Holden's Irrational Behavior

In Chapters V and VI, Holden’s feelings of anguish and anger are expressed in his actions. Holden describes the death of his younger brother, Allie. As a result of his overwhelming emotions, he broke all the windows in his garage with his fist. “It was a very stupid thing to do, I’ll admit, but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie.” (page 39) Holden couldn’t control his actions and acted recklessly. He does acknowledge that it was dumb to take out his anger by punching windows, but he did it on impulse.

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

In the novel The Catcher In The Rye, the main character Holden experiences a massive amount of struggle. One major struggle he experiences is depression. Many teenagers can relate to Holden because throughout the novel he shows some of the struggles that anyone could be going through. While I was reading I felt sympathy for Holden and wanted to reach out and help him get through his struggles. There are many red flags repeatedly showing Holden being depressed. These red flags are not only found in Holden but can be noticed in other people who are depressed.

Looking into Holden’s thoughts about intimacy and relations, he is two-faced in his statements. He claims to believe that sex is intimate and should only be between two people who are in love, but acts on losing his virginity with just anybody. This is a strong statement about our society today. In this decade, we are losing intimacy resulting from the use of technology and lack of chivalry. When you go out, almost every person you see is holding a cellphone or a smart-device before his or her eyes. This loses human interaction in result to lack of communication. My conclusion: no one knows how to physically talk to each other anymore; therefore, “relationships” are censored to what the Internet says. Not only we’re losing human interaction,

As a neurotic person, Holden exhibits Self-Hatred for himself through his tendency to deal with problems through childish impulses. Self-Hatred occurs when one attempts to cope with their existential anxiety by allowing it to manifest into mental illnesses. Holden shows this when he allows his innocence to make adult decisions. For example, he hires a prostitute and plans to have sex with her, which is something that signifies the loss of innocence and transitions into adulthood. When she arrives, he changes his mind and asks “‘Don’t you feel like talking for a while?’” (Salinger 95). This shows that Holden is unable to make adult decisions, and instead, relies on his childish impulses. Holden’s childish impulses also lead to violent outcomes, such as with

In J. D Salinger 's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden, goes through many hardships in his journey to self-knowledge. In the beginning, Holden has to deal with being kicked out of school and not having any place to call home. He is also struggling with the unfortunate tragedy of the death of his beloved younger brother Allie. At the same time, Holden is trying to deal with growing up and accepting the adult world. Throughout the novel Salinger addresses the conflicts faced by a young man struggling with the trials and tribulations of growing up while also confronting personal loss and loneliness along the way.

One of Holden’s main defense mechanisms in the novel is isolation and same isolation can derive from his constant depression.. Holden chooses to isolate himself many times throughout the storyline because of his saddening past. An article by Debbie Roome acknowledged “Depression is another prime cause of isolation. A depressed teen loses interest in everyday activities and drops out of social groups at school” (Roome). The reader will in fact see this early on in the book demonstrating Holden flunked out of his school! The quote “Where I want to start telling is the day I left Pencey Prep. Pencey Prep is this school that’s in Agerstown, Pennsylvania” (Salinger 2) is an example of where Holden flunked out of his school, he in fact failed

In J.D. Salinger's book Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caulfield has quite the adventurous downfall. The story takes place in New York City, though in actual fact it is hinted that Holden is recalling the story in an insane asylum. Holden is responsible for his downfall because of his risky behaviour, his mental breaking point, and his internal conflicts.

Human always judge each other, on everything from appearance to personality. They always think that people have to do certain things or be in certain ways. They created a rules for themselves; set borders that limits everything thought and action. People think rules and borders that they set are how people should be, and so they expected others to follow that ‘rules’. The Catcher in the Rye, a 1951 novel written by J. D. Salinger, includes this aspect of human nature into its main character, Holden Caulfield. The author uses interior monologues and motifs throughout the story to explain and show how people always judge other people's opinions and actions except their own.

Holden has shown many signs of having post traumatic stress. Some of the signs Holden had was as stated “triggers that can bring back memories of the trauma accompanied by intense emotional and physical reactions.” Holden always bring up Allie his brother, even when he wrote compositions for Stradlater, “So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie’s baseball mitt,”(Salinger,38) Holden always tends to bring up the past. This is one of the many signs that Holden shows as the book progress. In the text, “All of a sudden, on my way out to the lobby, I got old Jane Gallagher on the brain again,” (Salinger, 76). Holden continuously brings up many people that has made him feel this way about people. Holden also demonstrates a lack of control when it comes to talking to people. When Holden brother Allie died when Holden was just 13, he punched out all the windows out of the garage saying, “It was just for the hell of it,” (Salinger, 39). This indicates that Holden is not a healthy psychologically adolescent, as he can’t articulate the thoughts of his actions. Holden’s lack of control and ability not to let go of the past shows how Holden is not mentally

In all three scenes Holden seeks escape through Allie, hoping that Allie will protect him from himself, his own fears, his own grief...never realizing that he's running from himself, from his reaction to Allie's death. This passage in particular hit a little too close to home. More and more often, I'm learning that I have this tendency to hide behind things, to blame things, and to seek respire through the activities I do. Just like Holden, I'm quite guilty of bottling up my feelings, concealing my pain, and putting on my red hunting hat. These past two years, my life has changed dramatically, and it is because of the changes, especially the end of my theatre program, that I have finally been able to realize how much I am able to hide.

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the book explores the Socio-Economic theme, and the novel illustrates the theme through presenting the types of social classes in the book. The book presents the poor, middle, and elite classes, each with their respective characteristics according to the amount of money they have; for example, the elite class has common things people would expect of wealthy people. Holden, the main protagonist, is also of the higher class status; however, he is rather more humble than someone who wants a lot of luxury. Holden’s humility about his wealth is illustrated through how he has cheap, simple items and how he feels about money in order to express Holden as a rich, yet humble, character.

Throughout the novel, Holden expresses many of its symptoms, either through his emotions or actions. Some of these symptoms include having flashbacks, trouble sleeping, having angry outbursts, negative thoughts about oneself, and loss of interest in new or everyday activities. These symptoms relate to Holden's inability to eat regularly and get a sufficient amount of sleep, along with re-living the time of Allie's death in his mind and frequently thinking about committing

In the coming of age novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, it is important to understand that Holden Caulfield, a teenager and the protagonist, is insane and mentally unstable, which is demonstrated through his thoughts and actions. When Allie, Holden’s beloved brother, died due to leukemia, it saddens Holden greatly and results in him losing control of his emotions. Holden recalls, “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage” (Salinger, 44). Here, Holden expresses his grief through unhealthy measures. He breaks his fist performing this act, and also shows that Holden has no control over his actions. He knows that it was the wrong

Grievance, a controversial theme, has higher infection rates than even the common cold ; Everyone, regardless of appearance, stature, and social status will indefinitely experience it some time in their life. In the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, Salinger depicts a boy called Holden whom flunks and runs away from school, only to unexpectedly embark on a journey through the streets of New York City. He hires prostitutes, fights with gargantuan 250 pound pimps, and gets drunk from alcohol at bars. Not only does he isolate himself from others to protest against conformity, he also does so to reach some form of closure or end to his grievance of the death of his late brother, Allie. Through examining the actions and thoughts of Holden, it reveals