Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Chapter 5, Grief
After reading chapter five, Holden almost seems more real to me. His reaction to his brother's death does not surprise me. "I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddamn windows with my fist, just for the hell of it" (Salinger 39). I cannot even imagine what I would do if I lost one of my siblings. They say there are different stages of grief, don't they? We all go through these stages in our life when grief comes to us. I think it is worse for people if they try to hold everything in! In a way you are harming yourself by doing this. The emotions have to come out at some point and the build up can result in unpleasantness for everyone! His reaction was one of anger and loss. He may have been feeling terrible because he couldn't do anything to help his brother. The feeling of helplessness built up in him for so long that when he finally died, it all came out. I think the fact that he broke is hand does not really upset him. It serves as a kind of a remembrance to him about his brothers death. He will always have his screwed up hand, right?
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I agree, Holden does seem more real. Like before, to me, he was just all talk and he was trying to seem cool or something. But when I read chapter 5 it was almost like he was a new person. I also agree with you when you said all his feelings were building up, and when he actually died he just let his feelings go. Really Great Blog Hannah!
ReplyDeleteI really like how you related this to your own life and I totally agree when you say that you would't know what to do if you lost your siblings but do you think that justified him causing harm to property and even self harming himself? Do you think Holden regrets breaking his hand because it is a constant reminder of his brothers death?
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