's death, where he demonstrated strange behavior due to his emotional instability. Holden had ruined his friendship with Stradlater, who’d asked Holden to write him an English prompt where Holden wrote about Allie’s glove, but had disappointed Stradlater, thus Holden tore the paper. Holden became furious due to the connection Holden had with his brother, he portrayed the misunderstanding that society and adolescents have of one another after a

Holden’s characterization takes place after Allie’s death and continues to mold him into the young boy he is today. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddamn with my fist, just for the hell of it. (Salinger, pg. 39). Allie’s death is the root of Holden’s emotional problems and creates the Holden as of today. Although Holden was young and naive and his actions and his actions may have meant nothing to him at the time, punching

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.

All of Holden’s impulsiveness and Depression, can be lead back to July 18th, 1946. Allie’s last battle with Leukemia. When Holden’s roommate, Stradlater, at Pencey goes out on a date, he asks Holden to write a descriptive essay in his notebook about a place or a room. But Holden, writes about a baseball mitt. “The thing was, I couldn't think of a room or a house or anything to describe the way Stradlater said he had to have. I'm not too crazy about describing rooms and houses anyway. So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie's baseball mitt. It was a very descriptive subject. It really was. My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder's mitt. He was left-handed. The thing that was descriptive about it though, was that he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green ink. He wrote them on it so that he'd have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up at bat. He's dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in maine, on july 18th, 1946.” (38) Holden hates that someone as kind, and as innocent as Allie had to die, that he got the short end of the stick

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

Holden, having difficulty describing a room or house for Stradlater's composition, he decides to write about his brother Allie’s baseball mitt, that had poems written a over the glove for Allie to read when he was in the field (Salinger 38).

Holden, at a point of his story, talks about a special baseball mitt that his brother, Allie, had used before his death. The glove has poems written in

Holden encounters events in his life which guide him to fear adulthood the way that he does. Two major events that impacted him were the death of his little brother Allie and the death of James Castle who was a former classmate of Holden when he attended Elkton Hills. His little brother Allie, “got leukemia and died...on July 18th, 1946” (Salinger 38). Allie was only 11 years old at the time and Holden was 13 years old. Holden was completely crushed and broken.

The death of a loved one is always difficult but for some people, that death sticks with them, changing them long-term. Holden loses his brother Allie, and it changes his life; although his brother died when Holden was young he never resolves the depression resulting from his grief. When Holden writes a paper for his roommate, he is expected to write about a room, however he but begins to describe his brother, Allie, particularly the day his brothers death. He explains, “I broke all the windows in the garage” When Holden is talking about Allie’s baseball glove he explains how on that day, he had slept in the garage and broken all the windows in the garage with his fist.

Holden also reminisces about his younger brother, Allie, who has passed away. He views his brother, at times, as a god. When he is walking down Fifth Avenue, he is afraid that he will fall off the curb every time he reaches the end of a block and will die, so he prays to Allie:

Holden’s roommate at boarding school, Stradlater asks him to write a composition. Since, Holden had nothing to do he wrote the composition on his brother, Allie’s baseball mitt. Holden has a difficult time dealing with Allie’s loss. He is depressed. Holden’s grief is a lack of way to let out his emotions. His parents never comfort or give encouraging words to him to aid the sense of depression. While constructing Stradlater’s composition about his brother’s baseball mitt he says, “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed” (Salinger 39). Holden is angry and devastated about his brother’s death due to breaking all the windows in the garage with his fist. He even slept in the garage overnight. His brother’s death causes immature choices as he is in a mental hospital talking to a therapist. He also got stick out of boarding school because he is depressed. This action shows how isolated and pessimistic Holden is regarding his brother’s

Now as an adult he knows what actually happened to Allie and why he left Holden and their family at such a young age. You see the knowledge of the death of Allie corrupt Holden's childhood which mad it horrible and now as an adult it corrupts him even more by knowing the truth. The youth is very innocent you don’t know much on what going on so losing a sibling at such a young age affect Holden strongly and brakes him apart. The authors doesn't show this action directly Salinger's writing makes us the reader think deeper into the meaning of the statement stated He show the way Holden act to the death because at the time he was only eleven years old and he didn't have much knowledge on

In The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger uses the death of Holden’s brother to expedite Holden’s transition into adulthood. Holden is deeply affected by Allie’s premature death because Allie is one