Holden Caulfield Character Analysis

Holden Caulfield
Holden Caulfield is a troubled teenage boy with many mental disorders, such as PTS (Post Traumatic Stress), Clinical Depression and SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder). All of these mental disorders are derived from Holden’s overwhelming need to alienate himself. Alienation, according to Webster’s dictionary, is “a withdrawing or separation of a person or a person's affections from an object or position of former attachment”. Holden is a watcher, not a player, in this “game of life”. His alienation is shown right off the bat, when he watches the game far away on a hill. This may be a sense of isolation, however, isolation is defined as “the state of being in a place or situation that is separate from others,” according to Webster’s …show more content…
Holden has developed Post-Traumatic-Stress (PTS) from Allie’s death. He says this about Allie’s funeral, “--everybody except Allie. I couldn't stand it. I know it's only his body and all that's in the cemetery, and his soul's in Heaven and all that crap, but I couldn't stand it anyway.” (chapter 20). Holden is worrying about the afterlife. Worrying about the afterlife alludes to not being afraid of death, embracing it. He stresses about Allie, even though he is dead because he has anxiety, he’s stressed because of it, and in turn he gets depressed and wants to commit suicide. He even talks about his own death like it is a matter-of-fact thing; that it is going to happen, and what will happen to him, and what he wants. Usually, people don’t write wills unless they are going to be dying. Holden believes in himself that he is going to die soon, he is so specific about what he wants that he has his funeral planned out. He says, “I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.” (Chapter 20). When you don’t care about your death like Holden does, you assume no one will miss you. Holden understands that if he was buried people will put flowers on his grave for him, but what will he really be remembered for. This is Holden’s subconscious indicating that Holden feels he has little purpose and that he feels like he is useless. Allie has impacted Holden’s life by making Holden stress about death and how he should just embrace it and meet Allie

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