In The Mind Of Holden Caulfield

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Elizabeth Marchosky Honors Soph. English April 12, 2010 4th Period In the Mind of Holden Caulfield In the book, The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger, a boy by the name of Holden Caulfield undergoes a series of events that take place from the time Holden leaves Pencey Prep to the time he gets sick and ends up in a mental hospital. Throughout these series of events Holden encounters many psychological battles that result him to ‘self destruct’. Due to these certain events, I believe Holden Caulfield is a psychologically disturbed adolescent. As you read, you enter the mind of Holden and experience everything he is thinking, which isn’t exactly what I would imagine goes through the mind of every other teenage boy. Holden’s relationships with other people aren’t exactly normal and Holden is extremely affected by the death of his brother, Allie. He constantly finds himself alone and depressed and basically just lost in the world. It’s clear that Holden is psychologically disturbed. To start off, we know that Holden is a troubled kid from the get-go. He begins his story right after he gets kicked out of Pencey Prep. Pencey Prep is not the first school he has failed out of either. It is obvious that Holden could care less about his schoolwork or his future. We also know that Holden is still immature and childish by the way he acts. For example, he acts immature and childish when he fights with Stradlater. Holden keeps instigating Stradlater on purpose, rather than cutting it out like Stradlater tells him too. I’ll admit that when I first began to read The Catcher in the Rye, I thought Holden Caulfield was a normal guy. That is until I began to see patterns in the relationships he has with other people. It became clear that Holden has trouble connecting with others. One reason for this though is because of the fact Holden is very judgmental
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