What Does Holden Say About Allie's Death

Every time he talks about them, it seems like he idolizes them. He constantly praises and compliments them, which shows how Holden is sort of attracted to the idea of childhood. When Holden is still at Pencey Prep, he writes an essay for his friend Stradlater (Salinger 43). In this composition, he talks about Allie almost like he was a saint. Holden says Allie is “about fifty times as intelligent” as him and “never got mad at anybody” (Salinger 38). This and his description of Phoebe the same way (Salinger 182) both illustrate Holden’s fixation on children and childhood. Over the course of the novel, Holden becomes slightly more open to the idea of both mentally and physically entering adulthood. At first, he tries to be his idealized version of an adult, by going to nightclubs and trying to talk to women. But he soon realizes that adulthood isn’t as good as it originally seemed – this is where he starts to tie adulthood with

Holden compare his imagination to a poem by Robert Burns called “If a body meet a body coming though the rye”. Holden Picturing all these kids playing on a field of rye and Holden is standing near the edge of the cliff to catch them from falling. In fact, Holden said, “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game on the field of rye and all. I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.” In reality, he wants to stop kids from entering into the adult world losing his innocence, which Holden is afraid of because according to him kids are “real” meaning that they will always speak their mind.

2.Holden vs Society: Holden hates the way children lose their innocence, and how they lose their innocence as they get older, and the way they are exposed to profanity and sexuality continually even as they are kids. He wants to be the catcher in the rye, who catches kids from falling off a cliff, in a children’s nursery rhymes. This rhyme is ironic, in that the poem itself has sexual connotations. Falling off the cliff, represents kids losing their innocence, and he wants to be the “catcher in the rye” who stops kids from losing their innocence.

“God he was a nice kid, though.” (Salinger, pg. 38). Due to Alle being taken away so young, Holden finds it as if his death was unfair and he didn’t deserve to die leading Holden hopelessly trying to fight the inevitability of growing old and death. Holden wants to maintain as pure as Allie who died at 11 meant he was uncorrupted and as innocent a child can ever be. “He was two years younger than I was, but ;about fifty times as intelligent.” (Salinger, pg.38). Holden begins to yearn for Holden feels not growing up will mean he can be the next best Allie, innocent and uncorrupted reaching what Holden believes is Allie is, a god. Disorting Holden’s thinking leaving him with unhealthy obsession with Allie. Leaving Holden with the belief that children are the only beings of being capable of innocence and pure, thus skewing Holden’s

During the first encounter, Holden meets with Phoebe in her room, back in his family’s apartment, and Phoebe tells Holden to name something he’d “like to be” (172) for career choice. Holden responds, “I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be” (173). His description of what that means, is he would stand in a field of rye, on the edge of a cliff, and wait for children to come running towards him. Then, before they could run off the cliff, he would catch them and replace them safely back into the field. His vision of the children falling off the cliff is quite literal, but their fall actually symbolizes what Holden see’s as an impending death to all children - becoming an adult. And thus, through this moment, we see how Allie’s death has affected him most. He was robbed of his innocence at too young of an age and because this had caused him so much pain, he could not bare to see it happen to anybody else. That, in turn, is what caused him to resist the adult world so thoroughly. At the end of the book, Holden has one final moment with Phoebe, in which his transformation finally happens. When they go to a carrousel that is part of a city fair, Phoebe goes on to ride and Holden watches from a bench. As he sits

Holden never going to Allie’s funeral gives us insight into why Holden is still holding onto Allie. After Allie’s death, Holden still went through experiences that caused his BPD, neglect and separation. During the time following Allie’s death, Holden’s family was in great grieving, making Holden feel isolated and not getting the attention he needed to fully grow mentally as a child (“National Allegiance on Mental Health”). Holden also expresses twice, that his mother is still grieving over Allie’s death by stating his mother, “still isn’t over my brother Allie yet” (Salinger 155). Holden is also never close to anyone. He meets with his family a limited amount of time throughout the year, and is kicked out of schools, giving him no permanent guidance in his life. Holden constantly describes his expulsion as, getting “the ax” (107). He shows a continuous changing in guardians, because of his attachment to both Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini, both old school teachers from schools he flunked out of. He also dealt with the separation from D.B. his other brother, who moved to Hollywood, Holden seems to be very inspired by him throughout the novel, but is mad that he left (1).

After the incident, Holden was hospitalised, given psychological treatment, and missed Allie’s funeral. This scene shows that Holden cannot deal with his emotions very well. For example, Holden prefers to deal with his emotions physically, by breaking all the windows, than mentally. In addition, The loss of Allie brought Holden into depression especially because he was not given a lot of time to mourn before being re-enrolled to school. His depression disconnects him from people, and every attempt to try to regain connections has left him with trust issues.

Coping with Allie’s death is extremely traumatic for Holden and he clings dearly to memories of his younger brother. When Holden expresses regret for not taking Allie to shoot BB guns with Bobby, he is blaming himself for not being able to save Allie’s life. The fact that Allie does not get upset with Holden makes him feel all the more guilty.

Because Allie dies at such a young age, Holden believes that Allie has not yet been corrupted by the harsh realities of the world; he believes that Allie retains his innocence, and therefore takes these idealized views as sources of comfort. Subsequently, Holden’s idealization of Allie is something that Holden desperately holds

Holden is talking about protecting the children so they will not experience the cruelty of the adult world. If he catches the children before they fall, he will preserve their innocence and keep them from the cruelties of the adult world. Holden’s only desire and goal in life is to be the catcher in the rye because is the only job that is appealing to him where he can shows his love and protection for childhood innocence, “That’s all I’d do all day. I‘d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be” (173).

Holden experiences extreme difficulty accepting his current realities and one of the main factors causing this is the lasting negative impact his brother Allies death had on his life. Firstly, when Holden decides to leave his school, he tells readers , “I don’t care if it’s a sad goodbye or a bad goodbye, but when I leave a place, I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse” (Salinger, 4). Holden’s need for closure is evident in this quote. When Allie died, it was very unexpected and he was not prepared to let him go, resulting in his denial that his brother is actually

First, I think the Rye Field is a major symbol in this novel because pg 173, Holden told Phoebe about what he is picturing and Holden said “ I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.” The quote is saying that Holden doesn’t want himself and everyone who entered the adulthood so he is catching everyone who wants to act like an adult but Holden won't let them act like an adults. I think that Holden is a little brat. He wants to act like he is a little kid and doesn't want to grow up as an adult. He thinks that he isn't responsible enough to be treated as an adult because Holden deals with alcohol, sex, and violence. I think maybe that’s the reason he isn’t responsible enough to take care of himself. Even though he is a kid, he thinks that he can get away with everything when he is treated as a kid more than an

While talking with Phoebe about a poem by Robert Burns, Holden explains, “I keep picturing all these little kids playing…And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff…I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (Salinger 173). Holden shows signs of being a hero many times, including this time. Holden does not want the children to hurt themselves if they fall off the cliff, so he will be there in order to catch them once they fall. Instead of injuring themselves, Holden rather hurt himself in order to save them. Furthermore, by being “The Catcher in the Rye,” Holden is able to protect children, especially Phoebe, from the realities of the outside world. At this age, Holden doesn’t want them to learn about violence, phoniness, and other aspects of adulthood that is superfluous. He fears that if they start to learn some of these characteristics of adulthood, they will lose their innocence as a child; but, he wants to maintain their adolescence and

With this dream Holden is escaping into the adult world as he thinks about marriage and supporting his wife with a job. Holden demonstrates how he’d rather be a child who gets to fantasize about the adult world but never really enter it. When Phoebe, Holden’s little sister mentions their dad the first thing Holden results to leaving Colorado. Just when Holden is faced with a real life situation like how mad his dad will be, he says he’ll be away (Salinger 184). Those who disagree might state that Holden matured when he claims “I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (Salinger 191). Holden is referring to children that are not paying attention, playing in a field of rye and happen to fall off. Some would argue that Holden wanting to be a Catcher in the Rye or save children is a sign of maturity and Holden actually wanting to enter adulthood to take on this position. However, while Holden is at the carousel with Phoebe he notices children trying to grab for the golden ring and acknowledges

When Phoebe asks Holden what he likes, he replies by saying, "I thought it was 'If a body catch a body,'" I said. "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around—nobody big, I mean—except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy." (Salinger 173). The top of the cliff symbolizes the innocent child life, but below the cliff symbolizes the adult world of phoniness. Holden wants to catch the children before the run off into the phony adult world. In conclusion, Holden wants to be the “catcher in the rye” as he wants to catch children’s innocence before they fall into the phony adult