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Holden Caulfield Mental Suicide

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Holden Caulfield is a teen who is stricken with grief. He narrates his life with both a jaded and cynical voice displaying an overall discontentment with the world. Holden struggles to balance his emotions and switches between an almost manic joy and rage. The most significant cause of Holden's issues is the death of his brother. I believe that Holden is suffering from PTSD and depression. Factors that led me to this diagnosis are Holdens constant state of depression, the loss of his brother, and him expressing both feelings of loneliness and suicidal thoughts. Numerous times throughout The Catcher in the Rye Holden displays both depressive and suicidal thoughts such as “What I really felt like though was commiting suicide. I felt like jumping out the window” (Salinger 136) and “Please. I’m lonesome as hell. No kidding.”(Salinger 193). These quotes along with the facts that “Possible warning signs for suicide include… talking about self-harm, death or dying [and] experiencing the loss of a significant family member or friend…” (Whitmore 472) and that “Childhood trauma leaves a person extremely vulnerable to the effects of stress, … and specifically to the development of PTSD” lead me to believe Holden’s behaviors do warrant his admission to the facility. Before Holden can be released from our facility he needs to be taught some …show more content…

When he faces an extremely difficult situation, for example him getting beat up by Maurice, he gets very emotional saying “I was still sort of crying. I was so damn mad and nervous and all.”(Salinger 135) and sort of gives up on life “I felt like jumping out the window.”(Salinger 136) Another way he responds is by acting/lashing out for example when he yells at phoebe even though it's only because he feels guilty that she's upset he's leaving and says “You’re not going. Now, shut up!”(Salinger

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Holden is the main character from the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger: he is going through the seven stages of grief. The seven stages Holden experiences are: shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, depression, reflection, loneliness, the upward turn, reconstruction and working through, and acceptance and hope. He mainly focuses on three of the stages: anger, depression and loneliness. These stages influence the events and situations that Holden encounters doing the book. Holden gets in many situations because of his uncontrollable anger during his grieving.

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After Holden’s brothers death he, “slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist” (Salinger 44). He went into the garage to isolate himself from everyone else and broke the windows out of anger. His post traumatic stress disorder kept getting worse because he continually

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This shows how bad the situation was. If he could not blame them for when they wanted to have him psychoanalyzed after his actions to follow. Thoughts of suicide- His suicidal statements can be linked to depression, clearly and he assumes life is out of line which joins us back to the way that Holden is as yet lamenting over his sibling. An Example are when he has death wishes on page 104 when he stated “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide.

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Next, Salinger unfolds how Holden allows his depression to impact his actions in The Catcher in the Rye. For example, Holden’s depression influences him to not call Jane. Multiple times in the story Holden thinks about calling Jane, but changes his mind at the last second. After Holden has a date with his old friend Sally Hayes that goes horribly wrong he meets up with his friend Carl Luce for a few drinks. After Carl leaves Holden stays until he becomes drunk and decides to give old Jane a buzz, but he states, “ But when I got inside this phone booth, I wasn’t/much in the mood anymore” (Salinger 150).

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686 Words | 3 Pages

One way holden has suicidal thoughts in the book states, ”Everybody was asleep or out or home for the weekend, and it was very,very quiet and depressing in the corridor. […] All of a sudden, I decided what I'd really do, I'd get the hell out of Pencey – right that same night and all. I mean not wait till Wednesday or anything. I just didn't want to hang around any more. It made me too sad and lonesome.

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904 Words | 4 Pages

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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2042 Words | 9 Pages

Furthermore, he displays complete apathy towards his future, is unable to form connections with other people, and frequently speaks of how he is ‘depressed’ and ‘lonely.’ He even states at one point that; ‘what I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window.’ Holden is clearly suffering from depression and suicidal idealisation, therefore his mental health may cause us to question his reliability as a narrator as his outlook on life is greatly affected by the way he feels, showed in the fact that he generally puts a negative spin on

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Additionally, the reader subsequently finds out that Holden has written this story from a mental hospital. Clearly, the decline of Holden’s mental health results in him reaching his breaking

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Holden Caulfield is the victim of several traumatic events. In a short amount of time, he loses his younger brother and witnesses the suicide of a classmate. It becomes difficult for him to remain positive. He develops extreme anxiety. “Everytime I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddam curb, I had this feeling that I’d never get to the other side of the street.

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A study found that “53,920” (Friedman,2) women in sweden had a form of mental illness. This shows that almost every person can have or obtain some sort of mental illness and that they should receive the proper treatment for it. Another reason on why it's not Holden's fault that he's alienated is that his family has pushed him away for so many years, by moving him to boarding school after boarding schools like pencey prep the only people in his family that cared for him are his little sister phoebe and his little brother allie. Holden speaks so highly of his little sister because he realizes that she's the only one that currently cares for him. “Holden!’

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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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The first cause of Holden 's mental illness that readers notice is that he lacks control over his actions. As Holden was 13 years old, his brother Allie died of leukemia. Holdens behavior in response to his brothers death was very violent. “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 (Holden Caulfield 39).” Holden admits that he didn’t know he was doing it, but says it was a stupid thing to do.

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Along with Holden’s many health problems, he is also mentally unstable in that he makes very erratic and irresponsible decisions, particularly when it comes

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693 Words | 3 Pages

Although Holden is not fully recovered he is much less depressed than his earlier stages in the book. Holden has taken a step further in his adult life and rather than dismissing those around them he begins to value them, thus being a big step. In the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the narrator and protagonist Holden Caulfield a sixteen year old junior undergoes a series of changes; changes that helped a distraught teenager learn that everyone grows up. You don 't need to be the “Catcher in the Rye” that protects the children from going if the deep end thought

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824 Words | 4 Pages

It is most apparent during his date with Sally Fields. When Sally first arrives he’s in love with her, even though he already thinks of her as “the queen of the phonies”. However, as the date continues he realizes how much he truly despises her. Yet, he still invites her to run away with him and when she rejects his offer, he lashes out at her and causes her to cry. He doesn’t know how to feel about making her cry and feels accomplished and sorry.

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