A Crucial Item

Stages of Grief in Literature

Most people will experience grief at least once in their lives. Despite the variability surrounding it, psychologists have organized stages which most people will go through. In Salinger’s *The Catcher in the Rye,* the main character, Holden, experienced the trauma of losing his little brother Allie. Although it may strike the reader as odd at first, it is possible that Holden’s character in *The Catcher in the Rye* is based on the stages of grief. Even though the lines between the stages may be blurry, the reader is still able to differentiate the stages Holden experiences. Holden goes through every stage of grief listed by Kübler Ross, his character develops in a way that lines up with J. William Worden’s model of recovery, and the settings of the novel can be paired with the stages categorized by John Balbey.

To open with, the stages of grief created from Kübler Ross line up with how Holden had processed his brother’s death. The text “Grieving, the Process Of,” by Karen Meyers explains Ross’ model of grieving.  Ross lists five stages of grief as; “denial… anger… bargaining… depression… [and] acceptance” (Meyers 1). Holden went through each of these stages throughout the novel. The first stage of grief listed by Ross is denial. After Allie died, Holden could not accept that he was no longer alive. Holden imagined scenarios featuring Allie and thought about him endlessly to the point where he went into denial. Holden said “I like Allie” as one of his only responses to being asked what he enjoyed (Salinger 189). Next, Holden also expressed anger in various ways. The night that Allie died, Holden “tried to break all the windows in the garage” out of pure anger and shock (Salinger 44). Eventually, Holden started  to bargain with himself over Allie. Holden couldn’t stop obsessing about the time he told Allie “he was a child” and that Allie couldn’t hang out with him (Salinger 110). Holden imagines what would have happened if only he had let Allie hang out with him on that one day. Depression is the stage that Holden displays most visibly. Practically all of his thoughts and actions in every part of the novel were shaped by his depression about Allie and the world. Holden says countless times throughout the novel that “he feels depressed” or “that depresses me” (Salinger). Holden’s ideals and motives were shaped around his depression and protecting children such as Allie from the horrors of reality. The final stage of grief is acceptance. Holden finally reaching the stage of acceptance was the climax of the novel. Holden realized that children need to grow up on their own and that the bad parts of life are unavoidable. Holden says “If [kids] want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything” (Salinger 232). The gold ring here symbolizes maturing and slowly leaving childhood behind. Although Holden may not have realized it, by saying this he had gone through every stage of grief and had finally begun to heal. With further analysis, it is clear that Holden experienced every phase of grief listed by Ross.

Next, J. William Worden’s model of recovering from grief aligned with how Holden progressed in the story. Worden states that in order for a grieving person to recover, they must “accept the reality of the loss... work through the pain of the grief... adjust to a changed environment… [and] emotionally relocate the deceased” (Meyers 2). Holden’s character developed in the novel around the stages of recovering. When the book began, Holden had still not fully accepted that Allie was dead. Although he knew deep down that Allie would never be back, Holden had kept coming up with ways in which he might see Allie again. Whether it would be in Heaven or if Allie was miraculously still alive all of the scenarios weren’t possible. Eventually, Holden started to accept Allie’s death and moved on to the next stage of recovery. This is the stage that Holden had struggled the most on. Instead of finding beneficial coping mechanisms, such as therapy, Holden resorted to harmful ones. Self isolation, hiding his true self to most people, drinking, and avoiding his family are just some of the things Holden did. Obviously, none of these things helped Holden’s pain long term, and just led to him feeling even worse both physically and mentally. On the final day of his unhealthy habits, Holden “had [a] headache… [and] was more depressed than [he] ever was in [his] whole life” (Salinger 214).

Adjusting to a changed environment was the quickest stage for Holden. Holden had already moved schools several times before Allie’s death, so he is used to having his entire world changed. The change Holden is most shocked by is how his other family members reacted to it, especially his Mother. Holden struggled on the final stage of recovery. Holden said, "I know he's dead… I can still like him, though, can't I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them” (Salinger 189). Holden was unable to separate his connection with Allie and his connections with those still alive, leading to him staying on this phase of recovery until the climax of the book. Spending time with his sister finally caused Holden to realize he had to emotionally relocate Allie in order to finally recover. Holden’s character develops in a way that can be matched to the steps of Worden’s model of recovery.

Lastly, the novel’s setting changed in a way that can also be matched to John Balbey’s theory of grieving. Balbey listed four stages of grief in his model being “numbness or protest… disequilibrium… disorganization and despair.. [and] reorganization” (Meyers 2). The numbness and protest stage happened entirely within Maine, where Allie died. The night Holden broke all the windows in the garage shows the shock Allie’s death generated for him. The first setting change takes place at Pencey Prep. Holden went through the most disequilibrium while here due to the fact that his life was mostly back to normal except that Allie was no longer with him. This caused everything else to feel “out of balance” and changed Holden’s world (Meyers 2). The moment Holden leaves Pencey is when the third stage begins. The depressing streets of New York City and the dramatic change in environment sets Holden onto the next stage. With no responsibilities placed on him by the school, Holden becomes disorganized and his life starts to fall apart again. Holden isolates himself and starts other self-destructive habits to help cope. When Holden went to the carousel with Phoebe, he reorganized and entered the last stage of Balbey’s model. The blissful atmosphere and people could have changed something within Holden that the streets of New York couldn’t. He was sent to some sort of therapy out west where he sorted out his thoughts and recovered fully. The myriad settings of this story demonstrate the shifts between phases created by Balbey.

In conclusion, multiple parts of *The Catcher in the Rye* draw from various stages of grief categorized by different people. Ross’ model assists in portraying the emotions and feelings Holden had gone through, Worden’s template of recovery aligns with how Holden’s character developed, and Balbey’s stages reveal how the novel’s setting had a bigger impact on Holden than the reader may think. Salinger used these popular theories on grieving to make Holden more relatable and create more reader sympathy for him. Understanding these theories enhances the novel and helps the reader understand Holden and his feelings. I wonder if any other pieces of media utilize stages of grief for numerous reasons?