C. Review The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon is an intimate memoir about the recovery from depression and a horrific suicide attempt. Brent Runyon was born in 1977 in Falls Church, Virginia. Runyon was a normal public school student until his depression got out of control and he resorted to suicide. He had several attempts that never would work. Although his suicide was not successful there was one final attempt that would take years of recovery.
Evidence of Suffering in The Catcher in the Rye In The Catcher in the Rye Holden suffers from the death of his beloved, younger brother, his self-imposed alienation because of his inability to feel comfort around people and his nervous tendencies towards sex and sexuality. In the novel, Holden frequently reflects on Allie and praises him on his intelligence, kindness and attraction from others. Holden describes Allie as the perfect child and loved by all of his teachers. Unfortunately, Allie died from leukemia when Holden was thirteen. When Allie died, Holden smashed every window in his garage; his violent action foreshadowed his later self-destructive personality.
Erickson's Stages of Psychosocial Development In the movie Ordinary People, the character Conrad shows signs of having missed a stage in Erickson’s stages of psychosocial development. The relationship that Conrad and his mother have is very unusually and could explain a lot of why Conrad puts so much of the guilt of his brother’s death on himself. It’s possible that when Conrad was a little boy his mother spent more time with his older brother and didn’t really pay much attention to him or certain tasks that he accomplished. This stage would be Initiative vs. Guilt.
Holden often filters his speech in order to please those around him, yet he thinks the complete opposite in his head e.g. when Holden is talking to Ernest’s mother on the train and lying about how he is one of the most “popular boys in school”, while in reality he believes he is doubtless “the biggest bastard”. * In particular he repeatedly explains how much he hates “phonies” such as his brother D.B. who sold out to Hollywood, D.B.s ex-girlfriend and even Stradlater, a shallow and “secret slob”. In saying this however, Holden is often recognised as a phony himself such as when he gives himself the identity of Rudolf Shmidt on the train or when he refuses sexual opportunities despite always thinking, questioning and desiring sex e.g.
They never really got along, however he continues in the text saying that after his father’s death he began to contemplate and wonder why this was. He came to the retaliation that his father was very paranoid even with his own family. Before his death, he stopped eating food from his family because he believed they were trying to poison him. The rest of his essay speaks of the harsh society during the era of the civil rights movement. His father despised white people and barely ever trusted any of them, which was the stem of his paranoia.
He continued drinking and began working as a construction worker. He has been married and divorced twice and has fathered six children. His doctor informed him of his failing health which includes cirrhosis of the liver and a form of emphysema. Injuries sustained from falling while intoxicated has permanently damaged his ability to walk and talk. LeRoy is confined to a nursing home where he is not allowed to drink or smoke.
Scout originally did not have the skill to empathize, but thanks to Atticus, earns it. Had Scout not honed in on this skill, the end of the book, and the message would have been affected. Bob Ewell is a very unempathetic man and did not teach his children the skill. Bob Ewell is so unempathetic, that in fact in the novel, he was referred to as a low down skunk. His children particularly Mayella, have been affected by this lack of empathy, and have developed it as well.
It is at this point, the narrator finally lets go and deals with his own sadness. Certain events in the narrator's life such as the deaths of his uncle, father, and mother have turned the narrator into an unfeeling man who can not forgive his brother Sonny for falling into a life of heroine addiction. Throughout the story the narrator is angered by the the choices his brother makes such as not attending school, drug use, hanging out in nightclubs, and eventually his arrest. The narrator's anger is expressed in one scene where he goes to his brothers apartment and tells Sonny “that he might as well be dead as live the way he was living”(Baldwin, 2007). It is not until the narrator's death of his own daughter Gracie does he try to reconcile with his brother Sonny through a letter to the prison.
Holden Caulfield is "Fed up" Harrison CObb In his conversation with Sally on pages 130 to 134 of the novel "Catcher in the Rye" Holden clearly demonstrates that he is "Fed up". When first read, this conversation appears to be nothing more than the rants and raves of Holden as he spirals into his depression. Sally herself is even frightened by his demeanor as she keeps asking him to stop shouting. It's actually humorous when Holden hears her say this throughout the passage because his response is "…which was funny because i wasn't even shouting."(130). However, when these so called rants and raves of Holden are carefully read, it becomes clear that he is actually making some good points about what it is like to be a teenage boy who's future is laid out before him.
If you’ve ever been lonely, isolated, or alienated you know it’s not the best feeling in the world. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger refers to the isolation of one individual, seventeen year old Holden Caulfield, from the rest of the world through tensions between the desire to observe, judge, and alienate with the need to meet, converse, and connect. Holden isolates himself personally, by alienating himself, socially, by judging the few people who are his “friends”, and mentally, by observing others actions as a way to stop being depressed, throughout the text. No matter what form it comes in, or how it comes about, isolation is a personal choice and can be broken if the individual so chooses.