Holden's Emotional Loss In Catcher In The Rye

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Initially, Catcher in the Rye follows the protagonist’s journey through an emotional loss and period of awkwardness, which eventually leads to a “setting forth” journey for the main character to reach maturity in this coming of age novel. Essentially, the main character in this novel, Holden Caulfield, suffers an emotional loss after his younger brother,Allie, died of leukemia at the age of 13. By holding onto Allie’s baseball mitt he is clinging onto his brother’s memory of the past which leads him to continue feeling the negative consequences from this traumatic childhood event. Consequently, Holden suffers from depression which quickly spirals into uncontrollable suicidal thoughts as he struggles to get through adolescence with no control …show more content…
Throughout the novel, however, he proves to be the greatest phony of all the characters. During an interaction between his roommate and his neighbour,Holden observes that “It was a phony kind of friendly, but he always said hello to Ackley and all” (Salinger 26). Holden is always quick to point out the gestures of other as fake and is constantly feeling as everyone is deceiving him by not being completely honest. Subsequently,Holden demonstrates another period of awkwardness with his repeated and unnecessary lying and deception. This is shown when he brags that he’s “the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life” (Salinger 16). By making up a reality for others to perceive Holden does not have to deal with the real one he lives in. Furthermore, there is a part of
Holden that seems to really enjoy lying as he does it compulsively about the small irrelevant things like going to the supermarket; he can be seen as as a pathological liar and that reveals the insensitive side of him as he does not seem to care what effects lying has on others. Eventually,
Holden grows out of the in between phase he is in to culminate in the setting forth journey

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