Why Is Holden Unstable

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

     Holden becomes reluctant to change because of Allie’s death. The loss of Allie was a great change in Holden’s

Holden’s deep depression arose from Allie’s death, and at Holden’s lowest moments, he starts to think about Allie. His depression started when Holden “broke all the goddamn windows with [his] fist” (39). Holden is unable to properly grieve for his brother leaving him in bitter depression with the lingering memories of Allie to bring him comfort. At the park, Holden’s contemplation on his own death leads him back to thoughts about Allie at the cemetery. Holden recalls the feeling of guilt he felt when he had to leave Allie at the cemetery so eventually he stopped going. Allie brings Holden back to reality at the park making him go see Phoebe and eventually Allie’s death reminds Holden of why he can’t leave Phoebe. The pain Holden constantly feels because of Allie’s death drags him deeper into depression, but also gives him some comfort in his toughest times. Holden’s contrast of emotions about Allie portrays his inability to stop thinking about Allie and to accept that Allie is gone.

Holden mentions Allie in the book quite often when he is feeling down. Allie was everything that Holden’s not. “He was terrifically intelligent.” His teachers were always writing letters to my mother , telling her what a pleasure it was to have a

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

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

This decision to go alone to New York City shows that being at Pencey Prep was simply making Holden feel lonelier, which makes him feel even more depressed. Holden also shows many other symptoms of depression, many of which deteriorate his overall health. However, the biggest cause of Holden’s depression and what should be considered the top cause of his mental breakdown is the death of Allie and the grief that came with it. The impact that it had on Holden was enormous. During Chapter 5, Holden goes on to describe the night and aftermath of Allie’s death by saying “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 goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it. 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” (50). That night illustrated the first and second stages of grief: shock and

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. “

Allie was only 11 when he died, so has not completely live through his whole childhood, which he displays in Phoebe and other children. Holden felt like it was his responsibility for Allie’s death, which is why he is much closer to Phoebe. One day when Holden was walking along Fifth Avenue, he began to sidetrack and feel like he would never succeed to the other side of the street and that he kept on moving forward down, down, and down and no one would ever notice him again. This is where he began to imagine he was walking with Allie by saying to him, “Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie, don’t let me disappear.

Holden never going to Allie’s funeral gives us insight into why Holden is still holding onto Allie. After Allie’s death, Holden still went through experiences that caused his BPD, neglect and separation. During the time following Allie’s death, Holden’s family was in great grieving, making Holden feel isolated and not getting the attention he needed to fully grow mentally as a child (“National Allegiance on Mental Health”). Holden also expresses twice, that his mother is still grieving over Allie’s death by stating his mother, “still isn’t over my brother Allie yet” (Salinger 155). Holden is also never close to anyone. He meets with his family a limited amount of time throughout the year, and is kicked out of schools, giving him no permanent guidance in his life. Holden constantly describes his expulsion as, getting “the ax” (107). He shows a continuous changing in guardians, because of his attachment to both Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini, both old school teachers from schools he flunked out of. He also dealt with the separation from D.B. his other brother, who moved to Hollywood, Holden seems to be very inspired by him throughout the novel, but is mad that he left (1).

When Holden’s brother Allie died, he went through a very rough time. In the book, Holden states “He's dead now. He got leukemia and died when we

In addition to this he was young and playful. This was everything that Holden desired to be in society. So when Allie died, Holden lost his connection to a feeling of innocence. This causes him to be frustrated, and remove himself from society. This is shown above when Holden isolates himself in the garage. However, even though Holden is strongly against society he does recognize that it holds some value. But, because of Allie, he will never forgive the world he lives in. He was so innocent and close to Holden that his death continues to impact Holden throughout the story. A quote to illustrate this is, “ 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.” This quote illustrates the point that although Holden recognizes the action was foolish, he realizes that it was necessary to express his contempt for what had been taken away from him. He will never be the same, and will always be frustrated with society for his loss of Allie. But, even though Allie may be permanently gone he is still with Holden. Holden expresses regret and is upset whenever Allie is brought up. “What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed.” He even gets depressed to the extent where it 's everyone in his life’s fault that he lost Allie. His depression and contempt for society pop up whenever Allie is mentioned. This tells us as readers that Holden has deep regret over

The loss of relatives can often have a huge effect on one’s life. While some people can cope more maturely with their loss, others have great difficulty overcoming such tragedy. In J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, both the main protagonists are unable to overcome the death of their loved ones. Both characters are going through a rough phase which eventually results in them losing their desire to live. Not only do they start lacking free will

To begin with, it is evident throughout the novel that the narrator has been traumatized by the loss of his younger brother Allie that died of leukemia four years before the story is told. One could support that Allie’s death influenced Holden’s attitude and perspective on life and human interactions, justifying death’s major role in the novel. Holden himself admits that he lost control and reacted without reason on the occasion. “They were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, I don't blame them...the night he died, I broke all the god damn windows with my fist, just for the hell of it…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.” Allie's death clearly troubles Holden, but he also uses his memories of Allie to comfort himself in difficult situations. He feels that his brother’s death has been in a way unjust, saying it should have been him to have died instead and at many times proceeds to glorify him by turning him into a role model of innocence while he tries to convey this idea to the reader as well. “But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways.”

One of the biggest issues that holden faces throughout the story is the death of his brother allie and for a couple of reasons. The first reason being that he blames himself because there was one day holden didn’t include Allie with him and his friends. Another reason being that when he found out allie had died he unhinged himself and bashed out all the garage windows with his bare hands and broke his hands. For a pacifist, this is an extreme show of aggression and anger. In doing so he ended up spending the day of allies funeral in the hospital because he busted his hands up. Him not being able to go to the funeral was a big deal to holden because