Flashbacks In Catcher In The Rye

Decent Essays
"Even in times of trauma, we try to maintain normality until we no longer can. That my friend's is called surviving." Holden is surviving throughout the whole novel. Holden experienced the death of his younger brother at the age of thirteen. Holden lent his friend James Castle his sweater and the very same night his friend killed himself by jumping out of their dorm window. Holden also leads the reader to assume that he has been molested multiple times in his life, through out all of these traumatizing events his own family abandoned him. With Holden's family abandoning him he was forced to deal with these events alone and this caused him to have PTSD. Holden has experienced trauma all through his life and is now mentally unstable and not a normal teenager. …show more content…
In The Catcher In The Rye by J.D Salinger the main character Holden exhibits behavior that he has PTSD such as having flashbacks, being overprotective of his loved ones, and losing his sexual

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Obviously, the loss of his brother, Allie, has scarred Holden to the point of overanalyzing each move he makes and the countless possibilities. By doing so, Holden prevents himself from enjoying the people and events taking place right in front of him. Holden’s…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It isn’t surprising then to hear, on the night of Allies, Holden had smashed all the widows in the garage, “just for the hell of it,” but that’s not true (39). Holden didn’t know how to handle his beloved's brothers death properly, so he let angry be his was of release, of course, smash windows with bare hands isn’t health. Sadly, there was another time when Holden experienced death. Jame Castle had committed suicide by jumping out a dorm window. When Holden ran outside to see what all the other boys were panicking about, Jame Castle “was dead, and his teeth, and blood, were all over the place,” he was wear the same turtleneck that Holden had loaned him (170).…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Holden Caulfield Case Study

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    He mentions that he’s had it since he was a kid (Salinger 6). So there must’ve been something going on when he was a child, some unmentioned difficulty. This might be sexual abuse. Holden talks about sexual abuse he suffered as a child in a subtle manner (Salinger 195). These are all possible origins of Holden’s mental illnesses but the actual symptoms he exhibits have not yet been discussed.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Immediately following the death, Holden breaks his hand by punching all the windows in the garage because it is easier to deal with physical pain than emotional pain. Just as Holden carries the baseball glove with him, he carries the weight of his brother’s death. As one analyst wrote, “Holden’s mind goes back to the image of his dead brother which he carries him where ever he goes,” (Rosen 1). It is clear that Holden never received help with dealing with the loss of his brother. Holden never began the healing process after losing Allie; he still holds onto the past because he cannot handle the unforgiving implications of death.…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While New York City teems with life, it is also plagued with imitation. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel about protagonist, Holden Caulfield, and his inability to cope with the “phoniness” in the world around him. Throughout the book, Holden encounters numerous acts of inauthenticity, catalysing Holden’s unsatisfied peer connections while also additionally serving as the impetus for his increase in depression. Despite the outreach from supportive characters such as Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini, Holden continually favors acts of rashness over the transition to maturity and responsibility. When the last of Holden’s innocence is challenged by the adult world, Holden denounces all logic and desperately tries to preserve the ingenuousness of not only…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Holden's Disillusionment

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The miserable events that occurred in Holden’s life led him down a dark path. Holden’s first had suicidal thought was when he was alone in his hotel room and he mentions, “I almost wished I was dead” (101). He was so lonely in the hotel room with no company that he wanted to die. Also, in a few days he was going to meet his parents and he must have been scared and afraid to visit and tell them that he flunked out of boarding school. His persistently depressed mood can be cleared up with a psychoanalyst’s professional help.…

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holden has a form of depression likely spawning due to the loss of his brother, Allie, who has been implied to be an important piece in Holden’s everyday life. Holden has many mental diseases, one of the most prominent among addiction is that of clinical depression caused by overbearing grief, as well as the result of Holden’s depression.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holden has had consistent trouble with dealing with his loss and according to Mayo Clinic it could be what is called complicated grief “For some people, feelings of loss are debilitating and don't improve even after time passes. This is known as complicated grief, sometimes called persistent complex bereavement disorder. In complicated grief, painful emotions are so long lasting and severe that you have trouble accepting the loss and resuming your own life” (Mayo Clinic Staff.1). This is important because Holden shows the signs, but one is especially important “Lack of trust in others”(Mayo Clinic Staff.1). Holden is on this spiral because of his lack of trust in others.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    ( Chapter 4, Page 147) When Holden went to Mr. Antolini home Holden awoke to find Mr. Antolini “patting… (him) on the head and all” and “making a flitty pass at” him, Holden may have been sexually abused because “that kind of stuff has happened…to (him) around twenty times since (he) was a kid”, which could also be a reason for the patient 's anxiety and BPD. (Chapter 25, Page 215) Holden began to over analyze a magazine article and “started getting worried about… (his) hormones”, which is an indication of anxiety. While Holden is walking to Phoebe 's school a feeling overcomes him where he “came to the end of the block and stepped off the goddam curb… (he) had a feeling that (he) never get to the other side of the street” and he began asking his dead brother Allie not to “let… (him)…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holden’s psychological traits begin with having violent outbursts which in that case has a lot to do with his brother Allie’s death. The next demonstration is how Holden and the author J.D Salinger relate to each other and specifically illustrate how and why Holden is the way he is. Another of Holden’s quality in the story is suffering from isolation and how he figures it out, with the surrounding people. One of his other emotional characteristics is having unhappiness, which illuminates to Sigmund Freud. Holden’s final mannerism has to do with having childish affiliations with ladies and centers on both the writer and Holden.…

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When kicked out of his boarding school, instead of maturely going home and explaining to his parents his expulsion, Holden roams New York City and avoids returning home. The entire novel is based on Holden’s regression. He was in complete denial of his expulsion and didn’t see why it was necessary to return home. Holden also reverts to younger behavior when he is upset. For example following Allie’s death, Holden went into his garage and destroyed it “I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield often pushes people away and gets upset over unusual things. He sometimes gets angry, upset or depressed at for abnormal reasons. Many people push him away in return to his uncommon behaviors. They blame Holden for just being rude but that is not the case. Even though Holden comes off as moody teenager, his post-traumatic stress disorder makes him have abnormal reactions to many situations and people.…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, the source of all his feelings and actions was the death of his brother Allie. Allie died when he was young and Holden did not feel closure on his passing. Holden was a depressed adolescent and was running away from his problems and in denial of what what was sparking it. Holden left his school, his family and failed to make friends. He felt unable to connect to anyone, leaving him alone and isolated, wishing for his brother…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An estimated five percent of Americans- more than thirteen million people- have PTSD at any given time (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Fact Sheet). PTSD is a disorder that is triggered by a very stressful traumatic event. People who have PTSD suffer from dramatic mood changes, hallucinations, anxiety, easy agitation, and thoughts of suicide. Holden Caulfield, the main character in The Catcher In the Rye experienced traumatic event when his brother, Allie, died when Holden is only thirteen. Holden suffers from PTSD throughout the novel, as he displays difficulty developing happy thoughts, has frequent thoughts of traumatic events, and difficulty sleeping.…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the main reasons Holden behaves the way he does is because he lost his younger brother, Allie at the age of eleven. Holden coped with the situation alone, which led to his ruination. He never received the closure he needed or the opportunity to an efficient solution on how to deal with the loss of his brother. Holden longs to protect children, and when Allie died, he could no longer protect him. The day after Allie’s death, he spent the night in the garage smashing windows, which is an indication on how hard the incident was on him.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays