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Holden Caulfield In The Catcher In The Rye

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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

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