Is Health the American Dream?
In the TED Talk "How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime" by Nadine Burke Harris, the concept of how traumatic childhood events affect your overall social, emotional, and physical health is explored. These traumatic childhood events include but are not limited to neglect, abuse, and having a parent with a social or emotional issue. In Catcher in the Rye, we see how past traumatic life events affect Holden Caulfield. While reliving a seemingly joyful past memory narrated by Holden, the audience abruptly learns about his younger brother Allie and how "he's dead now"(Salinger 43). The rather cold and detached tone Holden uses to present this vital part of his past leads the audience to believe Holden is intentionally trying to distance himself from this sad memory. This is due to the fact that he was exceptionally close to Allie.
Later in the novel, readers learn about Holden's mother. After Allie died she became different. Holden describes her as "nervous as hell. Half the time she's up all night smoking cigarettes" (Salinger 175). Harris mentions in her TED Talk that growing up under the care of parents with an emotional issue or disorder can cause major harm to the child in the long run. This is because the child sees, in this case, nervous habits as sign of normalcy. Smoking regularly is a prime example of a habit that has transferred to Holden that he has deemed as normal. Nadine Burke Harris explains that growing up experiencing traumatic events can negatively affect your social ,emotional, and physical health later on. We see this in Holden Caulfield. Having dealt with the loss of Allie and currently dealing with the nervous condition of his mother, the audience experiences how these events affect his ability to open up to others and control his emotions. |
|