Holden's Ptsd In Catcher In The Rye

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

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

Although you may be worried about your son being admitted to this mental hospital, I assure you my time with him has allowed me to psychoanalyze your son. Listening to his story has given me a greater understanding of his character. Although he might seem to be an unsocial, pessimistic young man, his true colors reveal a morally confused character. It might take a long period of time to fully explain Holden's condition so I will shorten it to outline the important points I am trying to make. Holden's sadness is caused by his inability to understand others.

Secondly, most teenagers have struggles grieving for the loss of of their loved ones. Holden struggles multiples of times to grief for the death of his younger brother, Allie, who died at the age of 11 due to leukemia. Holden writes about Allie for Stradlater’s english homework and tells the reader, “He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in their class...But it wasn’t just that he as the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anyone...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. I really don 't. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the

Because he believes himself to be good looking, his appearance is not an issue. However, he tends to push others away (probably unintentionally). Therefore, his peers avoid or ignore him. Peer rejection instigates low self-esteem in Holden, resulting in feelings of loneliness and depression in addition to social difficulties. Throughout the story, Holden frequently mentions feeling depressed and lonely. He also has problems getting along with people. Few outside his family desire him around. An example of this is occurs when Holden meets with Luce, an old prep school acquaintance, in a bar and is blatantly cast off.

To start off with, Holden has symptoms of Post traumatic stress disorder, such as flashbacks and mistrust. He often has flashbacks about his disesaed brother Allie. One example from the novel says,”[Allie] got lukemia and died when we were up in maine, july 18th, 1946”. That is a very specific thing for somebody to remember, considering he doesnt do well in school, proving thatthis event still remains clear in his head. As does his brother. He describes him as” He

Holden Caulfield values his brother, Allie. When Allie died of Leukemia on July 19, 1946, Holden was left devastated. However, Holden always thought that Allie was the most interesting person that he has ever met. Allie was one person that

Holden Caulfield encounters himself facing issues of acceptance of death, growing up, and parental neglecting that prevents him from completely understanding why it is that he is severely depressed. One of the hardships Holden must cope with is his inability to come to terms with death, of his younger brother, Allie. We often discover

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

A disparate situation is presented to readers in The Catcher in the Rye. Early in the novel, Holden expresses the reason for his difficulties in school as his being: “always surrounded by phonies.”(Salinger 13) Holden is correct; he is completely incapable of relating to his peers. However he takes no time to consider potential solutions to his problem. During his conversation with Mr. Spencer, Holden communicates that he deals with his troubles by simply quitting; putting minimal effort into academics and socialization. Since Holden never addresses his emotions directly, he fails to realize

Death is a concept to which Holden is no stranger. He speaks lovingly of his brother, Allie, who died of leukemia. "He was terrifically intelligent....But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody....He used to laugh so hard at something he thought of at the dinner table that he just about fell off his chair" (38).

Allie was Holden's younger brother that passed away from Leukemia at the age of eleven. Holden was very distraught when this happened, after he found out he punched the windows in the garage and ended up breaking his hand. Holden was sent to the hospital for his hand and missed Allie's funeral. Although it is not explicitly stated in the book, the fact that he missed his younger brother's funeral troubles him it could be one of the reasons Holden lacks closure about the passing of Allie. Allie passing away hit Holden harder than anyone else because Holden considered Allie his best friend and thought of him as the most intelligent and nicest member of the family. Holden also bonded a lot with Allie because his older brother, D.B., moved to Hollywood to become a writer for the movies. This made Holden partially resent his older brother because he considered D.B. a phony for "selling himself out to Hollywood". Once D.B. left, Holden bonded more with Allie even though they already were together whenever they could be. Almost four years after the death of Allie, Holden still considers Allie as the only person or thing that he truly likes. Phoebe, his younger sister, confronted him about it by saying that Allie is dead and does not count as someone or something he truly likes. Holden became very upset and even angry at that statement, responding

Similarly, loss suffered by Holden acts as a contributing factor to his inner turmoil and mental illness. Holden’s younger brother Allie passed away in 1946, and has haunted Holden ever since. He states: ‘He’s dead now. He got Leukaemia and died.’ The bluntness with which Holden reveals his death is representative of the effective use of simple language on the part of Salinger. Complex vocabulary is not used because it is not needed- the incident stands out more against a plainer backdrop. The fact that Allie died of Leukaemia also makes the event more devastating. He died extremely prematurely and Holden’s downfall suggests that his death impacted him in a huge way. Holden was intensely fond of his brother and refers to him throughout the entirety of the novel. He comments: ‘You would have liked him’ when personally addressing the reader. We therefore feel involved in his story and emotion is evoked when we hear of his passing. It also acts as an explanation for Holden’s difficulties. He struggles immensely throughout adolescence as he fails to accept the transition from childhood to adulthood, perhaps because he described Allie as ‘mature’ for his age. This could perhaps be why Holden has such negative associations with growing older: all he sees ahead is death. Therefore, loss endured by both Holden and Esther leads to their eventual depression and isolation from society.

Holden’s connection with his little brother Allie was very special to him. This is evident in the way he talks about Allie. He holds Allie up to these great expectations, saying “You’d have liked him” (Salinger, 1945-6, p.33) and convincing you how great he was and how intelligent and special he was. You are now able to connect and sympathise for Holden, because he has told you all about the things that mean most to him, and you can’t help but feel a little sorry for him.