Examples Of Grief In Catcher In The Rye

Holden Caulfield, 17 years old, was scheduled for a psychiatric appointment by his mother. On the phone, Mrs. Caulfield explained that her son disappeared after being kicked out of his fourth boarding school and didn’t return home for 3 days around Christmas last year. Phoebe Caulfield, Holden’s little sister, was the one that noticed Holden’s peculiar behavior, that continued to worsen over a year, and told her mother of these peculiarities. Such as wanting to run away from home, not returning, and at disliking many things. When I asked for more family information, I was told Holden’s little brother died of leukemia at the age of 11 which was 3 years ago. This leads me to believe that Holden could be suffering from grief and perhaps another …show more content…
Grief is defined as “The feelings of anguish that a person will experience after a significant loss like the death of a beloved person. Distinguished from mourning and bereavement as may not produce a strong emotional response.”6 However, Holden’s symptoms are very strong and lean towards the unresolved and complicated type: Including extreme focus on reminders of loved ones, a fixation on the loved one’s memory, wishing to die with the lost loved one, and increased alcohol and cigarette use.1,2 For instance, Holden has spoken of his brother’s glove, “My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder’s mitt… he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green ink. He wrote them on it so that he’d have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up at bat. “(49) the way he goes into so much detail leads me to believe he is focusing very hard on this reminder of his brother. Besides that, there is a fixation on the lost loved one’s memory shown here, “He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent… He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody…God, he was a nice kid, though.” (50) On top of being obsessed with Allie’s death, Holden has an underlying wish that he died with his brother as seen when he says, “Anyway, I’m sort of glad they’ve got the atomic bomb invented. If there’s 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.” (183) As well as increased use of alcohol and cigarettes, “Boy, I sat at that goddam bar till around one o’clock or so, getting drunk as a bastard. I could hardly see straight.” (194) in addition to “I lay on my bed and lit a cigarette. You weren’t allowed to smoke in the dorm, but you could do it late at night when everybody was asleep or out