Holden Caulfield Mental Illness

In the book Catcher in the rye written by J.D. Starlinger the protagonist Holden experiences the tragic loss of his brother Allie, Catcher in the rye teaches the readers not to look what is on the surface but to look what's underneath it. Holden Caulfield suffers from Post Traumatic Disorder, he has a plethora of factors which have caused this disorder. The most important factor is his younger brother, Allie's death Due to leukemia. Holden is like any teenage boy who acts out because he doesn't know how to cope with his loss which people see him as insane on the outside but people on the outside looking in don't get the full story that tags along with him. If people took the time to hear holden's background story they would change their perspective and realize he's going through a lot and needs someone to …show more content…
He refers to everyone “pessimistically” just because they are not like him or agree with his views on life. An example of this is Robert Ackley who has very bad hygiene and rarely brushes his teeth. Holden yells, “Ackley, for Christ sake, willya please cut your crummy nails over the table please. I've askyed ya fifty times”. Ackley explains , “I brush my teeth. Don’t gimme that.” “No you don’t. I’ve seen you, and you don’t.”(PG.25) Holden criticizes just about every single person in the book to maybe make himself feel better about himself. Holden goes as far as trying to kill his roommate while he is brushing his teeth. “All I know is I got up or something then I tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack into the toothbrush so it would split his goddam throat open…”(PG.43) Holden also looks towards verbal violence for the answer to his problems as well. He loves to cuss at others when he is feeling angry. “You’re a dirty stupid sunovabitch moron…”(PG.43) Holden is simply not insane he just turns to all the wrong things to try and battle with his depression because he doesn't know of any other