Catcher In The Rye Essay Essay, Research Paper
Should Holden Caufield be in a mental hospital?
I believe that Holden Caufield should be in a hospital,
at least for a short term stay. There are two main reasons
that he should do this. The first is that it will help him get
back on his feet and get all his school work under control.
The second is that he will be able to talk to his parents
more openly once he gets his problems out in the open
where they can be seen and analyzed. Holden really
needs to talk to his family about his troubles because that
is the place where most of them originated.
Holden is a very troubled person. His one brother,
Allie, who was two years younger, had died of leukemia.
Holden really misses him. He also misses his little sister,
Phoebe. He has had absent parents for most of his life.
He has never had anyone to talk to or really get to know.
Because of poor grades, he was changing schools all of
the time. The continual changing from school to school
compounded the problem. There was not enough
opportunity for developing friendships. I also think that
his being alone all of the time had caused him to make up
excuses for all of his downfalls. I believe that he resents
money because his parents were fairly rich; they thought
that the only proper thing for well-to-do people was to
send their kids to private schools. That is where I think
that he gets the idea of phonies. His parents really don?t
have an abundance of money; they just pretend that they
do.
Holden not only has to get straight with his family but
also with his school work by realizing its importance. He
may hate material things, but I think that he would like a
warm house in the winter and a nice umbrella in the rain,
so I hope that he can see that he will have to work hard all
of his life just to have a comfortable way of living. He may
not realize it now, but he is capable of finding a job that
pays the bills and satisfies his urge to help children. I can
really see Holden as an elementary school teacher. It has
everything that he wants: children, being able to protect
them, and, of course, the knowledge that he is doing it to
help them and not for the money.
I really do think that Holden should be in a hospital
just for awhile. He doesn?t need extreme care, but he
does need a place where he can talk all about his
problems and get things off his chest. He needs to learn
to be truthful with himself and get his feelings and
thoughts organized. Maybe being in the hospital will help
his parents see that they really need to spend more time
with him. There really is no down side to him being in the
hospital, and that is why I am all for it.
Bibliography
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