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Depression In Catcher In The Rye

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A common disorder all teens have is depression. The state of depression causes many different effects on a person’s thoughts and their behaviors. When a person has been through a lot and has seen things, they start to feel empty inside and feel different, for example, having to deal with a death in the family. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye tells the story of the young Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy who is not your ordinary character. He lives a very difficult life while growing up. He drops out of school and tries to talk to random strangers. He deals with a death from his younger brother, Allie. That is a reason why Holden is depressed and he doesn’t know how to deal with himself. Holden has thoughts of suicide, however does …show more content…

Holden generally lies to himself to calm the emptiness and liability he is living with. Holden explains and tells the reader that he is depressed throughout the book. Holden suffers from depression, therefore to cope with it, he lies to everyone in his life, causing his depression to get worse throughout the book. Holden has no explanation has to why he is depressed. He faces problems and issues like accepting death from his younger brother Allie, growing up and omitting parental things because of this it restrains him to entirely see why he's depressed. One hassel he's dealing with is the death of his brother, Allie. He was traumatized by the death of his brother, it left him lots of upsetting feelings. It represented with Holden saying, ”They were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all because I broke all the windows in the garage…I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist” (Salinger 39). The quote announces after the death of his brother, he wasn’t able to control himself and went completely psycho for a moment. The death causes Holden to have aggressive actions. After losing his brother, Holden lost something inside of him that he will never get back. The death worries him because now he will have nothing to

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Throughout the book holden gives off a vibe of being depressed, which might have started when his brother passed away. It’s seems like after that happened he lost all enthusiasm and energy to really try and also to really plan out his future. Most

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His reaction when his brother died proves that Holden had started grieving, “ I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that

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Furthermore, Holden starts to hate all the adults or loses faith in them, calls them phony. Holden has a second thought of becoming an adult he loses hope in his future and it seems to him nothing in the world matters to him anymore. We can see that throughout the book. He smokes, gets drunk, and does daring acts like getting a prostitute in his room. He also tries to escape all this guilt and grief by wasting time with unnecessary people he calls phony.

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JD Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye is about a boy named Holden Caulfield and his struggle with life. As a teenager, he has one goal and that is to simply find his place in the world. Unlike an ordinary teenager he has a severe case of depression, and displays many signs to exhibit this mental illness. As we escalate through the novel, we notice that his depression seems to be getting worse and that he is feeling despondent more often.

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Catcher In The Rye Grief Analysis

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Holden has a very different way of showing his depression in the novel. His depression is present when he tries to keep his innocence and stray away from adult hood all while trying to keep his relationship with his brother Allie. Holden wants to be the “catcher in the rye “. He wants to be that person who catches those kids who are falling off the cliff into adulthood. Holden wants to protect those who are close to him and those that he loves.

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Holden's constant feeling of being depressed is established early on in the book. For example, when Holden says goodbye to one of his professors before leaving Pencey, he finds himself overwhelmed with sadness over the normal act of a sendoff: “Then we shook hands. And all that crap is. It made me feel sad as hell, though” (15). This is demonstrating that when Holden is in social interaction, he tends to feel down.

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Holden represents the theme depression throughout the novel. Depression is a serious condition in which a person feels sad, hopeless, and unimportant. One main reason he experiences depression is because he withdraws himself from society, struggling with the death of his brother, and a lack of motivation in life. Holden's personality is very pessimistic which shows that he tends to look at the negativity instead of the bright side of life. Another reason Holden is depressed is because of his habit of drinking and smoking.

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Holden's Struggle Of Depression In Catcher In The Rye

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Holden’s desire for individualism coupled with the loss of the only true individual he knew created a breach of loneliness in Holden's life that was unable to be filled. Overall, chapter 20 best displays Holden’s struggle with depression as his thoughts of his own death, funeral, and afterlife become more frequent. Throughout the chapter Holden constantly voices his ideas of what his funeral would be like. Holden is even happy that “[his mother] wouldn't let old Phoebe come to [his] funeral because she was only a little kid” (171) implying Holden feels it would be ok to die since, Phoebe would be shielded some of the pain she may face with his death.

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To begin, early in the novel Holden tells the reader about his younger brother Allie that passed away due to leukemia. It is also made known to the reader that Holden has PTSD from this tragic situation. Holden has a hard time trusting people because of this, and has struggled with mental illness since Allies death. In addition to trust issues and PTSD, Holden tends to go into a fantasy world when he gets depressed. In that world, he “talks” to Allie out loud as if he was there.

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In many cases throughout the novel, Holden tells the reader of his feeling of deep sadness, and even admitting his depression. However, in most of these cases, his sadness is triggered by little events or situations. For example, when he explains his feelings about the phony Elkton Hills headmaster talking with his well-dressed parents, he says, “It makes me so depressed I go crazy” (Salinger 14). His feelings about the headmaster are interesting, because it shows that he overreacts and has depressive thoughts for little, unreasonable things which most teenagers at his age typically don’t experience. Also, Holden even considers committing suicide multiple times throughout the novel.

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Although Holden is a fictional character, many of the symptoms he displays during his journey are real and affect real life teens. Teen depression is a serious mental health problem. One of the possible dangers is the probability that it's not temporary and may affect the teen in a

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Firstly, one possible disorder Holden could be plagued with is depression. Depression is a mental health disorder characterized by a constantly depressed mood or loss of interest in daily activities. (Goldberg, “Major Depression Symptoms in Adults and Children) It can be impairing to living day to day life, which is apparent in Holden’s case. In several instances throughout the story, Holden mentions how depressed he feels.

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Holden's Death In Catcher In The Rye

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He broke his own hand from the tragic event and was almost forced to be psychoanalyzed. Him breaking his hand wasn't seen as acting out of sadness , but much more on the lines of anger. Holden failing in school and hating the world only shows how much he misses his brother. He has been very judgmental to the world calling everything phonies all because of Allie. The importance of siblings helps drive Holden's life.

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Causes Of Depression In Catcher In The Rye

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In the Catcher in the Rye, depression is shown at many levels from severe to minor like Holden dropping out of school. Depression, if untreated, will ruin a teen's high school career. When depression hits it makes school

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1308 Words | 6 Pages

Holden is now lost in his own fantasy world not wanting to grow up from his childhood life, due to the tragedy of Allies death. Freud’s theory would examine the depth of the unconscious state and its primary root source attached to incomprehensible pain by noting, “the preconscious state holds information we’ve stored from past experience... This information can be retrieved from memory and brought into awareness at any time” (Freud 469). Because Holden never stops thinking of his brother he is trapped in his own world and can’t find an escape to his mood disorder of depression and his emotion of tribulant grief. However, Holden acknowledges that he is lost, “they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all…I don’t blame them” (Salinger 38).

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