To Holden, his parents are naive and, many times, nearly nonexistent. ... Many people fall in and out of Holden's life throughout the novel. ... He wants to catch all the little children before they fall off the cliff into adulthood. ... They feel pulled apart by Con's attempt to commit suicide. ... Berger who helps him to settle things with his wife. ...
Sad things happen, people get sick and die, parents divorce. We try to shield our children from these troubles, but we can't. ... Papolos (1-4) has said the reason why depression is often over looked in children and adolescents is because "children are not always able to express how they feel." ... When parents are struggling over marital or career problems, or are ill themselves, teens may feel the tension and try to distract their parents. ... How can parents and friends help out these troubled teens? ...
A lot of the time the parents don't have any clue that there was anything wrong in their children's lives, and also the teen's friends might have had some kind of clue, but they didn't do anything about it. ... The list of culprits is long: too much divorce, too little religion, too much television, and too little communication between parents and children have been blamed. ... His parents didn't expect anything. ... Mom, Dad, don't fall apart." ... They may say things like, "I wonder what it's like to be dead? ...
