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.