Holden Caulfield's Suicide

A final conflict in the life of Holden Caufield is his own self-destructiveness. That he is

Holden Caulfield is a tragic hero in his journey to defend all children from becoming adults and saving their youth and innocence, which is simply an impossible task. Arthur Miller describes a tragic hero as one who attempts “to gain his ‘rightful’ position in his society” and in doing so struggles for his dignity. Holden’s downfall happens because his tragic flaw is that he is hypocritical about himself and doesn’t understand himself.

Holden’s contempt for adults goes deeper than teen angst or a need to rebel. Rebellion is done out of a need for attention, however in Holden’s case he acts upon a fear and unresolved childhood trauma. Throughout the novel, we see our character Holden bouncing around denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Holden lost his brother to leukemia; Holden was 13, while Allie was 11. Holden was left devastated. At the beginning of this book we see Holden in isolation watching the football game on his own atop a hill after a long disappointing day in New York. Holden tells us about when he found out about Allie’s death, and in a fit of rage punched the windows out of the garage of their summer home, breaking his hand with the desire to punch the car windows out. Holden was unable to reconcile the loss of Allie. He missed the funeral because of his accident and continues to not visit the grave because of his denial of the situation. Holden used bargaining when he asked Allie to catch him in his fall through depression. Holden perceived the children of the rye as falling, while he was the only one actually falling with no one to catch him. Throughout the entire novel except in short bits, Holden claims to be depressed and hates being around those with less than himself. Finally, at the end of the book, Holden reaches an acceptance that he can’t control everything and life continues. He has to let go and allow others to reach for that carousel's golden ring even if they do fall along the

Teenagers lives their life differently. However, when the time of being a adolescent arrives, they all have the same confusion and mindsets. J. D. Salinger’s novel, “The Catcher in the Rye”, is about a seventeen year old boy named Holden Caulfield, who lives his life with complexes and problems of his owns. Holden lives his life according to his favor and commit unreasonable actions. Holden has a difficult time trying to understand what being a teenager is. Holden Caulfield is a typical teenager because he expresses the problems of being a teenager.

“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” This quote was said by Holden Caulfield. The main character experiences the death of his brother. Holden’s brothers name is Allie Caulfield. Allie Caulfield was the smartest of the Caulfield’s he died three years before the start of the book and Holden still is taking it hard. The puritans would not approve of the Novel The Catcher in the Rye due to characters did not live sin-free lives, women were not submissive, and characters would swear.

Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye has been into continuous dispute and controversy since its publication in 1951. Some critics think that Salinger 's narrative of the human plight is engrossing and enlightening, yet incredibly depressing. The leading character, Holden Caulfield, serves as the basis for critical discussion due to his psychological conflict. Salinger 's portrayal of Holden, which encloses incidents of dejection, nervous breakdown, impulsive spending, sexual exploration, and other wandering behavior, have all assist to the controversial nature of the novel. Yet the novel is praised by its piercing advocates, who argue that it is a critical look at the problems facing American youth during the 1950 's.

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.

Death affects us all in unusual ways. In the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden Caulfield has experienced a significant amount a trauma. He has had unfortunate, traumatic experiences, surrounding death. Due to Holden being so young; his immaturity affects the way he analyzes the traumas and pushes him into the depths of depression. Displaying signs of depression, Holden unknowingly rejects life and is resisting change. He does not show the drive to learn and to grow into an adult; disastrously Holden demonstrates depression and suicidal ideations.

Holden resists his father's plan of going to a good school because he's unready to face the responsibility of the adult world. He expresses defiance by being against society's expectation such as getting a good education, and a good future. He uses the term 'dying' to emphasize his extreme urge for not going to the schools and his rebellious actions for not following his father's expectations. The defense mechanism, regression and defiance reveal Holden's attachment to his past and his unwillingness to face adulthood. Holden's best course of action is to accept that his childhood has gone by and to learn how to face adulthood responsibly and willingly.

As one of the readers, I were able to vision a teenager Holden Caulfield’s life in the novel The Cather in the Rye. When Holden was a teenager he was one of the people, who hated anyone who acted phony, but actually he realized he was the same. The same means acting Phony. After witnessing his younger brother, Allie, death from leukemia, he still had remorse of him in his mind through his life. When Phoebe asked Holden about what Holden likes, he said he likes Allie, even though he passed away. “Just because somebody’s dead, you don’t just stop liking them, for God’s sake-especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that’re alive and all.”(p.92), part of a conversation with Old Phoebe. When we look in deeper

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye presents a look into the mind of Holden Caulfield, a popular literary icon numerous teenagers have rightfully found themselves relating to at some point. While the familiar emotions of Holden were welcoming for me, his anecdotes and witty remarks proved entertaining as well. The story chronicles Holden’s exploration through New York post-expulsion, with his point of view influenced by his growing alienation with the world. He represents that growing sense of unease at growing up and facing a reality that is not always pretty, and, in his case, a need to save children from having to face that reality. I personally admired the fact that he was not just an angry teenager in the world as stereotypes suggest.

Holden frequently asserts that since the death of his brother, Mrs. Caulfield is ‘nervous as hell’ (158). In this incapacitated state, Mrs. Caulfield is rendered unable to confront her children’s problems, hence creating an unsupportive relationship with her children that fails to provide them with the stability and help they need. Holden acknowledges this inability in his statement that upon imagining his death, he ‘kept picturing her not knowing what to do with all my suits and athletic equipment and all’ (155). In this image, Mrs. Caulfield is unable to handle even the simple problem of finding a place to put Holden’s possessions, pointing to her ineffectiveness in solving the issues relating to her children. A lack of parental authority is also demonstrated in the scene where Mrs. Caulfield comes home and notices the smoke left from Holden’s cigarette in Phoebe’s bedroom. Phoebe confesses falsely that she had been smoking because she couldn’t sleep, to which her mother’s only reaction is the slight reprimand; ‘I don’t like that, Phoebe. I don’t like that at all.’ (177) This passive and dismissive reaction highlights once again Mrs. Caulfield’s permissive nature as a parent, and in so doing exposes her actions as an example of the lack of attention and support

A pessimistic adolescent is not what most consider a reliable narrator, but author J.D. Salinger challenges this commonly held thought with his coming-of-age novel The Catcher in the Rye. The reader is introduced to Holden Caulfield, a secondary school junior that is outcasted and aimless upon expulsion from yet another preparatory school in a post-World War II world. Salinger weaves a myriad of comparisons of genuinity and disingenuousness into his work, each explored through a facet of Caulfield’s personality and experiences. The cynical sixteen-year-old strives to identify and preserve the innocence found in the world around him, though his efforts often stem from his own unresolved issues from childhood. OMSETHIN ABOUT STORIES. SOMETHING ABOUTALIENATION.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, explores the world of Holden Caulfield; a teenage boy struggling with adolescence. The novel is told from Holden Caulfield’s perspective as he takes us through what happens to him after he is expelled from Pencey Prep. Throughout his journey, we observe his ignorant and hostile attitude. However, the most noticeable thing about Holden is his irresponsibility and his incapability of being able to take care of himself. With all this in mind, Caulfield’s outcome is inappropriate because he needs therapy and the help of his family to get to a more healthy, mental state.

Analyzing Holden’s character as for a biography, the reader will likely conclude that he acts no better than a hyperactive child; with little in the way of understanding the fact that all actions come with consequences. There is what he likes – which seems to be little – and what he dislikes – which he often proceeds to call “phony.” His vocabulary is limited, vernacular simple, phrases repetitious, and he frequently moves to tangents; Holden acts as a child would. He has held onto what he perceives children doing, saying, thinking, and has incorporated that into himself. This is not because he has yet to “lose his innocence,” but because he feels he must hold on to what he believes he still has so that he may live a happy life. This is best seen by the reader when Holden divulges into one of his previously mentioned tangents, which often take on a more somber or aggressive tone towards something in the