How Does Holden Present Depression In Catcher In The Rye

In J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caufield, describes in detail the parts of his life and his environment that bother him the most. He faces these problems with a kind of naivety that prevents him from fully understanding why it is that he is so depressed. His life revolves around his problems, and he seems helpless in evading them. Among others, Holden finds himself facing the issues of acceptance of death, growing up, and his own self-destructiveness.

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.

Salinger highlights the struggle after a loved one’s death through the protagonist, Holden, who accounts the memories of his brother Allie: “He used to laugh so hard at something he thought of at the dinner table that he just about fell off his chair. I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don't blame them” (Salinger 38). At an adolescent age, Holden had to go through the tragedy of his brother's death, where he demonstrated strange behavior due to his emotional instability. Holden had ruined his friendship with Stradlater, who’d asked Holden to write him an English prompt where Holden wrote about Allie’s glove, but had disappointed Stradlater, thus Holden tore the paper. Holden became furious due to the connection Holden had with his brother, he portrayed the misunderstanding that society and adolescents have of one another after a

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, portrays Holden Caulfield as a manic-depressive. Holden uses three techniques throughout the novel to cope with his depression. He smokes, drinks, and talks to Allie. Although they may not be positive, Holden finds comfort in these three things.

Holden Caulfield encounters himself facing issues of acceptance of death, growing up, and parental neglecting that prevents him from completely understanding why it is that he is severely depressed. One of the hardships Holden must cope with is his inability to come to terms with death, of his younger brother, Allie. We often discover

According to psychcentral.com, 10-15 percent of teen are going through some form of depression. For as long people have know, teens have been going through a struggle from the transition from childhood to adulthood and they need someone to ‘catch’ them; Holden is no different, he is struggling with growing up and doesn’t know what his place in the world is. This type of thinking is what results in depression which can be treated with the right help. No teen wants to go through a mental illness like depression but it naturally occurs as a teen must go through the gruesome process of growing up and leaving their childhood behind and taking the responsibilities of being an adult. Any teen could get depression as they grow and Holden is just one

A significant symptom of Holden Caulfield’s depression is his withdrawal from friends and society as a whole. Holden demonstrates this when he refuses to go to social events or meet with his friends. For example, he does not go meet Jane Gallagher even though he cannot stop thinking of her. This is evident when Holden says, “I oughta go down and say hello to her … I’m not in the mood right now.” (Salinger 32-33). This comment shows how Holden’s fear of neglect or fear that nobody will listen to him prevents him from creating meaningful social bonds and further pushes him into his depressed state. Secondly, Holden withdraws from society because he feels that he cannot please his loved ones, particularly his father. Holden’s father thinks that Holden is immature but whenever he acts mature nobody notices. Holden expresses this when he says, “I still act sometimes like I was only about twelve … Sometimes I act older than I really am-I really do-but people never notice it. People never notice

Throughout Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield, a young boy who has recently been expelled from Pencey Prep, shows severe signs of depression that progress throughout the book. Although one may argue that the chapter in which Holden describes the suicide of James Castle is the peak of his depression, chapter 20 best exemplifies Holden’s severe depression by drowning his thoughts in alcohol, fantasizing his own death, funeral, and how his family would be affected if he died. During chapter 20 Holden’s drinking becomes excessive and is a coping mechanism for his depression. Holden starts to drown his thoughts in alcohol and use it as a coping mechanism for his depression. “I sat in that goddamn bar till around one o’clock or so getting drunk as a basard. I could

After listening to my patient, Holden Caulfield, I have diagnosed him with major depression. He told me about his whole life and how it has affected how he has lived on these past few days. He also Depression is a brain disorder that causes people to have feelings of severe sadness and have lack of interest in activities. Holden tells me a lot that leads to my diagnosis of depression. Some of these ideas that Holden lost all care for his grades in school, he is scared from the death of his brother, and that he has become addicted to cigarettes and alcohol.

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield undergoes a transformation. Holden, a societal outcast, struggles to find his path through life, which he is desperately seeking as he traverses New York City. Holden is deeply affected by the loss of his brother, which causes him to be weary of forming new relationships. Holden's struggle due to his brother's loss is seen when he is describing the night he died, and states, “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it.” (Salinger 72). This quote shows how Holden's brother's loss causes him to act violently, and impulsively. By saying he smashed the windows "just for the hell of it," Holden demonstrates

Before being a teenager was recognized as a part of human growth there was an awkward bridge between childhood and adulthood. In “The Catcher in The Rye” Holden Caulfield finds teenagehood to be an awkward bridge with depression and loneliness. J.D. Salinger, the author of the novel, uses Holden’s depression to make him flawed and unreliable. Holden’s flaws and unreliability makes him the perfect depiction of a teenager going through depression. The death of Allie was the main catalyst of Holden’s depression.

To begin with, a loss of someone that was really close to effects that certain person indicating that’s exactly what happened to Holden when he experienced within losing his brother unfortunately, so that occasionally affects him. When Holden expresses,“What I really felt like doing is committing suicide, I felt like jumping out of the window,”(Caulfield 14). Accordingly Holden felt this way because his brother Allie died and this is where his Depression sparked and trufully it was emotional and painless for him inasmuch as he tries to forget the death of his brother it routinely comes back to him whenever he feels lonely or depressed. He also say’s out, “If a body catch a body through the rye,”(Caulfield 22). Caulfield demonstrates this since he is in attempting to get rid of Depression once in while he just reminds this to himself and that in his imagination Holden is with thousand of kids in a rye playing and that he observes whoever accidently falls off the cliff even before he catches them and keep those kids out of danger. Moreover as you can see he likes kids a lot and that he interacts with them more frequently than

In Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is ineffectively trying to come to terms with the death of Allie, his younger brother. Whenever Holden is reminded of his brother or more specifically his death, he feels a wave of depression that he can not pass. Because he can not stop feeling miserable, Holden cuts himself off from people in his life. The only way he feels content again is by getting physically violent with himself or other people. Once he has become bloody and battered enough, he sees the damages his body took, and enjoys the view, because it shows that he is tough, something he thinks he is not. Then, Holden finally calms down and returns to his normal state. Throughout the novel, Holden uses a cycle of grief that

If one considers his school pressures, sleeping patterns, and overall day to day sadness it becomes quite obvious that he is suffering from depression. For example, after getting kicked out of Pencey Prep, Holden’s 4th school, Salinger writes,”I was not supposed to come back after Christmas vacation, on account of I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all”. Clearly, after not doing well in his subjects, Holden decides to just stop caring, which ultimately leads to his multiple failures. His fear of failure is a common manifestation of symptoms of depression. Moreover, one who is depressed is less likely to receive adequate sleep because of their hovering stress levels.

Though Holden focuses on his depression, he represents a large part of the United States’ population. On several occasions, he describes his desolation. Mentally lost and lonely in New York City, Holden finds himself with a headache and the inability to sleep, saying, “I think I was more depressed than I ever was in my whole life” (Salinger 214). Relatively, the highest rate of depression occurs from ages 12-17 (Pratt)