Throughout the book Holden brings up things related to his implied and traumatizing encounters with sexual abuse and his brothers death; he also elaborates on how much he despises when people talk about him being kicked out of school. As the book goes on it becomes more apparent to the reader how much these things affect Holden throughout his daily life. Holden is a very vague and ill-defined character that has no path in life and proceeds to be the more invisible minority. Throughout the novel The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger illustrates the struggles of mental illness through the character of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year old boy who is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression due to his many implied sexual encounters,
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These things lead to a symptom called a flashback; since this whole story is a flashback, when Holden goes back to Allies death it reveals an ever darker and petrifying moment in his life. The death of Holden’s brother, Allie, occurred on July 18, 1946 to leukemia when he was only eleven years old. The night that Allie died, Holden broke all of the windows in the garage causing him to be hospitalized. Holden thought a lot of his brother, “It wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member of the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody” (Salinger 43), it seems as if Holden has never been the same since that moment occurred back when he was only thirteen. People with PTSD suffer from being stressed or frightened even when they are not in any form of danger. Holden over exaggerates situations that causes the reader to be very sparse in their predictions. As Holden is talking about when Stradlater was returning from his date with Jane Holden begins to describe the moment in a horror movie fashion “Anyway, the corridor was all linoleum and all, and you could hear his g**d*** footsteps coming right towards the room. I don't even remember where I was sitting when he came in—at the window, or in my chair or his. I swear I cant remember. He came in griping about how cold it was out” (Salinger 46), Holden is very tentative in the beginning of Stradlaters entrance but then starts to bring more of a humor to the reader by complaining about how he just said it was cold
These things lead to a symptom called a flashback; since this whole story is a flashback, when Holden goes back to Allies death it reveals an ever darker and petrifying moment in his life. The death of Holden’s brother, Allie, occurred on July 18, 1946 to leukemia when he was only eleven years old. The night that Allie died, Holden broke all of the windows in the garage causing him to be hospitalized. Holden thought a lot of his brother, “It wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member of the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody” (Salinger 43), it seems as if Holden has never been the same since that moment occurred back when he was only thirteen. People with PTSD suffer from being stressed or frightened even when they are not in any form of danger. Holden over exaggerates situations that causes the reader to be very sparse in their predictions. As Holden is talking about when Stradlater was returning from his date with Jane Holden begins to describe the moment in a horror movie fashion “Anyway, the corridor was all linoleum and all, and you could hear his g**d*** footsteps coming right towards the room. I don't even remember where I was sitting when he came in—at the window, or in my chair or his. I swear I cant remember. He came in griping about how cold it was out” (Salinger 46), Holden is very tentative in the beginning of Stradlaters entrance but then starts to bring more of a humor to the reader by complaining about how he just said it was cold