Holden Caulfield's Breakdown

A detailed Summary of Holden Caulfield's Breakdown


Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger suffers from an emotional breakdown that is shown throughout the novel. Holden's depression is brought on in a few different ways. His relationships with most people, the death of his brother and a classmate, his love for Jane, and his troubles in school were the main contributions to his depression. It was these few things that brought about his emotional breakdown.

One of the first steps of Holden's breakdown was the death of his younger brother Allie. Three years before Holden tells his story from the rest home, Allie died from leukemia. He was very intelligent and used to write poems in green ink on a baseball glove so he had something to do when people were at bat. Holden had the glove now, and he even wrote a composition for Stradlater about it. Holden never went to Allie's funeral, so he never had a chance to say good-bye. In the


novel, Holden mainly brings up Allie when he is upset, and he is still very confused about his death. He feels that he has lost the only 'real' person he ever knew.

Holden's breakdown was also affected by Pencey Prep, his other schools, and the relationships he had there. Holden continues to be kicked out of every school he attends to because he fails to apply himself, despite how much everyone else in his life tries to encourage him about school and his grades. Even his history teacher, old Mr. Spencer, tries to help Holden. He even tells Holden "I'd like to put some sense in that head of yours. I'm trying to help you. I'm trying to help you, if I can" (Salinger, 14). But, Holden cannot be helped because the only person who can help him, is himself. Also Stradlater, his roommate, contributed to his emotional breakdown. After Holden wrote his composition for him about Allie's glove, Stradlater

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Approximate Word count = 612
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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