Holden Caulfield Deception

Holden’s pathway to deception Depression, a common mental disorder that presents 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 depressive disorder before they reach adulthood. “Holden's psychologically disturbed state has been advanced as the source both of his insight and of his lack of insight.”(Shaw)When you deal with depression, you often find it difficult to live an everyday normal life, somewhat like Holden Caulfield. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, narrates on the main character persona

Loneliness is something that is recurring throughout the novel and in some ways, Holden’s loneliness is a manifestation of the alienation he feels from the people around him. Throughout the novel, Holden is separated from those around him and is constantly in search for a way to fit into a world which he feels that he doesn’t belong. A large portion of the novel focuses on Holden’s ongoing quest for some form of companionship. This results in him moving from one meaningless relationship to another which only serves to increase his loneliness. Holden uses this alienation from the world around him as a defence chemical mechanism in order guild to protect himself. He finds interacting with other people confusing and overwhelming, so by alienating himself from people he does not have to face up to this. Mr Antolini, “He was about the best teacher I ever had..He was a pretty young guy, not much older than my brother D.B., and you could kid around with him without losing respect for him.”This is how Holden describes Mr Antolini before the night when he sleeps over at the Antolini’s. In the middle of the night Holden wakes up finding Mr Antolini patting him on the head. Holden finds this very awkward and quickly

However, by holding on to his youth and not letting himself move on he is holding himself back from many opportunities and forcing himself into loneliness. "The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish." but holden realizes that the only thing changing every time he goes back is himself.(Salinger 135) He is beginning to mature and truly losing his innocence.. His relationship with Sunny, a prostitute, showed more maturity. He was able to recognize that what he was doing was against his principles and was confident enough to remove himself from the situation “Look, I don’t feel very much like myself tonight. I’ve had a rough night. Honest to God. I’ll pay you and all, but do you mind very much if we don’t do it?” (Salinger 107). The Carousel Shows Holden’s acceptance of his loss of innocence and his realization that he will not be able to save all the children from growing up and experiencing life’s challenges “The thing with Kids is, if they want to grab or the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall [off], they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.” (Salinger 232).Reaching for the gold ring shows them reaching for their hopes, dreams