The Grieving Process of Holden Caulfield Essays - Literature

The Grieving Process of Holden Caulfield Essays - Literature The Grieving Process of Holden Caulfield Everyone has a different response to traumatic events and come up with different ways of coping with the emotions that go along with it. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield embodies several stages of the grieving process. The main ones consistently seen throughout the novel include anger, denial and depression. He displays these stages through his actions and especially through his words. He progresses through the stages beginning with anger and then leading into a combination of denial and depression. The stage of depression hits Holden the hardest, with his mental state getting worse and worse as time goes on. Towards the end of the novel he has hit his lowest point and essentially spiraled out of control. However, by the very end of the novel he seems to be nearing the stage of acceptance slightly. The first stage that Holden appears to have gone through is anger. This stage hit him very quickly, and began the night that Allie died. Holden explains how he was so upset that he decided to sleep in the garage and then out of anger and sadness ends up breaking all the windows in the garage. "I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it," (Salinger 44). This was Holden's way of dealing with Allie's death. He lashed out and couldn't accept the fact that his brother was gone. This led his parents to begin to worry about him and his reaction to Allie's death. Holden even mentions that they were considering having him psychoanalyzed due to the incident and all the damage he had caused. This event also caused even bigger problems for Holden in the long run becau se he never attended Allie's funeral. He was stuck in the hospital and never got to go and say his goodbyes. So he never got any closure with Allie's death, leading him to continue through the stages of the grieving process. It leads him to remain in denial at Allie's death and pushes him to become more and more depressed. The next stage that Holden goes through is denial. This is one of the stages that is very apparent throughout the novel and kind of goes hand in hand with the depression stage. It is made obvious that Holden has not accepted Allie's death due to the numerous times that Holden says he still pretends Allie is there and has conversations with him. He uses the idea of Allie as sort of a protector and someone he could turn to when he was scared or just needed someone to talk to. This is exemplified when Holden is becoming extremely depressed and fearing that every time he crossed the road he wouldn't make it to the other side: Every time I'd get to the end of a block I'd make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I'd say to him, Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie. And then when I'd reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I'd thank him. Then it would start all over again as soon as I got to the next corner. But I kept going and all. I was sort of afraid to stop, I think - I don't remember, to tell you the truth. (Salinger 218) Holden becomes so entrenched in believing that he's speaking to Allie that it helps him to make it across the street. However, this shows how deeply he has fallen into this world of depression and the degree of how much he's still in denial over Allie's death. Another instance that Holden displays the denial of Allie's death is when he returns home to talk to Phoebe. She asks him to name one thing he actually likes and he fails to think of anything other than Allie. It's like Holden's entire world still revolves