Holens Breakdown

Holens Breakdown

“This fall I think you’re riding for- it’s a special kind of fall, a

horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear

himself hit the bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The

whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other

in their lives, were looking for something their own environment

couldn’t supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it

up before they ever really even got started.”

Holden Caulfield’s fall to psychological breakdown begins with his brother

Allie’s death. To Holden, Allie represents everything that was good in this world. When

Allie is first described, Holden only says great things about him. “You’d have liked

him... He was terrifically intelegent... He was the nicest (member of the family).”

Therefore when Allie dies, the good things in his world disappears. After this first

major event, Holden gradually realizes that he is powerless to change the evil and

corrupt world that he lives in. Holden is looking for something that his own

environment couldn’t supply him, the only thing that he ever liked, Allie.

“Just because somebody’s dead, you don’t just stop liking

them, for God’s sake- especially if they were about a thousand

times nicer than the people you know that’re alive and all.”

Another early event in Holden’s life is the death of James Castle. Holden sees

himself as James in many ways. James would not take back what he said about a

conceited boy, and jumped out of the window before he would do something that he did

not believe in. Holden is the same in many ways. He refuses to accept the fact that the

world is evil, and does everything in his power to change it.

“The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a

cause, while the mark of a mature one is that humbly for one.”

Another similarity between them both is that James was wearing Holden’s sweater when

he fell out of the window. As he saw James lying on the ground, Holden sees a part of

himself die with him. The part that dies is the part that believes in the goodness of

people and the world.

Holden’s tendency to get kicked out of schools is both a reason and effect of