Post-Traumatic Stress In Relation To Holden Caulfield Essay

While Holden undergoes hardships and fears of the adult world, his heroic characteristics slowly reveal. Holden often thinks everyone is phony because of his loneliness in life. During the conversation with Mr. Spencer, Holden asserts “Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side…Nothing. No game”(Salinger 8). From the beginning of the story Holden commented on the game of life, testifying his true feelings of isolation and unfortunate contradicting his identity as the son of an intellectual lawyer, having access to a favorable education, and immense wealth. In addition, Holden also encounters a rough relationship with both men and woman, as seen in the text, Holden got in a fight with his amorous and arrogant roommate Stradlater, then another conflict with the deal of the prostitute Sunny. However, the death of Holden’s beloved brother Allie clearly framed an abhorrent impact on him. As evidence from the book where Holden portrayed his behavior after realizing the death of Allie, “I slept in the garage that night he died…just for the hell of it.”(Salinger 39). The effect was undoubtedly painful and fearful, that led Holden into a depressive break down state, and it may have altered Holden’s concept of getting along with others.

Consequently, on multiple occasions Holden contemplates suicide. For example, after he gets wrongfully attacked by Sunny’s pimp, Maurice, he says that he would not mind ending his life. He states that the only reason he rejected the idea is because he remembers James Castle’s suicide. Holden does not want people staring at his corpse. Another time he desires committing suicide when he talks after he talked about his brother D.B.’s experience with going to war. Holden thinks, “I’m sort of glad that they’ve got the atomic bomb invented. If there is ever another war, I’m going to sit right the hell on top of it. I’ll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will” (156). This quote is saying that Holden wants to kill himself in an extremely dramatic and graphic way. In the past few days Holden’s emotions have been abused and he has

In J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caufield, describes in detail the parts of his life and his environment that bother him the most. He faces these problems with a kind of naivety that prevents him from fully understanding why it is that he is so depressed. His life revolves around his problems, and he seems helpless in evading them. Among others, Holden finds himself facing the issues of acceptance of death, growing up, and his own self-destructiveness.

James Castle rarely spoke to anyone in Elkton Hills so much so that it caused Holden to, “damn near [drop] dead” (171) when he asked to borrow his sweater. James committed suicide by jumping out of a window in an attempt to get away from the boys who were bullying him. Holden recounts talking to James and his suicide with

J.D. Salinger 's "The Catcher in the Rye" portrays a troubled teen in New York City. Over the few days the novel depicts, the boy displays his critical and unhealthy mindset. Eventually he has a mental breakdown. Through psychoanalysis of Holden Caulfield, one may suggest that Allie 's death, social development, and an identity crisis are large contributing factors in Holden 's mental breakdown.

Many Symptoms for PTSD are Things or events act as triggers which remind you or resemble your traumatic event, Worrying about coping with everyday situations and Feeling that the traumatic event was happening again (hallucinations, flashbacks) etc. The everyday effects that it cause for veterans is trauma, withdraw etc. (POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD), 2001)

Nineteen million American adults suffer from a major case of depression (Web MD). That is a staggering one in every fifteen people (2 in our classroom alone). Holden Caulfield is clearly one of those people. Depression is a disease that leads to death but is also preventable. Psychology, stressful events, and prescription drugs are causes of depression. Stressful events brought on Holden’s depression. Holden has been trying to withstand losing a brother, living with careless parents, and not having many friends. The Catcher in the Rye is a book that takes us through the frazzled life of Holden Caulfield, who appears to be just a regular teen. But by hearing his thoughts and through heart-wrenching events in the book, the reader learns that

In the novel “The Catcher in The Rye” Salinger, the author, uses Holden’s interactions to both criticize society as well as reveal Holden’s symptoms of his psychological problems. In the novel, Salinger presents how unsympathetic people can be towards each other especially if you are like Holden, an emotionally scarred male teenager dealing with past trauma. Salinger also shows us that due to those unsympathetic behaviors and the trauma that comes with dead family members.

Depression, a common mental disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration. This mental illness demonstrates to affect teens as much as it affects adults. Studies show that 20 percent of teens will experience teen depression before they reach adulthood. When you deal with depression, you often find it difficult to live an everyday normal life. The “Catcher in the Rye” written by J.D Salinger, narrates on the main character Holden Caulfield, a hostile and negative person, who suffers from severe depression.

When a person hears the phrase, post traumatic stress disorder, most of the time they imagine soldiers returning from war to their families. However, people are not always aware that this disorder occurs in seemingly normal people. In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield seems to deal with this disorder. Looking at the surface of the novel, this is unclear. Therefore, this is an inferred trait in the novel. The reader must figure out for themselves that the protagonist retains the disorder. Holden Caulfield suffers from post traumatic stress disorder as he fits the description of symptoms and causes for his issues. Before pursuing Holden’s condition it is important to understand that the disorder can be extremely serious in some and less dramatic in others. This is determined by the cause of the disorder and how the person copes with it. There are several symptoms that clearly display this disorder and once again, it depends on the cause.

Everybody feels depressed at some time or another in their lives.  However, it becomes a problem when depression is so much a part of a person's life that he or she can no longer experience happiness.  This happens to the young boy, Holden Caulfield in J.D Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye.  Mr. Antolini accurately views the cause of Holden's depression as his lack of personal motivation, his inability to self-reflect and his stubbornness to overlook the obvious which collectively results in him giving up on life before he ever really has a chance to get it started.

Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he

Holden has experienced clusters of severe trauma throughout his entire life. His brother Allie died of Leukemia a few years ago and Holden was so upset that he punched all of the windows out in his garage that night. Neither Holden, nor his family have yet to deal with the loss of Allie, which clearly affected Holden very much. Also Holden was a witness to James Castle’s suicide at a private school that he once attended. James Castle had been bullied and could no longer handle the situation, so he resorted to suicide by hurling himself out of a building window and falling to his death. Although Holden was not incredibly close with James Castle, he was still affected deeply by the sight of the incident.

Holden is deathly afraid of conforming, growing up, and having to assimilate into the phony adult world. As a result he comes off as hypocritical as he is the most prominent phony in the novel. He constantly lies, refuses to connect with others and overlooks his own pain, letting it deeply impact his life. Holden is a compulsive liar; he does not have one honest conversation with anyone except his sister and Jane for the duration of the novel. When he is on the train with Mrs. Morrow, for instance, he claims his name is Rudolf Schmidt and preaches about what an amazing guy her son is, even though he is “the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole crumby history of the school.” (61) This shows that Holden falls victim to the same social conventions as everyone else. He says exactly what Mrs. Morrow wants to hear, despite the fact that he

Holden remembers witnessing extreme bullying at one of his schools. He knew a boy at his school that was being bullied. The boy ended up committing suicide while wearing Holden’s sweater, which made the situation more personal for Holden. James Castle, the boy, gossiped about another boy at the school. That boy and his friends locked James Castle inside a room. They started bullying him by beating him up and saying mean things. Even though James was much smaller than them, he would not take back what he said and he jumped out the window. Holden was angry when the bullies were only expelled and not arrested. Holden says, “I was in the shower and all, and even I could hear him land outside….there was old James Castle laying right on the stone