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the catcher in the rye theme essays
psychological evaluation of holden caulfield
psychological evaluation of holden caulfield
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The Catcher in the Rye is about a young boy named Holden Caulfield who is going through an emotionally hard time. After leaving school due to flunking grades, Holden sets out for New York city. During his time in New York, Holden rediscovers himself and his values. Holden Caulfield values Allie’s baseball mitt before he leaves school, the museum, and the Carousel in Central Park because they remind him of his childhood, and the innocence of childhood he hates to see children lose. Holden Caulfield values his brother, Allie. When Allie died of Leukemia on July 19, 1946, Holden was left devastated. However, Holden always thought that Allie was the most interesting person that he has ever met. Allie was one person that Holden mentions that he loves in the novel. When Holden’s younger sister Phoebe asks Holden what he likes he says, “I like Allie” (171). Holden hides or at least does not want to join the world because of Allie’s death. He cannot come to terms with himself to see that Allie’s death has nothing to do with how he should live his own life. Holden carries A...
Before we can understand why Holden leaves on his journey at all, we must understand his struggle. Holden cannot find a way to succeed. Even Mr. Antolini says, “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 bottom. He just keeps falling and falling” (187). This fall that Holden is heading toward has started with flunking out of school. Holden’s largest failure appears to be his inability to apply himself at school, which makes his life even harder. Also, Mr. Spencer is concerned about his ability to apply himself as he is failing 4 classes and “getting the ax is something he is familiar with” (4). Holden just wants someone to talk to and wants to break his depression by succeeding.
Holden Caulfield’s brother, Allie, is a negative impact on Holden's life, the death of Allie drives Holden on a downward spiral of depression and anger. An example of this includes when Caulfield is talking to his teacher, "You mean about my flunking out of Pencey and all?"( Salinger.12). Holden has been sent away because his parents lack an understanding of how to handle his depression caused by Allies death. Holden no longer feels the importance of
As Eugene McNamara stated in his essay “Holden Caulfield as Novelist”, Holden, of J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, had met with long strand of betrayals since he left Pencey Prep. These disappointments led him through the adult world with increasing feelings of depression and self-doubt, leading, finally to his mental breakdown.
Holden returns to school and goes to his bedroom in the dorm. In his room quietly reading, his neighbor Robert Ackley came in. Holden describes him as a pimply, insecure, annoying boy with a bad dental hygiene. When Holden’s roommate Stradlater who was “madly in love with himself” (27) arrived home after the football game, Ackley abruptly left. Stradlater tells him that he has a date with a friend of his, Jane Gallagher. Jane is someone that Holden really cares for and because he knows the way Stradlater is, Holden became worried for her. “It just drove me stark raving mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere in that fat-assed Ed Banky’s car”. (48) Holden became depressed and lonely, so out of the blue Holden decides to pack his things and leave for New York a few days earlier. On the train to New York, Holden meets the mother of one of his schoolmates. Not wanting to tell his whole life story, he told her his name was “Rudolf Schmidt”, the name of th...
Holden feels as if he is stuck in his 13 year old self. Although he is aging he isn’t necessarily maturing the way his classmates and other people are around him. This is due to the fact that he never received closure when Allie died. When he starts picturing his own funeral because he might get pneumonia and die, he remembers D.B. telling him about his brother's funeral. He stated, “I wasn’t there. I was still in the hospital. I had to go to the hospital and all after I hurt my hand” (Salinger 171). Since he never attended the funeral he never got to say his final goodbyes to the one person he truly loved. Holden feels as if he can’t connect with anyone else in the world like he did with Allie. If he did then he would most likely push them away, so he wouldn’t have to experience the trauma of loss again, because it greatly impacted his life the first time. The trauma Holden experienced when he was younger resulted in him not being able to form stronger relationships with people which made him more depressed and
Events in Holden's life lead him to become depressed. Holden's depression centers on Allie. The manner that Holden sees himself and how he sees others leads him to be expelled from school. The speaker expresses, "One thing about packing depressed me a little," (51). Holden expresses these feelings when he packs his bags after being notified that he is expelled. Holden leaves school and heads for New York City, where he finds himself to be more lonely and depressed than ever. He is all alone and he laments, " What I really felt like doing was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out of the window," (104). Holden says this while he is all alone in his motel room. He is too ashamed of himself to return home, he knows that his mother will be upset and his father will be angry with him. He also adds that " I wasn’t feeling sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all, I almost wished I was dead," (90). Holden states this during one of the first nights that he is staying in New York. Holden expresses many thoughts of depression.
Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye on the surface is a story of an ill-behaved boy wandering the streets of New York getting into all sorts of mischief. Though, when looked at past the surface, we see a story of a troubled young man that is yearning for attention, acceptance, and love. Many theories have transpired about Holden Caulfield and his problems. Among them are Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and that he is just traveling through the five stages of grief.
The novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger, depicts a boy named Holden Caulfield whose psyche ultimately impacts his mental state. Throughout the novel Holden’s mental state gradually becomes affected by this damaged psyche. He either demonstrates the id or the superego, and rarely his ego. Holden’s psyche appears in the id, superego, and ego forms.
In the novel, Allie has an immense impact on Holden through his journey. Allie is Holden’s brother that died of Cancer when Holden was young. Holden is always sad about Allie’s death and is always thinking about Allie. Allie’s impact on Holden’s life sparks from Holden feeling like Allie missed out on opportunities.Allie also brings Holden a sense of guilt and also pain because he feels that Allie is missing out and that it is unfair for him to experience life. Holden can never get over Allies death and Allie because of his guilt that stems from his beliefs of Allie’s inability to experience life. When talking to Phoebe he says, “I Know he’s dead? Dont you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? 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” (Salinger 171). This quote shows Holden’s reluctance to not forget Allie, and move on with his life not living in regret of Allie’s...
Holden hates that the world around him is constantly changing, and that people keep leaving, because he knows that the places and people he was once comfortable with are most likely very different from when he was younger. While Holden is in New York, he decides to pay a visit to the Museum of Natural History where he often used to go as a kid. When looking at an Eskimo in a display case, Holden comes to the conclusion that “certain things they should stay the way they are. You should be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone” (122). Holden wants to be able to depend on people and places he knows will always be the same, especially as the world is changing around him. Therefore, living in a time where everything revolves around the use of technology which enables the world to change at a very fast pace, would only intensify Holden’s fe...
Holden does not try at all in school. Holden also said he was flunking four out of his five classes. The only reason he was passing English is because he is learning the same concepts as the ones he learned at the last school he flunked out of. The same night he talked to Mr. Spencer, he also got into a fight over a girl with his roommate, Stradlater. After this fight, Holden packed up his most valuable belongings and headed into the city.
In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, we see that Allie’s death is a major theme throughout the story. Allie is one of Holden’s brothers until illness takes his life. Allie’s death has taken a huge toll on Holden’s life because since his death, he has never been the same since that tragic moment. Even though we do not know much about Holden’s life before Allie’s death, one can infer that he was not a hypocritical, lazy, and pessimistic person who could not make friends. Allie’s unfortunate death traumatizes Holden by making him a hateful and scared person.
Holden is trying to reconcile his emotions since Allie's death. While dealing with their own grief, Holden's parents have neglected his needs and have therefore not addressed this with him. Holden goes searching for answers and companionship since his parents are emotionally unavailable. This story takes up with Holden on in search to all the wrong places to find these things.
Holden’s lack of effort and responsibility results from his parent’s inability to support and nurture him. After finding out Holden was expelled from Pencey, Phoebe believes their dad will kill him. Holden argues back,
One of the relationships that is mentioned within the story, is Holden's relationship with Allie, his brother. Holden loves Allie and is very upset about his passing and how Allie was so young. According to Holden, Allie was one of the most lovable people ever. "You'd have liked him... He was terrifically intelligent . . . But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest" (Salinger 38). Allie’s death caused Holden to have trouble and be unable to form relationships and bonds because he is afraid the people he meets and gets close to are going to leave him like Allie did.