Catcher In The Rye Depression Research Paper

Holden has matured in many ways throughout the novel. He had grown from an immature child who only cared about himself to a mature adult who wanted to make something of his life. In the beginning of the story we are introduced to

Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I

Holden has all of these traits. In the novel, nearly every time Holden gets depressed, he turns to alcohol. At Ernie’s night club he got served alcohol even though he was a minor. He even got drunk at the Wicker Bar. He used alcohol to escape the sadness in his life, which many killers were known to do as well. Holden also grew up lonely. He lost motivation to do well in school, which got him kicked out of Quincy High, losing his friends. His brother is also dead which may contribute to his feeling of loneliness. Holden always fantasizes about saving all the children from growing up, being their ‘Catcher in the Rye’. If somebody were to get in the way of his fantasy, he might have killed them. Holden is also socially awkward, loving children but hating adults, calling them ‘phonies’. He only has a few friends throughout the novel. He gets very angry with his friends, like when Stradlater goes out with Holden’s ex-girlfriend, Jane, whom he still has feelings for. This made him leave Quincy three days early while he travelled to Manhattan. “I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by.” said Holden (Page 4). Finally, Holden has some sexually stressful moments in the novel, like when he hired a hooker to come upstairs into his room. He wanted to do it, but when she got into the room, he

As previously mentioned, it is obvious of Holden’s intentions from the first chapter. The reader learns that they are not going to be following the life story of some random kid; they are going to read about the introversive thoughts and assumptions everyone makes at some point of their lives. Throughout the tale, it is obvious that Caulfield is depressed and as the story progresses, he seems to lose himself in the real world. As he moves

Depression is paralyzing, but mostly it is terrifying. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is displayed as a deeply sad person. He cannot handle the emotions that are plaguing him and thus projects them on everyone else. Holden is so terrified of his sadness he blames others for it, throughout the novel he constantly says phrases along the lines of, “they depress me”. His actions can be explained as a type of projection. Projection is defined as “ascribing our fear, problem... to someone else and then condemning him… in order to deny we have it ourselves,”(Tyson 14). His emotions have left him in a sanitarium where he is talking to a psychoanalysis, which is where his flashback begins.

Holden is very immature and cannot act his age for anything. In the beginning of the story, Holden was very immature and self-centered and he often did very immature things, but he wanted to be an adult. This is very contradicting considering that he is very immature. In the novel, Holden states, “Boy! I said. I also say Boy! quite a lot. Partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and partly because I act quite young for my age sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen.” (Salinger 16). This shows how Holden is very immature and needs to start acting his age and this could be dangerous to society. This is why he needs to stay inside the mental facility. In the mental facility, he will be safe and he will not cause any harm to anyone or to himself

Nineteen million American adults suffer from a major case of depression (Web MD). That is a staggering one in every fifteen people (2 in our classroom alone). Holden Caulfield is clearly one of those people. Depression is a disease that leads to death but is also preventable. Psychology, stressful events, and prescription drugs are causes of depression. Stressful events brought on Holden’s depression. Holden has been trying to withstand losing a brother, living with careless parents, and not having many friends. The Catcher in the Rye is a book that takes us through the frazzled life of Holden Caulfield, who appears to be just a regular teen. But by hearing his thoughts and through heart-wrenching events in the book, the reader learns that

Instead of dealing with his problems Holden drank. This negatively affects him. Instead of getting help with his emotions he would drink them away so he would feel less. Drinking is seen persistently throughout the novel. Some may think that Holden has a severe drinking problem, which he does. A majority of his money is spent on alcohol at the bars he goes to. Holden is a minor and it is illegal for him to drink (57). Holden feels as if he is older when he drinks and likes the feeling because he does not want to be seen as one of the “phony” guys that he often speaks about throughout the novel. One night he gets so drunk he just does not know what is going on. It feels good for him. It is often mentioned that Holden drank when he had nothing else to do. He would stay out late because he wasn’t tired and had nothing else to do, and he was lonely. Holden feels a need to be drunk whenever he is around the “jerky preps” (85). He says “I can’t sit in a corny place like this cold sober” (70). He feels as if they are phony and he is unlike them. He often feels like getting out of the bars, but doesn’t because he doesn’t want to leave to become lonely. “I felt like getting out of the place. It was too depressing” (80).

Depression, a common mental disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration. This mental illness demonstrates to affect teens as much as it affects adults. Studies show that 20 percent of teens will experience teen depression before they reach adulthood. When you deal with depression, you often find it difficult to live an everyday normal life. The “Catcher in the Rye” written by J.D Salinger, narrates on the main character Holden Caulfield, a hostile and negative person, who suffers from severe depression.

Everybody feels depressed at some time or another in their lives.  However, it becomes a problem when depression is so much a part of a person's life that he or she can no longer experience happiness.  This happens to the young boy, Holden Caulfield in J.D Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye.  Mr. Antolini accurately views the cause of Holden's depression as his lack of personal motivation, his inability to self-reflect and his stubbornness to overlook the obvious which collectively results in him giving up on life before he ever really has a chance to get it started.

Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he

It is very clear that Holden is immature. One of the most obvious times that this is shown is when Holden is talking with Luce. Luce says, “ Same old Caulfield. When are you gonna grow up?” (Salinger 144).

Holden sees himself as a mature adult and he does not possess all the qualities to be a mature person or even an adult. Holden does not know a lot about the world and has a small worldview. Holden's view being an adult means you smoke, go out drinking and have sex. Holden has copied many of these mannerisms, so he sees himself as grown up. Holden tries too hard to act and seem like an adult, he checks to see if he comes off as enough of an adult to buy drinks at the bar without it. When he is offered a prostitute on page 89, he accepts the offer thinking it will make him more of an adult. Instead of sleeping with her Holden ends up talking to her and getting a better understanding of her life. These types of qualities show that Holden is on the right path to becoming a more well-rounded individual and since Holden is getting help in a mental hospital it shows, he is working toward being a better person.

Having no role adult role models in his life besides his teachers, he looks to his peers and adopts some of their habits and strategies they use to in tough situations. Since starting off the book we learn that Holden is flunking out of the school he is attending currently (Pencey Prep) and he is planning to leave before the date he is supposed to and take a trip to New York. Right away this is a coming way out of left field because usually, teenagers don’t go into the city for a few days unaccompanied. Before he left the school he got in a huge fight with his roommate, he kept egging him on calling him names and such and wouldn’t stop even when his roommate asked nicely, he got punched but Stradlater (roommate) instantly felt remorse and said “ Why the hell don’tcha shut up when I tellya to?”(pg58) He didn’t want to hurt Holden but felt like he had no other choice than to hit him, and when he felt bad about it, Holden had a blank expression on his face not even considering that he was also at fault. This happens another time in the book when the prostitute and her pimp come back to Holden 's hotel room and he opens his mouth up and gets beaten up once again. Holden said “ You’re a dirty moron, You’re a stupid chiseling moron… and you’ll be---” (p135). He was cut off, punched, and knocked out, his wallet and the money he “owed” they took, and instead of admitting to himself that he made a mistake and gotten himself in a bad situation he

By glorifying alcohol, sex and women in the novel, Holden glamorizes the positives of adulthood. For instance, when he states “ That’s the thing about girls. Every Time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall in love with them, and you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.” (Salinger 101) Holden is profound of women, but stuck in his childhood state where he can’t fully accept the values that come with a woman such as hand in marriage. However, by Holden favoring the positives of adulthood displays his phoniness before he can even recognize it. In some instances, Holden is hesitant about adulthood features such as his experience with the prostitute. He is more depressed than ready to have sex; these events are iconic and signify the separation of adult and childhood are creating a depression for Holden.