Causes Of Holden's Breakdown

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Holden Caulfield, who is a 17-year-old adolescence, speaks to the reader from a mental hospital where he was sent to for therapy. Holden’s breakdown is caused by lots of things. The death of his brother Allie, his love to Jane and troubles in school are some of the reasons to the depression he has to put up with now. One of the first things that has caused Holden’s breakdown is the death of his younger brother Allie. Allie died from leukaemia, three years before the story is told from the mental hospital. “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage.” (p. 40) Holden’s breakdown does not seem to be caused by Allie’s death in this quotation. Holden do not have to be psychoanalyzed because his little brother just died but because he broke all the windows in the garage. Holden’s reaction seems not to be misery, depression or bewilderment but more like acrimony. That is why Holden typically wants to bring his brother …show more content…
The sentences of Holden are frequent left with words like “and all” and “anyway”. “I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all” (p. 4). Regular he uses those expressions to leave his unspeakable feelings or actions hanging but when he uses those repetitions he appears more realistic as a character with the use of colloquialism. His tone does also seem to be very cold-hearted presented in the novel. “People never notice anything” (p. 10). Frequently he seems to be pessimistic when he always has something negative to say about other people by using adverse connotations. He generalizes people as lousy and phonies. By presenting and generalizing people as lousy and phonies Holden makes himself feel better about his own low self-esteem which is what Holden tries to do throughout the whole

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