He is of average intelligence but has a hard time with reading comprehension, which caused him to be held back a grade. At 16 he also falls into the same stage of Identity vs. Role confusion as Ponyboy. With parents that fight a lot and are alcoholics it seems like he was unable to learn any kind of coping skills and relies a lot on what other people tell him to do. His shyness and a social awkwardness lead to the question of abuse and PTSD; this belief is also substantiated as he has a scar on his check from being beaten by 5 grown men. Johnny also has frequent thoughts of suicide which could be due to depression, feeling unloved by his parents, socially undesirable, seeing himself as “out of place” even amongst friends, and that he internalizes that actions of others.
The Hennessy family has asked for my help with trying to figure out why Mr. Hennessy is an alcoholic and try to get him to stop. The family consists of Mr. and Mrs. Hennessy, their two year old daughter, and ten year old son. Mrs. Hennessy has become concerned because Mr. Hennessy had started drinking a lot recently and the problem recently progressed. He had a stable job but recently got fired because of a drinking and driving incident. He has become a violent drunk and has come close to beating his wife but hasn’t done it.
He became a drunk when he knew Francie would be born. He could not handle the idea of having children at a young age. Johnny would drink constantly to get rid of his problems. He was not mature enough to handle his problems the way he should have. It deeply affected his family, and in the end, he wasted his life away.
Through the suffering those friends cause him, Pudge finds himself in a way. Once Pudge’s love is destroyed, he doesn’t understand how to cope with the immense amounts of pain. Daniel lives with his single dad and only has one friend. Having to cope with losing his love, he finds new love with his best friend’s sister, which makes him lose his only friend. A new friend comes into his life, and he helps Daniel through life.
Holden Caulfield, a seventeen year old boy who does not quite fit the world he lives in. While Holden is an intelligent soul he gets kicked out of one of the prestigious military schools, Pencey Prep. Not so close with his mother or father and anti-social with the “phonies” he calls friends, Holden cannot seem to get anything right. This patient was admitted to this institution because his parents notice his erratic behavior. If my observations are correct, Holden Caulfield is suffering from his brother Allie’s death.
Bone doesn’t have family support. One of the reasons why Bone doesn’t have a family support is that His stepdad abuses him, as he says“the nights he’d sneaked into my room and made me touch his d*** and suck on it” (pg. 195). Abuse leads to some psychological problems. The problem with Bone is that he is scared of his stepdad.
In Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin,Sonny's brother discovers that he has been arrested for possession of drugs.He reminisces on their past as children and can only imagine how his students could probably be doing the same things Sonny was. Sonny's brother has never accepted Sonny's way of life.He believed that the right way of life was to get an education and a good career.Sonny lived his life on drugs and with the dream of being a musician.Sonny and his brother were complete opposites which was a problem for their relationship.When his daughter dies,he finally decides to get in communication with Sonny. Music is a very important theme in Sonny's blues. Sonny's brother always had a difficult time understanding why Sonny would want to grow up
He gets extremely upset and brought to tears at the thought of something happening to Chase, and them not being able to be together any more. Another consequence of his addiction is that he has lost contact with his father since revealing his addiction to him, although his relationship with his mother remains
His wife’s passing changed his character. He became an ingrate, disrespectful and mean. It affected Sam’s retention and success in school because he felt that he no longer have a brother to look up to, and he also felt he can’t get any love and support. During Sam’s freshmen year in school, Kenny was paralyzed during a fight. Sam began visiting him regularly at the hospital, and became close to each other like brothers.
His depression seems to escalate throughout the novel. For example, many nights he has trouble sleeping, he also is quite the alcoholic and a heavy smoker, he doesn’t feed his body with the proper nutrients and he talks of committing suicide at various points in the novel. Holden feels he has been alienated his whole life and that after losing his brother Allie, there was really no place for him anywhere. Holden Caulfield is a complex character that is in need of some real therapy because the problems he faces are not those of a normal boy his age, but are more serious in that he’s really hurting himself and he is not nearly aware of these circumstances. Holden’s signs of depression are evident throughout the novel.