The Catcher In The Rye: Mental Health Services And Social Connections For Children

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, was essential reading for my tenth grade English class. I remembered it as a story in regards to the struggles of adolescence, the yearning for independence, and also the reluctance to let go of youth.

My son is now regarding the identical age as I was when I study the book and we are living by means of his own nudge for independence, which sparked my interest to offer the story another read. Just before I started, I wondered what my take around the book could be at this point in life possessing survived adolescence and received education and expertise in kid improvement moreover to getting a teen inside the residence.

This reading accentuated the unresolved grief, loved ones dysfunction, mental illness, and lack of social connectedness with the most important character, Holden Caulfield, and how these difficulties exacerbate the difficulties experienced during the typical maturational process.

Because the nation nevertheless debates gun manage laws within the aftermath of Sandy Hook, and as we try to recover in the Boston Marathon bombing, The Catcher within the Rye reminds us concerning the value of establishing meaningful and genuine connections with our kids and also the need to address their mental wellness challenges.

The Catcher within the Rye begins as a flashback story about Holden Caulfield’s experiences major up to his nervous breakdown before Christmas. Holden narrates the story while receiving inpatient psychological therapy around the west coast.

The events commence at Pencey Prep in Pennsylvania, exactly where Holden has been expelled because of poor academic overall performance, and conclude in New York City as Holden attempts to return residence. Through the course of his journey, Holden attempts to produce connections with a quantity of people today having said that, he fails miserably as a result of his social ineptitude, lack of appropriate therapy for what could possibly be bipolar disorder, and inability to think that other individuals are capable of being genuine.

Holden ultimately makes it residence and connects with his younger sister. By that time he has decompensated towards the point that, despite the fact that he is no longer experiencing suicidal ideations, he feels disconnected, misunderstood, and alone. Holden decides that he is going to go away, to escape from society and the rejection, the loneliness, along with the discomfort that he feels.

Having said that, Holden makes one particular final trip to determine his sister Phoebe prior to he disappears. Phoebe’s caring, anger, and innocence present Holden using the connection he is looking for; she is each a peer and dependent to him. Through Phoebe, Holden is capable to cling to his childhood and put off producing the leap to young adulthood and independence.

One theme that I was far more attuned to in the course of this reading was the unspoken dysfunction in the Caulfield family. Holden frequently compares himself to his younger, deceased brother, whom he describes as brilliant and athletic, and also his older brother, who has grow to be a thriving author.

It is recommended that Holden can be a challenging youngster, and somewhat of a disappointment to his parents as he has been unable to reside up to their expectations. He has been expelled from a minimum of 4 preparatory schools because of poor academic performance, he has difficulty socially connecting with others, and he has frequent mood swings.

It is achievable that Holden’s parents were drained from watching their youngest son battle with leukemia which left them with small strength to proficiently deal with Holden’s grief and possible disability. In Holden’s eyes, they appear to have emotionally and physically divested themselves from him.

He has little to no emotional family support and what seems to become incredibly tiny communication with them. Holden is left adrift to navigate this tumultuous time in his life with no help, understanding, and therapy. His efforts to reach out and communicate, like failing out of schools and having into fights, usually are not understood as cries for enable but are observed as personal shortcomings.

Holden perceives many people as becoming phony, superficial, and hypercritical. This may perhaps in portion be because of his social awkwardness, lack of maturity, and feeling of getting abandoned by his parents.

He is constantly let down by absolutely everyone that he reaches out to for help as they either do not reside up to what Holden has built up in his mind, or they try to benefit from him. Hence, Holden comes to believe that everybody is phony who does not or is incapable of meeting his preconceived expectations.

In addition, Holden clearly experiences moments of mania during the story, which are typically followed by feelings of sadness to the point exactly where he does express some suicidal thoughts. It appears that the lack of communication with his parents, the unresolved grief and guilt over the death of his brother, and the inability to correctly and appropriately connect with other people outcome in Holden becoming unable to interact with other folks on something but a superficial level.

The exception to this really is Phoebe. Her reluctance to let her brother leave gives Holden together with the strength to go residence and ask for help. Nevertheless, in the long run, Holden continues to endure from a lack of really like and feelings of loneliness. He states, “Don’t ever inform anybody anything.

In the event you do, you start off missing everybody.” At this point, Holden continues to discover it difficult to have genuine, meaningful relationships believing that if you open as much as individuals that they are going to turn away from you in an effort to retain the connection on a superficial level.

Holden continues to become plagued by this emotional void and, whilst there is a hunger for social connectedness, he will continue to practical experience emptiness and rejection because of his quirkiness.

For me, reading The Catcher in the Rye in high college highlighted the struggle for independence and Holden’s war on hypocrisy. On this reading, I was able to acquire a improved understanding of the tragedy that occurs as a result of Holden’s parents being unable to provide him the emotional assistance that he needs to overcome his brother’s death and take care of his mental overall health requires.

Holden’s repeated failure to socially connect and create a meaningful partnership with everyone besides his sister and also the lack of remedy for his mental health difficulties produced me consider the current tragedies in Colorado, Sandy Hook, and Boston. It reinforced the ought to take mental overall health wants and solutions seriously; simply because these situations are unseen doesn’t mean that they are not debilitating.

Feeling cared for and connected to other people reduces the stress, stigma, and isolation that happen to be connected with these conditions. It produced me wonder whether or not these tragedies could have been avoided if the persons involved had received appropriate therapy and remedy.

They may have felt connected and accepted, and these tragedies may have been avoided. The message of becoming accepted and cared for in the Catcher within the Rye continues to be relevant to young people today today as all of us strive for acceptance.