Comparing Hamlet And J. D. Salinger's Catcher In The

The ideas of loss and grief and their effects on the individual exist as key aspects of the growth and development of Hamlet and Holden in their respective works of literature, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. The loss of a close family member heavily affects each of the characters, with Holden losing his brother and Hamlet losing his father. Directly following the deaths, each character has an aggressively negative reaction, varying between fits of rage or a temporary loss of sanity. Even after most of those close to them moved past the deaths, the two continued developing issues as a result, due to a lack of proper support through their grief. Because of this failure to accept the grief, they become very unstable, …show more content…
These two characters reactions to the loss of their family, as well as their further failure to accept the deaths, demonstrate the importance of receiving proper support through grief, allowing individuals to move past the situation and carry on with their own lives, rather than allowing grief to consume him or her, which can result in extremely serious consequences that could completely destroy the mental stability of the griever.
The loss of his brother was clearly extremely influential on Holden, as he reacts extremely aggressively following the death, with his grief taking the form of a violent outbreak. After hearing of his brother’s death, Holden has an extremely violent reaction, where he “slept in the garage the night he died, and [He] broke all the goddam windows with [his] fist, just for the hell of it. [He] even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon [Holden and his family] had that summer, but [his] hand was already broken and everything by that time, and [he] couldn't do it”(Salinger 39). The phrase “just for the hell of it” shows how Holden could not rationalize the events, but felt a strong surge of emotions that overtook him as he