Catcher In The Rye Essay Essay Research

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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.

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