Ladeline McGuire, Mr. Belluscio, AP Language Arts 27, March 2024.
What makes a person think and act the way they do? Most times, our lives are shaped by past events. The shining moments lift us and the breakdowns lead to breakthroughs. However, not everyone is built to handle these life-changing events, especially when they do more harm than good. Studies and research have proven that traumatic events in our lives can have a horrible effect on mental stability. Not moving on from the past can lead to a variety of different issues going forward, ranging from depression, rage, an excessive amount of stress, and fear. Enter Holden Caulfield, who has had his fair share of trauma in his life. The untimely death of his brother Allie to leukemia, …show more content…
He is a lesson to all readers, of all ages, that our views of the past and our ideas about the future affect the way we live our lives. Excessive levels of prolonged stress can actually damage the structure of our brain in regards to it’s chemical makeup. High-level stress events, such as death or abuse, have more impact on the cognitive abilities of the human mind. Both have an impact on our behaviors, memory, and processing speeds, which can cause our brains to burn out. A normal brain study on the lifespan, cognition, and mental health of a person’s brain in regards to stress is very essential to understand why characters such as Holden Caulfield have come to be. As seen here, “Readers quickly learn that he is a tall, skinny 17-year-old boy from a well-to-do New York family. More than a half year later, he recalls the events leading up to the breakdown from which he is recovering.” (Hochman and Mueller, “Holden Caulfield”) He seems like a normal boy on the surface but once the rest of the book plays out the stresses he is under unfolds. Naturally, his brother’s death put lots of stress on him, which would explain the connection between a key traumatic event in childhood. Holden …show more content…
Our narrator tries to stop these kids from being exposed to things like cursing, violence, sexuality, and the rest of the adult world, but no one can. People today face a similar problem with over amounts of stress because it affects the retention of their mind, “High stress in Childhood and Adulthood was associated with decreases in executive function and working memory in both males and females.” (McManus) People who deal with this do not think clearly and often make poor choices. Part of the reason why The Catcher in the Rye is such a popular book stems from the connection people have with it. Everyone deals with stressors in life. The study on what the stress can do across someones entire life proves as much. Holden originally went about it the wrong way, but he is a model to others on what not to do. Aside from the relationship between stress alone and someone's life, there is also other mental problems stress can cause. For example, during different periods in our lives, people will experience more stress than others. One of these large periods is when kids become adults and have to worry about where they have to go next. College age students transitioning into adulthood have multiple things to worry about, from finances
What makes a person think and act the way they do? Most times, our lives are shaped by past events. The shining moments lift us and the breakdowns lead to breakthroughs. However, not everyone is built to handle these life-changing events, especially when they do more harm than good. Studies and research have proven that traumatic events in our lives can have a horrible effect on mental stability. Not moving on from the past can lead to a variety of different issues going forward, ranging from depression, rage, an excessive amount of stress, and fear. Enter Holden Caulfield, who has had his fair share of trauma in his life. The untimely death of his brother Allie to leukemia, …show more content…
He is a lesson to all readers, of all ages, that our views of the past and our ideas about the future affect the way we live our lives. Excessive levels of prolonged stress can actually damage the structure of our brain in regards to it’s chemical makeup. High-level stress events, such as death or abuse, have more impact on the cognitive abilities of the human mind. Both have an impact on our behaviors, memory, and processing speeds, which can cause our brains to burn out. A normal brain study on the lifespan, cognition, and mental health of a person’s brain in regards to stress is very essential to understand why characters such as Holden Caulfield have come to be. As seen here, “Readers quickly learn that he is a tall, skinny 17-year-old boy from a well-to-do New York family. More than a half year later, he recalls the events leading up to the breakdown from which he is recovering.” (Hochman and Mueller, “Holden Caulfield”) He seems like a normal boy on the surface but once the rest of the book plays out the stresses he is under unfolds. Naturally, his brother’s death put lots of stress on him, which would explain the connection between a key traumatic event in childhood. Holden …show more content…
Our narrator tries to stop these kids from being exposed to things like cursing, violence, sexuality, and the rest of the adult world, but no one can. People today face a similar problem with over amounts of stress because it affects the retention of their mind, “High stress in Childhood and Adulthood was associated with decreases in executive function and working memory in both males and females.” (McManus) People who deal with this do not think clearly and often make poor choices. Part of the reason why The Catcher in the Rye is such a popular book stems from the connection people have with it. Everyone deals with stressors in life. The study on what the stress can do across someones entire life proves as much. Holden originally went about it the wrong way, but he is a model to others on what not to do. Aside from the relationship between stress alone and someone's life, there is also other mental problems stress can cause. For example, during different periods in our lives, people will experience more stress than others. One of these large periods is when kids become adults and have to worry about where they have to go next. College age students transitioning into adulthood have multiple things to worry about, from finances