Holden Caulfield Excuses
In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield exhibits the use of pathetic and weak excuses to avoid an undesirable situation. This ties in with his unmotivated personality. Often times Holden simply “does not feel like it”, so often that it becomes evident that he is simply using it as an excuse that the reader can spot a mile away. Whether hiding from a sexual encounter, mentioning more detail about his sickness, or something as simple as a phone call, Holden Caulfield is simply too mentally weak to deal with it.
There are multiple occasions throughout the novel where Holden considers calling someone, whether it be Jane, a neighbor of his, or anyone else, he rarely follows through with his considerations. “I started toying with the idea, while I kept standing there, of giving old Jane a buzz . . . The only reason I didn’t do it was because I wasn’t in the mood. If …show more content…
Holden Caulfield tells the reader in chapter five of his brother Allie, who died a few years ago from Leukemia. It is very obvious that Holden adored Allie. “You’d have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was fifty times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent . . . He was also the nicest . . . He never got mad at anybody” (38). As one would expect, his death affected Holden in a way that he obviously still has not recovered from. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it . . . I hardly didn't even know I was doing it, and you didn't know Allie” (39). He tells us of a mental breakdown he had after the death of Allie, and although he never admits it still affects him, it is clear that his depression at least partly stems from the death of his
There are multiple occasions throughout the novel where Holden considers calling someone, whether it be Jane, a neighbor of his, or anyone else, he rarely follows through with his considerations. “I started toying with the idea, while I kept standing there, of giving old Jane a buzz . . . The only reason I didn’t do it was because I wasn’t in the mood. If …show more content…
Holden Caulfield tells the reader in chapter five of his brother Allie, who died a few years ago from Leukemia. It is very obvious that Holden adored Allie. “You’d have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was fifty times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent . . . He was also the nicest . . . He never got mad at anybody” (38). As one would expect, his death affected Holden in a way that he obviously still has not recovered from. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it . . . I hardly didn't even know I was doing it, and you didn't know Allie” (39). He tells us of a mental breakdown he had after the death of Allie, and although he never admits it still affects him, it is clear that his depression at least partly stems from the death of his