It’s exhausting to fight a war within your own mind everyday and Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, written in 1951, by J.D. Salinger did so nearly every day. Many of us have had a bad day and some people have them more than others. Holden was one of these that had to struggle more. In the book, he’s living his life after being kicked out of several schools by touring the city alone and avoiding home. I believe that due to some of the trauma of Holden’s past, and how he acted in the context of the book, he may have had a myriad of mental disorders but one I picked out was PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder. According to the American Psychiatric Association, approximately 1 in every 11 people in the U.S. will experience PTSD in their lifetime and I believe that Holden would have been one of those individuals. PTSD can be divided into 3 different subcategories. These are reliving the past, detachment, and agitation. In terms of reliving the past, most of the book can be considered a flashback. Holden is always dwelling on his memories and many of them involve Allie. “He was terrifically intelligent...He was also the nicest.”(Salinger 50). Holden talked about Allie often and how much he liked him. The brothers seemed to be very close and while Holden tends to criticize the faults in many people and call them “phonies,” he describes Allie with only compliments. Holden also uses his beloved brother as a support system. Though Allie died years ago, Holden uses his
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
Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I
Firstly, Holden’s PTSD derives from an event that happened in Holden’s past regarding his brother. He tells me that he had a brother named Allie who he was very close to, but sadly Allie passed do to Leukemia. Holden didn’t know how to deal with the death of
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.
Holden reveals to the reader that he, “almost wished he was dead” how is the plight of his mental health shown?
Are 50’s teens able to survive the hurtful but unavoidable transition of becoming a grown up as they struggle with the changes that come along with it?
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
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a known mental health condition triggered after experiencing or seeing a life-threatening event. It is very common around the world, and my new patient, Holden Caulfield, has this kind of disorder. A friend of mine recommended him, knowing that I will probably help him. Throughout our session, I could tell that Holden doesn’t have a normal mind. The death of his brother Allie and witnessing another death, his friend Jame Castle, who committed suicide, may have caused his PTSD. The outcome of experiencing all these tragic events changed his life. His relationship with his parents is vile, and he also does an appalling job in school. Reliving the past, detachment, and agitation, are the main symptoms of Holden’s PTSD.
Throughout life, an individual may endure emotionally and physically straining moments causing the person to become downhearted, and or irate. These feelings are normal, but may however become a problem when these feelings prohibit someone from living a ‘normal’ life. An estimated 5.2 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or approximately 3.6 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have PTSD (Narrow, Rae, Regier). This purpose of this report is to prove whether or not Holden Caulfield, the main character of J.D. Salingers’s book The Catcher In The Rye, is depressed.
Holden mentions Allie in the book quite often when he is feeling down. Allie was everything that Holden’s not. “He was terrifically intelligent.” His teachers were always writing letters to my mother , telling her what a pleasure it was to have a
Holden has several insecurities that are displayed throughout the book that hint at his condition.
Post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a known mental health condition triggered after experiencing or seeing a life threatening event. It is very common around the world, and my new patient, Holden Caulfield, has this kind of disorder. A friend of mine recommended him, knowing that I will probably help him. Throughout our session, I could tell that Holden doesn’t really have a normal mind. The death of his brother Allie and witnessing another death, his friend who committed suicide, may have caused his PTSD. The outcome of experiencing all these tragic events, changed his life. His relationship with his parents is vile, and he also does an appalling job in school. Relieving the past, detachment, and agitation, are the main symptoms of
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 has experienced clusters of severe trauma throughout his entire life. His brother Allie died of Leukemia a few years ago and Holden was so upset that he punched all of the windows out in his garage that night. Neither Holden, nor his family have yet to deal with the loss of Allie, which clearly affected Holden very much. Also Holden was a witness to James Castle’s suicide at a private school that he once attended. James Castle had been bullied and could no longer handle the situation, so he resorted to suicide by hurling himself out of a building window and falling to his death. Although Holden was not incredibly close with James Castle, he was still affected deeply by the sight of the incident.
The characters Holden Caulfield, from J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, and Will Hunting, from Good Will Hunting, have very similar personalities; however, they live in completely different worlds. The Catcher in the Rye is narrated by Holden Caulfield. He is a seventeen year old from New York City, and in the book, he comes to terms with his past. The story is told from a psychiatric institution. The movie Good Will Hunting is about a very intelligent twenty year old, Will Hunting, who is a janitor at a school in south Boston. The major conflict with the both of them is within their own mind. Part of them wants to connect with other people on an adult level, while part of them wants to reject the world. The main difference between them has to do with socio-economics, and how different their childhoods were. A main similarity between the two is that they push things away, because they are afraid of getting attached to anything. Another similarity is that they are both very intelligent young men, but are not necessarily good in school. Even though Holden and Will grew up in almost opposite conditions, they have many similarities when it comes to their personalities.