Preview

Depression In Catcher In The Rye

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
856 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Depression In Catcher In The Rye
The Catcher in the rye Final Research Paper

Depression, a serious medical illness that involves the brain, it is a disorder of the brain. Depression usually starts between the ages of 15 and 30. There are a variety of causes, including genetic, environmental, psychological, and biochemical factors. Some symptoms can include sadness, change in weight, difficulty sleeping or oversleeping, energy loss, feelings of worthlessness, loss of interest or pleasure in activities you used to enjoy, and thoughts of death or suicide. Depression is a serious kind of mental illness that should be treated as soon as possible, before something undoable happens. Usually when depression reaches it climax the
…show more content…
For example, the night that he has a fight with Stradlater and that same night when he leaves Pencey he wanders the street in the middle of the night not even feeling sleepy or tired. Like how on page sixty-five when he is on the phone asking Faith Cavendish on a date she says, “By any chance do you have any idea what time it is?” then lower done on that same page she says, “Well, look Mr. Cawffle. I’m not in the habit of making an engagement in the middle of the night. I’m a working gal.” This quotation informs us that how late it is and on the next page it tells us that Holden is not even feeling sleepy or tired which is quoted on page number sixty-six, “It was still pretty early. I’m not sure what time it was, but it wasn’t too late. The one thing I hate to do is to go to bed when I’m not even tired.” This shows that even after midnight he doesn’t even feel tired or sleepy, one of the symptoms of depression. This could happen to anyone though but Holden is showing multiple other symptoms of depression throughout the …show more content…
You can easily tell that he is lonely because he is always trying to get some company no matter how bad he thinks of them. A good example would be that when he asks the guy that he asked about the ducks to come and have a drink with him. I mean if it were me, I wouldn’t even pay the guy. But in Holden’s case he would basically ask every cab driver he would meet to come and hang out with him. Later his loneliness really started to show when he accepted the offer from Maurice, the guy that ran the elevator. It was really surprising that he accepted because his character is one with a lot of innocence, but later on you find out that the real reason he accepted the offer was because of how lonely he was and because of his inability to sleep. All he wanted was someone that he could spend some time chatting with.

Another major symptom that Holden has is the thoughts of death and suicide that he is having. Not only does this prove that he has depression but it shows that it is in its final stages before it drives him crazy and makes him do something unthinkable, like commit suicide. After the fierce and painful second encounter with Maurice he just wanted to die. He started to think of how when he jumped off of the window people would look at him when he was all gory and all. These kinds of things aren’t what normal people would think

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    One of the most obvious diagnoses for Holden is that he suffers from depression. Throughout the entire book, he is always talking about the fact that one thing or another is causing him to feel lonely or to feel depressed. A lot of the time, he fails to accomplish even the most basic goals. He emerges as a perpetual defeatist, which is one of the classic signs of clinical depression. The fact that he turns to alcohol to try and make himself feel better is just another possible indicator of depression; many people who suffer from that malady turn to alcohol to try and feel…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holden exhibited one of the main symptoms, flashbacks, many times throughout the duration of the novel. An example is when Holden and his little sister, Pheobe, were talking and she asked him to name something he liked. One of the few things he mentioned was “this one boy at Elkton Hills, named James Castle”(Salinger, 220). Holden then went on to tell the story of how James Castle committed suicide just down the hallway from him. He explained it with great detail, remembering it vividly: “I ran downstairs too, and there was old James Castle laying right on the stone steps and all. He was dead, and his teeth, and blood, were all over the place”(Salinger, 221). Another flashback occurred when he was talking to his roommate, Stradlater, about a girl named Jane Gallagher. Jane was Holden’s neighbor a few summers ago. He went on to remember when they used to play checkers together and said, “She wouldn’t move any of her kings. What she’d do, when she’d get a king, she wouldn’t move it. She’d just leave it in…

    • 1485 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were recurring patterns Holden unconsciously fell into that contributed to his depression and then there were events that halted these depressions. The events that contributed to his depression were that he judged people, he judged himself and he did not take care of himself. Of course there were events that halted the depression such as the act of love shown by his sister Phoebe. Love is perceived as forgiveness, peace, living in the moment and happiness. His sister is the only person in the book who shows these characteristics. As for Holden he never doesn’t experience love at all, he is always depressed and is never really happy in the book. Except when he is with his sister, he feels happy and is in the moment.…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Check out all those things that make holden depressed. Do they have anything in common?…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Holden never seems to cope with his issues and continues using deception, sheltering, and escapes as a way to avoid reality. Each coping mechanism makes his problems better and worse simultaneously. Eventually Holden’s life catches up with him and he ends up in a mental hospital. All of these symptoms are signs of Holden’s depression. By pushing off his problems Holden’s condition continues to grow worse. Since he was a young boy he has had trouble handling hard situations and even though he is older he still can not handle situations healthily. Overall, procrastinating his problems and pushing them off till he could not any longer led to him living in a mental hospital.…

    • 114 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holden Caulfield has severe depression, and he seems to recognize this within himself. He doesn’t know that there are things he can do to help himself. This in itself is extremely isolating, and can make one feel disenfranchised. Holden is feeling the effects of disenfranchisement at the hands of depression on page 116, when he states, “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide.” Because of his depression, he doesn’t realize that there are others who may feel this way as well. It’s caused Holden to adopt a “me versus them” mindset that has created these feelings of disenfranchisement in himself.…

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    One thing that depresses Holden is physical illness. Holden describes Mr. Spencer as “Reading the Atlantic Monthly, and there were pills and medicine all over the place, and everything smelled like Vicks Nose Drops. It was pretty depressing. I’m not too crazy about sick people, anyway” (Salinger 7). Holden is depressed by pills and medicine because he knows that pills and medicine are connected to physical illness. Holden believes that physical illness always leads to death. This thought of people being near death depresses him. Another example of what depresses Holden is in his conversation with Phoebe. Phoebe says, “‘You don’t like anything that’s happening.’ It made me even more depressed when she said that. ‘Yes I do. Yes I do. Sure I do. Don’t say that. Why the hell do you say that?’ ‘Because you don’t. You don’t like any schools. You don’t like a million things. You don’t’” (Salinger 169). Phoebe is frustrated with Holden and is only trying to help him. She believes that his dislike for most is a sign of depression. Helpguide.org describes this sign of depression as “[losing] [the] ability to feel joy and pleasure.” Holden has many problems that trigger his depression. As a result, he exhibits one of the core signs of depression, losing the ability to feel…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holden feels that he must find himself alone with no one else's help. Holden expresses his rebellious side when he gets kicked out of school, again. Holden doesn't like school because he doesn't like doing activities that he loses patience for and sees no point in doing them. Holden also is rebellious in the way that he smokes and drinks when he is a minor. He is an excessive smoker and turns to alcohol to suppress his feelings of depression, which are signs of alcoholism. This behavior is not unheard of, but is rare for a 16-year-old to become an alcoholic. From this rebellious attitude Holden becomes isolated from those around him. His first act of isolation with a combination of rebellion is when Holden…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While Holden talks to Ackley, he says “I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead” (Salinger 48). If somebody is lonely they become sad since there is no one there to comfort them. When Holden isolates himself from everyone he thinks of all the sad things in life and wants to commit suicide. While Holden is all alone in his hotel room, he says “What I really felt like doing was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out of the window," (104). Throughout this whole story, Holden feels isolated from the world. He faces between hating the world and then wanting to connect with the…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Additionally, another symptom Holden exhibits during the book is his constant isolation from other people. At many different times in the novel, Holden could be other people but he chooses not to be. At the beginning of the novel, Holden speaks about how everyone was at the football game but he chose not to go. Holden states, “Anyway, it was… in a way” (Salinger 2). This shows how even though Holden has the choice to be with other people and spend his time with friends he isolates himself. According to the Mayo Clinic, social isolation is both a common symptom of depression and it is one of the leading causes of depression. Based off of this fact, it can be concluded that Holden does have depression. Adding up how commonly Holden isolates himself,…

    • 155 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holden disconnects himself from reality in order to protect himself from grief. "[He] was only thirteen, and they were going to have [him] psychoanalyzed and all, because [he] broke all the windows in the garage. [He] don't blame them. [He] really don't. [He] slept in the garage the night he died, and [he] broke all the goddam windows with [his] fist, just for the hell of it. [He] even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon [they] had that summer, but [his] hand was already broken and everything by that time, and [he] couldn't do it."(39) It is common for teens to express their anger in…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Generally throughout the story Holden seems to label almost every person that he confronts is a phony. This sort of thinking is a symptom of PTSD where someone will have negative thoughts about himself or the world. Holden also shows signs of cognitive thoughts because after Allie died he seemed to not put any sort of effort in school, or in anything of that matter. In this category of PTSD is also a symptom of depression because depression can be a part of PTSD, but Holden most likely is reluctant to try in school because of the loss of Allie which would fall under PTSD. In Holden’s conversation with Mr. Spencer, he shows cognition because Holden specifically at one point drifts off mid conversation and says, “I was the goddam manager for the fencing team. Very big deal. We'd gone in to New York that morning for this fencing meet with McBurney School. Only, we didn't have the meet. I left all the foils and equipment and stuff on the goddam subway. It wasn't all my fault. I had to keep getting up to look at this map, so we'd know where to get off. ...The whole team ostracized me the whole way back on the train”(3). Here Holden is self loathing himself for something that really is not a big deal and while this might not of been a traumatic event, Holden could have felt this anger of himself from an event that had happened to him. This can fall under…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Loneliness can arise from many situations but always leaves people with a state of empathy towards those who feel it. Holden “slept in the garage the night [Allie] died…” (Salinger 50). Allie’s death is one of the main causes of Holden’s loneliness. Holden’s feelings are analogous to many teens today. Different events make teens susceptible to loneliness — difficult to reach expectations, fights with significant others, death of relatives, stress from daily activities. The spectrum of events ranges, but the feeling that arises is relatable to the majority of people. Holden’s feelings are analogous to many teens today. Loneliness is timeless and universal amongst people, which only makes how Holden feels that much relevant to teens today.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He repeats this several moments later," Boy, he could really be aggravating sometimes" (25). Holden appears to be affected by severe depression as well. Holden laments," I felt so lonesome... I almost wished I was dead" (48). He also states," [Ackley] always brought out the old sadist in me" (22). We can assume that Holden has been referring to himself as a sadist for a long period of time, which raises a red flag. I recognize that Holden's symptoms only appeared after the death of Allie. He describes the museum that he went to when he was young, before Allie's death," I loved that damn museum" (121). However, after the death of Allie and while Holden visits the museum, all of a sudden, Holden just "didn't feel much like going" (122). Now that we realize that Holden is grieving, we can take measures to help him. His past definitely hurts, but in order for him to move on to a better future, we must help him recognize his own symptoms and heal from such a hurtful…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holdens Mental Illness

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Holden's mental health was front and center often, with his thoughts of being crazy, such as when he'd make statements like "I'm crazy, swear to God, I am...". There are also references to mental hospitalization at the beginning and end of the book. Holden has a lot of symptons of this disorder. He suffers from symptoms from little or no need for sleep, difficulty staying on topic when engaged in conversation, bursting with ideas and insight, irritation with people who rationalize with his ideas, excessive spending of money,. These can affect judgment, thinking, and social behavior, in ways that cause serious problems and embarrassment (edublongs).…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays