Is Holden a Byronic Hero?
In The Catcher In The Rye, judging from incidents involving Holden, I can conclude that he is some kind of a Byronic hero who typically exhibits following traits:
No doubt, Holden has a troubled past. One way to understand Holden's uncommon combination of characteristics is to look at the traumatic events in his childhood, most importantly the death of his brother, Allie. How Holden reacts to his brother's death, by smashing all of the windows in the garage that night, shows that this event has had the most impact of any on his life. One thing that is worth noting is that Holden thinks very highly of Allie, We don't doubt that Allie was a great kid, but according to Holden, he's the most intelligent, nicest, sweetest, most endearing kid with the best sense of humor you'll ever meet. Holden’s pain over Allie's death perhaps changes the way he dealt with life. He has lost direction. It can also be the reason why Holden started doing so poorly at school. He fails out of four schools and manifests complete apathy toward his future. Since he can’t stay in one school for long, he has not been able to develop close bonding with any classmate, resulting in him having very limited number of peers. He pretty much did not have anyone to talk to, which shapes him into a very narrow-minded person. His lack of social interactions causes negative influence to his life whether he realized it or not.
Holden would certainly be considered very rebellious, perhaps due to the sorrowful childhood he had.
Holden behaves differently from everyone else, he also criticizes them. He rebels by not having the same opinions as everybody else. Holden’s favorite drinks are scotch and soda, and frozen daiquiris. He would drink by himself every day until he got disgusted of the phoniness of the people around him and needed to go somewhere else. Holden also smoked a lot. If you were to see him on the streets, he would look like a bad kid because of his constant smoking and drinking, and because
No doubt, Holden has a troubled past. One way to understand Holden's uncommon combination of characteristics is to look at the traumatic events in his childhood, most importantly the death of his brother, Allie. How Holden reacts to his brother's death, by smashing all of the windows in the garage that night, shows that this event has had the most impact of any on his life. One thing that is worth noting is that Holden thinks very highly of Allie, We don't doubt that Allie was a great kid, but according to Holden, he's the most intelligent, nicest, sweetest, most endearing kid with the best sense of humor you'll ever meet. Holden’s pain over Allie's death perhaps changes the way he dealt with life. He has lost direction. It can also be the reason why Holden started doing so poorly at school. He fails out of four schools and manifests complete apathy toward his future. Since he can’t stay in one school for long, he has not been able to develop close bonding with any classmate, resulting in him having very limited number of peers. He pretty much did not have anyone to talk to, which shapes him into a very narrow-minded person. His lack of social interactions causes negative influence to his life whether he realized it or not.
Holden would certainly be considered very rebellious, perhaps due to the sorrowful childhood he had.
Holden behaves differently from everyone else, he also criticizes them. He rebels by not having the same opinions as everybody else. Holden’s favorite drinks are scotch and soda, and frozen daiquiris. He would drink by himself every day until he got disgusted of the phoniness of the people around him and needed to go somewhere else. Holden also smoked a lot. If you were to see him on the streets, he would look like a bad kid because of his constant smoking and drinking, and because