Importance Of Innocence And Change Within Symbolism

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

The death of Holden’s brother also take a significant toll on him and his innocence. The death of his brother sparks off the road to the loss of Holden’s innocence, and Holden starts realizing the phoniness in people. Holden labels everyone who is “corrupted” and not pure to themselves as phonies. Holden depicts almost everyone as fake and not true to themselves, except Allie and Phoebe. When describing Allie Holden says “it wasn’t just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest …. God, he was a nice kid, though”. In Holden’s eyes Allie represents innocence and this confuses Holden because how can something so innocent die so young? Another death that changed Holden is James Castle a boy that committed

J.D. Salinger began the process of writing his first novel The Catcher in the Rye, just after being released from a mental hospital. According to mentalfloss.com. Salinger being a WWII veteran caused many to believe that he checked himself into the hospital due to the grim memories of the war. However, Salinger’s quiet profile prevents people from truly knowing him and his reasonings. As a reader it is your job to decipher the author's writing, that being said, because of Salinger’s reserved personality symbolism plays a big role in understanding his novel. In the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Salinger uses symbolism to represent the larger ideas of the book. The ducks in the Central Park Lagoon, Holden’s red hunting hat, and the carrousel are symbols that are important to the overall understanding of the Catcher in the Rye.

In the novel “Catcher in the Rye”, author J.D Salinger uses symbolism to create and portray key idea to us as the readers. The key ideas he portrays are; Holden Caulfield is the guardian of youth and that Holden is a broken record that no one wants to listen to.

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

Often in a novel, symbols and motifs are used to give major characters an identity and a complex personality, while letting us in on their thoughts. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger uses symbols to create Holden's intricate character and to let us understand him. This essay will talk about how Salinger uses symbols in order to depict Holden's character and his thoughts.

The Catcher in the Rye, a story surrounding the teenage angst and downward spiral of main character Holden Caulfield, has captivated many audiences through its controversial writing. Although many consider Holden to simply represent the anger in adolescence and fear of becoming an adult with responsibilities, his angst, alienation, and depression represents much more: the stripping of childhood innocence all too soon. Due to Holden's need to rescue so many others and the consumption of the need to regain his innocence, he cannot rescue himself from his own downfall.

Promptly after Allie's death, Holden struggles to process what has happened. Allie had leukemia, meaning that his parents and Holden likely knew that he was going to pass long before his death. However, when Allie dies, Holden still cannot fathom the thought that his little brother has passed. Feeling lost and helpless, he retreats to violence to express his feelings. His parents recommended a psychoanalyst evaluate Holden after he, “Tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was broken so I couldn't do it” (49). Clearly, Holden cannot confront or endure the pain that Allie's death inflicted on him besides resorting to destroying windows and taking his anger out on God for taking away his beloved brother. Holden did this because his emotional pain severely impacted his well-being, and he wanted to express his pain in a physical manner. Breaking the windows indicates how strong this emotional pain resonated in Holden. However, the long-term effects of Allie's death still resonate with him many years later. From what Holden tells the reader, Allie played a significant role in his life. In fact, he still talks to

This demonstrates the recklessness of youth theme, as Holden does not think farther ahead into the future, but chooses to live in the present and deal with the consequences of his actions later. In addition, his actions show that Allie’s death had a serious impact on his mental health, as his parents were going to have him psychoanalyzed. Allie’s death was the Cataracts from Heaven archetype, because it destroyed Holden’s Golden Age and changed his world completely. This also leads to many other problems for Holden as he struggles with his mental and emotional problems while navigating his way to adulthood. As the book progresses, so does Holden’s mental issues. He begins to think illogically and imagines terrifying things happening to him. Not only does his actions reflect his issues, but a close look at his thoughts also confirm his growing insanity. When Holden was walking, he notes, “Every time I came to the end of a road I get the feeling that I’d never get to the other side of the street… Then I started doing something else. Every time I’d get to the end of a block I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I’d say to him, ‘Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie,

Allie’s lack of appearance greatly affects Holden’s actions throughout novel. This absence is due to his death at the early age of 11. The major loss of his innocent red-headed brother was enough to break Holden at the tender age of 13. When Allie’s death occurred the loss of Holden 's sanity soon followed. “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.” Holden says. When Holden found out Allie died he didn 't cry and morn the way I believe his parents and Phoebe did. He morned through

J.D. Salinger utilizes extensive measures of symbolism as a part of his novel to precisely pass on the emotions of his primary character, Holden, and, generally, to uncover data relating to human slant. A number of these symbols contain incongruity, numerous implications, and fluctuating degrees of unpredictability. Through the cognizance of Salinger's remarkable symbolism, notwithstanding, The Catcher in the Rye can be genuinely comprehended and acknowledged. The character of Holden Caulfield is a capable symbol himself which speaks to individuals as they genuinely may be.

Allie’s premature death utterly broke Holden, which makes sense as it would break anyone if a sibling died. As shown throughout the book Holden idolized Allie which made it harder for him to let go. Because he refers to Allie throughout the novel the reader gets a sense that Holden isn’t dealing with this change very well, maybe not at all. Although he did learn from this, after the death he gained a sense of responsibility to protect children, even if

Allie, Holden’s little brother, had died of leukemia at the age of eleven. This event impacted Holden greatly. During that time, he mentioned that he had slept in the garage and broke all the windows in there with his bare hands. This shows how close he was to his brother and how greatly he was affected by this incident. He is also seen to consider himself as always depressed. “

This makes Holden a highly independent, yet lonely character. The traumatic incident of Allie's death altered his personality, making him less social and trusting of others. His interactions with other characters are full of lies, and ironically, the “phoniness” that he so greatly despises. The loss of his innocence at an early age affected Holden's character and helps the audience understand how his background ties into the story. The aspect of innocence also explains the reasoning behind his actions and

Allie is Holden’s little brother who died from Leukemia when Holden was thirteen years old. Allie was very special to Holden. In the Catcher in the Rye, Allie changes Holden’s view of trust and his worldview. Holden is depressed about his deceased brother and is struggling with it. Holden says, "I know he's dead! Don't you