Allie And Holden example essay topic

Allie: a character in J.D. Salinger novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield's younger brother and an important role in the novel. Holden had a strong bond between him and his little brother; a bond that no one can understand nor break. Holden really cares about Allie, and his life was dependent on him. Allie was not treated as a real character in the novel, but more like a symbol towards Holden, a symbol of Holden's desire to return back to his childhood. At the beginning of the novel, Stradlater asks Holden to write his composition about anything descriptive, like a room or a house.

Instead, Holden writes about Allie's baseball glove. Why did he do this? Before all this had happened, Holden received the news about him getting kicked out of Pence and doesn't really care much for anything that happens later in the novel. As Holden starts on Stradlater's composition, he pulled out Allie's baseball mitt from his suitcase. He thought about the happy past that Allie and Holden had shared. He thought about Allie's intelligence, his red hair, and his laughter.

It had really brightened up Holden's mood. "Besides, I sort of liked writing about it" (Salinger 39) and " "I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him though, can't I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake -- especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that " re alive and all" (171).

In those quotes, Holden expresses his love toward Allie, which he rarely does in the novel. Among the few people Holden likes, Allie is one of them. Holden enjoys living in the past memories that he had created with his younger brother, and is willing to return back to those memories; to return back to Allie, his younger brother. As Holden reminisces about the memories that he and Allie had created, a smile comes upon his face.

He wants to change his past, wants to go back in time and fix his mistakes. As mentioned before, he likes Allie. "What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed.

Anyway, Allie heard us talking about it, and he wanted to go, and I wouldn't let him. I told him he was a child. So once in a while, now, when I get very depressed, I keep on saying to him, "Okay. Go home and get your bike and meet me in front of Bobby's house. Hurry up" (99).

The people who Holden cares about, Holden try to return to them. For example, Holden's little sister, Phoebe. When Holden was depressed, he either thought about her, or visits her. Holden does the same thing with Allie. Whenever Holden is depressed, Holden thinks about the memories that Allie had shared and the desire of returning to his former childhood grows stronger.

The times spending together with Allie are memories that Holden would always cherish. "My brother Allie and I, if w were with our parents and all, we used to move our seats and go way down so we could watch him He's the best drummer I ever saw... Allie sent him a postcard, but I'll bet he never got it. We weren't too sure how to address it" (138). As Holden reminisced to the memories that Allie and he had created, the stronger his desire to return to his childhood grows.

Those memories would be with Holden forever. When Allie died, Holden "broke all the goddam windows with [his] fist, just for the hell of it" (39). Holden didn't care much for the injuries that came with his broken fists, as he says "my hand still hurts me once in a while, when it rains and all, and I can't make a real fist any more-not a tight one, I mean-but outside of that I don't care much" (39). When Allie died, Holden didn't care much for anything anymore. It seemed that after Allie's death, Holden's life began to spiral downwards towards failure that "cannot be fixed". Throughout the novel, Holden had suicidal thoughts and thought about jumping out the window and not wanting other people to look at his dead body.

The reason why Holden is thinking such suicide thoughts is maybe because he wants to be with Allie. He wants to return to the "good ol' days". It seemed that Holden had dreams before. Holden started to play golf when he was ten, but now, he's an outsider, with no where to go. "I mean I'm not going to be a goddamn surgeon or violinist or anything anyway" (39). Holden knows that he couldn't compare up to Allie, but he had dreams once, but was gone when Allie was gone.

Holden didn't want to disappear before in the novel, but, as Holden's began to fail more and more in this life, Holden wants to give it all up. "Every time I'd get to the end of a block I'd make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I'd say to him, "Allie, don't let me disappear Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie". And then when I'd reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I'd thank him.

Finally, what I decided I'd do, I decided I'd go away. I decided I'd never go home again and I'd never go away to another school again... and then I'd start hitchhiking my way out West" (198). As the quote states, Holden doesn't want to go on with his present life. He wants to walk away from all this trouble and pain and return to his former childhood that he had shared with his dear little brother, Allie. But he knows that it wouldn't happen because no one can alter the past.

He had given up on his life. There is nothing to live for; he is now under the care of a psychoanalyst guy, ending his story there. In a literary criticism that S.N. Behr am noted was, "that the hero and heroine of the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden's dead brother Allie and Jane Gallagher, never appear in it, but they are always in Holden's mind, together with his sister, Phoebe, These three people constitute Holden's emotional frame of reference". As stated in the preceding paragraphs, whenever Holden is depressed, he thinks about his little brother, Allie and his little sister, Phoebe. The criticism also implied that even though Allie isn't a major character in Catcher, he did have a great impact on Holden. Allie and Phoebe are the only two people that Holden really cared about.

All in all, Allie's role in the novel was more like a symbol of Holden's desire is to return back to his childhood memories. Holden really cared for Allie, he was happy living with him in the past, but now, Holden seemed to be giving up on life so he can relive his happy, childhood memories. Allie: a character in J.D. Salinger novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden's little brother, and Holden's desire to return back to his childhood.