Holden Caufield

            Dealing with the loss of a family member can be very distressing and in some cases, life altering by changing a person's outlook upon their own existence and upon society. Some people may have a religious reawakening while others fall into a deep depression, which can disrupt their ability to do normal, everyday chores. The person's entire personality can also change. In the case of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist within the novel The Catcher in the Rye, the death of his brother Allie brought upon him much pain and grief but it also caused him to lose sense of who he was. Holden comes from a well to do family from Manhattan. However, Holden has been falling since the death of his brother. His teacher, Mr. Antolini, mentioned this plunge to Holden, "This fall I think you"re riding for- it's a special kind of fall, a horrible kind"(pg. 187, ch. 24). The fall that Holden is experiencing stems from his brother's death, his loneliness, and his inability to find who he is and what his role is in life.
             Allie was Holden's younger brother by two years, but Holden thought had a lot of respect for him. He knew that his little brother was by far the smartest and most compassionate and understanding member of the family. Throughout the novel, Holden also hints that Allie might have been one of the only people in The Catcher in the Rye that Holden actually has real love for. "God, he was a nice kid, though. He used to laugh so hard at something he thought of at the dinner table and he just about fell off his chair."(pg. 38, ch. 5) When Holden was 13, Allie died of leukemia. The night he died, Holden broke all the windows in the garage in a fit of uncontrollable grief. The night Allie passed away, a part of Holden died with him, his innocence and a clear sense of who he was as a person.
             After Allie's death, Holden never seemed to recover. He became alone in his own cold world, where everyone was a "phony".