Holden Caulfield And The Stages Of Grief English Literature Essay

Holden Caulfield And The Stages Of Grief English Literature Essay There are seven stages of grief through the process of life and back. These stages are denial, depression, anger, bargaining, guilt, reconstruction, and eventually acceptance. Different stages of grief are represented through the main character Holden Caulfield in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Three stages of the stages of grief stands out the most and are focused on as Holden goes through the process of eventually accepting his loss. In the novel the Catcher in the Rye, the character, Holden Caulfield, goes through the many stages of grief, such as, anger, denial, and depression, after the death of his brother, Allie. Two stages such as anger and denial in the stages of grief are represented when Holden retraces one of his memories after Allies death. The memory Holden shares with us, is the time when he decides to spend a night in his garage Through his anger from his brothers death, Holden rampages in the garage, breaking all of its windows. From this scene, Holden shows the stages of anger and denial. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddamn windows with my fist, just for the hell of ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ it was very stupid I have to admit, but I hardly didnt even know I was doing it, and you didnt know Allie (Salinger, 39). During that night, Holden expresses his anger and denial by breaking all of the glass windows and not admitting why he did so. From the loss of his brother Allie, Holden expresses his anger and denial physically and mentally. Holdens anger was expressed through his actions of physically breaking the garage windows with his fist, and his stage of denial was represented by him not admitting why he did so. According to Sarah Cifelli, Holdens denial of his brothers death leads him to take action in the garage, and when asked why he did so, Holden doesnt admit and take credit for what he has done. His inability to accept the loss of his brother becomes clearerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The action of breaking an entire garage full of windows poses questions, but the main point is, he did not admit the reason for breaking them (Cifelli 2006). Although both of the stages of anger and denial are present here, the most important stage represented is actually denial. By Holden not admitting why he broke t he windows in the garage in the first place, the stage of denial is the most important stage represented here. As Sarah Cifelli has stated before, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the main point is he did not admit the reason for breaking themà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ shows that Holden still believes that Allie is still alive, which leads to the main reason of why Holden took the action of breaking all of the windows. In another memory Holden shares with us in the novel the Catcher in the Rye, the stage of denial and depression are present as he tries to maintain both his innocence and relationship with Allie. Holden Caulfield wants to be the Catcher in the Rye. In other words, he wants to catch all the children who are falling off a cliff into adulthood. Both of the stages are represented together as Holden catches everyone from losing their innocence. And Im 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 theyre running and they dont look over where theyre going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. Thats all Id do all day. Id just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know its crazy, but thats the only thing Id really like to be. I know its crazy (Salinger, 173). During this scene, Holden is trying to tell his little sister, Phoebe, that he wants to keep everyone safe and to catch them from falling off a cliff. By catching people from falling off the cliff, Holden is referring to stop kids from growing up and losing their innocence from the adult world. Holden wants to protect those that he loves and whom he is close to. Besides his little sister Phoebe, Holden also wants to protect all of the children and their innocence. Becoming the catcher in the rye in Holdens mind, this means that he still wants to catch Allie from falling off the cliff. Being that Allie is already dead, this shows that Holden is in denial of Allie ever dying. This also relates to Holdens depression in a sense that Holden is not going to accept the fact that he needs to grow up and join adulthood rather than playing games and all. As everything around Holden is telling him to grow up, Holden turns away from what he thinks will bring him farther apart from his relationsh ip with Allie. As Parthkatri states in the following quote, he helps explain that Holden doesnt want to change and would rather be with his brother Allie as a child. Unfortunately, Holden doesnt realize that Allie is dead, and therefore kicks him into the stages of denial and depression. Holden is not willing to accept the inevitability to changeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ After Allies death, Holden equates the loss of innocence from the changes of the adult world (Parthkatri 2009). Basically, Holden is in fear of growing up because of two reasons. One being that his brother Allie died as a child and another because Holden believes that all children hold their innocence before they lose it in the adult world. The stage of grief represented here are denial and depression because Holden wants to maintain his relationship with Allie as a child and hold onto his own innocence, but at the same time, Holden is on the verge of becoming an adult, forcing him into more stress and difficulty leaving him to depression. Therefore, Holden wants to protect children and catch them from falling into the adult world. Meanwhile, Holden is actually on the verge of falling himself off of the cliff and onto the lap of adulthood. As Parthkatri has explained before, Holden doesnt want to change, but as he continues on his journey in the novel, the world is showing him that he has to change because growing up is a part of life and you cannot run away from it.