How Does Holden Caulfield Affect Allie's Death

Allie, who died of leukemia 3 years prior to the events of the book, was the only person who deeply understood Holden. When Allie died, Holden broke all of the windows in his garage while breaking his own hand. Holden even states that he tried to break his family’s station wagon, but his hand was broken. This event shows that Holden really cared about Allie and that his death had a huge impact on his life. The death of Allie created a fear for Holden, Holden became afraid of change.

"Catcher in the Rye" written by J.D. Salinger, is a novel in which the author creates much irony in the way he presents the loss of innocence or the fall from innocence in his main character, Holden Caulfield. While Holden clearly believes in protecting the innocence of children in society, he himself cannot seem to hang onto his own innocence. Throughout the novel Holden shows his love and protection for childhood innocence, the irony that he in fact himself may be losing his own childhood innocence mainly due to the responsibilities which he has taken on, and also shows that he may be more innocent than the reader first thinks as his simplified view of a complex world is much like an innocent child would see.

Holden's Escape of Corruption Through Childhood and Innocence in The Catcher in the Rye Works Cited Missing Holden Caulfield was in conflict with the society he was living in. He regarded it as corrupted and totally insincere; and therefore he attempted to escape from falling into this corruption of adulthood, by holding onto his childhood innocence. However he was unsuccessful in his strong sense of desire to prevent this inevitable fall into adulthood. Later in the novel after coming to terms with this fact, he developed a new desire to act as ' The Catcher In

In The Catcher in The Rye, by J.D, the main character, Holden, can be seen as a troubled teenager growing up in a less than perfect society. Throughout the novel Holden struggles with the fact that many young and innocent kids will grow up and see the world from a different perspective. He naturally becomes worried for all future generations who will one day grow, as he did, and loose their innocence. The fixation of youth and innocence can be seen in the title of the book, as well as throughout the novel.

Holden has numerous distinct attributes pertaining to both childhood and adulthood. His transition from growing and relational life, to an uncontrolled spiritual realm, this stresses him. He has instances of introspection that helps him encompass a realization for his own livelihood. When he shares with his sister Phoebe what he would sincerely like to do with his life he says “I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.” (Salinger 173) That quote reveals the reasoning for the title of the book because Holden wants nothing more than to protect the innocence of children.

He is "Holden" back, not allowing himself to become a part of the ugliness he sees in virtually everyone. Chains of contempt for the world act as manacles that secure his superior attitude and ensure he will not become what he hates. The name "Holden" flawlessly portrays his inability to join society because of his high ideals for it. Caulfield, his last name, relates to recurring theme of childhood innocence. A "caul" is defined as a part of the amnion, one of the membranes enveloping the fetus, which sometimes is around the head of a child at its birth. The caul protects young children, just as Holden dreams to do when he tells Phoebe his ideal profession would be the catcher in the field of rye. Of course, the second section of his last name represents the field of rye. The few instants when Holden is genuinely happy and unaffected by his painful awakenings to the adult world deal with children, because he feels they are uncorrupted. Walking down the street in New York, Holden's rusted manacles of almost perpetual depression are unlocked when he sees a little boy singing "if a body catch a body coming through the rye." He criticizes his father, saying he wanted to appear "sharp" with the ratty hat he was wearing, and says neither parent was paying any attention to their son. He feels any adult has been demoralized, but will go to great lengths to come into any contact with a child. His perfect job, the

Allie is first introduced when Holden writes an english composition for his roommate, Stradlater. Allie's old baseball mitt had poetry written all inside of it, therefore Holden decided to write the composition on it due to it's details. Holden's brother had passed away from luekimia while they were in Maine on July 18, 1946 when Holden was just

Every time he talks about them, it seems like he idolizes them. He constantly praises and compliments them, which shows how Holden is sort of attracted to the idea of childhood. When Holden is still at Pencey Prep, he writes an essay for his friend Stradlater (Salinger 43). In this composition, he talks about Allie almost like he was a saint. Holden says Allie is “about fifty times as intelligent” as him and “never got mad at anybody” (Salinger 38). This and his description of Phoebe the same way (Salinger 182) both illustrate Holden’s fixation on children and childhood. Over the course of the novel, Holden becomes slightly more open to the idea of both mentally and physically entering adulthood. At first, he tries to be his idealized version of an adult, by going to nightclubs and trying to talk to women. But he soon realizes that adulthood isn’t as good as it originally seemed – this is where he starts to tie adulthood with

Catcher in the Rye, in simple terms, refers to saving innocence. Based on the reading so far (ch. 1-7), Holden Caulfield is a high school dropout who seems to have a bitter hatred for the world around him. As a result, he feels lonely and aimless. For example, in his conversation with Mr. Spencer, he shows no qualms about leaving Pencey, and very little concern for his future, “ ‘Oh, I feel some concern for my future, all right. Sure. Sure, I do.’ [...] ‘But not too much, I guess. Not too much, I guess.’ ” (ch.2 p.8). However, his candidness seems to be his shield from the world. In this case, the title applies to Holden, as he’s shutting out anyone who’s willing to help him, simply because he doesn’t want to grow up.

Throughout the book The catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield takes a journey through his life. On the outside of this young teenage boy it may seem like he has it together, but the inside of him is a full-hearted child. Holden has troubles with his inability to not try and save every innocent life he passes all the while he’s trying to force childhood and his actions back on himself. The sudden death of his brother Allie makes him go through this transition where he needs to grow up and face reality, but he instead chooses to hide behind the thoughts of a child. Although some may think that Holden has grown up because of the change he shows from the beginning to the end of the novel and the fact that reality might have hit him, that is not the case.

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).

Holden Caulfield plays a timeless character in the sense that his way of life is common for the American teenager, in his time as well as now. Today parents dread the terrible and confusing adolescent years of their child's life. In J.D. Salinger's book, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is in this terrible and confusing point of his life. At this point in his life, as well as in modern teenager's lives, a transition occurs, from child to adult. Holden takes this change particularly rough and develops a typical mentality that prevents him from allowing himself to see or understand his purpose in life.

In his dream, Holden gets to play a guardian, saving the pure and innocent from falling over the edge, a topic that plays very well on why this novel is appropriate for youth in our society today. Just like in the 1950’s when the book was written, this example stands for the hope of protecting a juvenile teenager’s innocence all through the step towards becoming an adult. Salinger enlightens us of that the beauty of keeping purity - in this case the children growing up too fast - is important to everyone, everywhere. (Aldridge, 128) There is also symbolism to be found in Holden's name (Hold on), about him holding on to his childhood. “Hold on” works as a symbol for how Holden expresses the theme of keeping innocence in his life as he personally acts as the catcher in the rye.

Coping with Allie’s death is extremely traumatic for Holden and he clings dearly to memories of his younger brother. When Holden expresses regret for not taking Allie to shoot BB guns with Bobby, he is blaming himself for not being able to save Allie’s life. The fact that Allie does not get upset with Holden makes him feel all the more guilty.

The significance of Holden wanting to be a “catcher in the rye” is that it shows that he wants to preserve children’s innocence and almost would enjoy the sisyphean task as monotonous as it may be it is stable in his life and would be forever unchanging. An example of how he wants everything to be the same, “ The best thing though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move”(121). This quote shows that Holden wants everything in his life to be the same just like the things in the glass cases and being the “catcher” his life would consist of one task, to save children losing their innocence.