Holden Caulfield's Depression

877 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Symbolism analysis of the catcher in the rye

In J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden Caulfield is shipped off to boarding schools at thirteen years old after the tragic death of his younger brother Allie. After flunking out of three boarding schools, he takes a trip by himself to New York before he has to go home to his ignorant parents for Christmas break. During his trip, he struggles with the symptoms of clinicals depression. Holden Caulfield is socially isolated, irritable, restless, cries, smokes cigarettes, drinks alcohol, has hallucinations, thoughts of suicide and a lack of concentration which are some of the lasting symptoms that show he is clinically depressed. When Holden was thirteen years old he was distraught by the death of his close eleven year old brother Allie. Depression After the Death of a Loved One by Timothy J. Legg on Healthline.com says that symptoms of depression are …show more content…

He is very isolated from his parents. He has not seen them for a few weeks and he does not want to. When he visits his sister at his house, he is very careful to make sure that he does not see his parents. He is also isolated from many friends. He was not very popular at school, and when he left he was always trying to call someone or find a time they could meet up. He called an old friend named Sally Hayes to ask if she would go on a date with him. She went on the date with him, but the main reason he wanted to go on a date was because he wanted someone to talk to. When he was in New York he took taxi cabs a lot. At the end of the ride he would always ask the driver if they would join him for a cocktail. In these situations he was really lonely because he was asking strangers. At one point in the book, he was so lonely that he paid for a prostitute to come to his hotel room but he just wanted someone to talk to. Social isolation is a common symptom of depression

Show More
Related

  • Holden's Depression and Self-Doubt in Salinger's Catcher in the Rye

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Eugene McNamara stated in his essay “Holden Caulfield as Novelist”, Holden, of J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, had met with long strand of betrayals since he left Pencey Prep. These disappointments led him through the adult world with increasing feelings of depression and self-doubt, leading, finally to his mental breakdown.

    Read More

  • Kalief Browder Case: The Milgram Obedience Case

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    The time he spend in solitary confine transform him a distance and lonely and disconnect person who will need help to reintegrated in society and been able to function normally. His was depressed due to compare himself with his friends form high school, which was able to graduate on time and were college ready. He was seeing himself at a worthless, without education, job, money, leaving with his mother at his ages when he was supposed to have his own place already.

    Read More

  • Holden's Depression in The Catcher in the Rye

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nineteen million American adults suffer from a major case of depression (Web MD). That is a staggering one in every fifteen people (2 in our classroom alone). Holden Caulfield is clearly one of those people. Depression is a disease that leads to death but is also preventable. Psychology, stressful events, and prescription drugs are causes of depression. Stressful events brought on Holden’s depression. Holden has been trying to withstand losing a brother, living with careless parents, and not having many friends. The Catcher in the Rye is a book that takes us through the frazzled life of Holden Caulfield, who appears to be just a regular teen. But by hearing his thoughts and through heart-wrenching events in the book, the reader learns that Holden is not the innocent boy that he once appeared. In his book, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger shows that Holden’s depression is not only affecting him, but also the people around him through Sally, Phoebe, and Sunny.

    Read More

  • Holden's Depression In Catcher In The Rye

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the most impactful events in Holden’s past is the death of his brother. Jos death definitely took a big piece of Holden’s innocence. One of the main causes of his depression is the death of Allie’s and it had a tremendous impact on his life. Allie inset rarely mentioned, his passing had a great impact on Holden. Leukemia took is younger brothers innocents and this deeply saddened him and he promise himself to that he would do whatever he could not to let that happen to other innocent kids. “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. It was a very stupid thing to do, I’ll admit, but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie”

    Read More

  • Holden Caulfield Manic Depression Essay

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    To begin with, many of Holden’s physical and mental symptoms can be linked to events occurring during manic and depressive phases. According to Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance(DBSA), “Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a treatable illness involving extreme changes in mood, thought, energy, and behavior”. DBSA states that manic phases can include a decrease in sleep, reckless behavior or speech, flamboyant actions

    Read More

  • The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    Do you ever wish you could return to the early time of your existence where the innocence and purity of childhood enveloped you on a day-to-day basis? These were the times when committing wrong doings were not only met with meager consequences, but also expected of you by the parental guardians or guides in your life. In "The Catcher in the Rye" , written by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, expresses his yearning for this feeling continuously throughout this detailed depiction of a struggling young man who craves nothing more than to make the dream he has given his entire being to, into a reality he can physically experience. A simpler way to help readers understand his complex idea is to compare his dream to the dreams of the fabled "Fountain of Youth" that countless stories are written about. Instead of the physical attributes that staying young would give an individual, the mental ideals of innocence and purity are the cause of Holden's tireless pursuit and inability to interact and function in every facet of society. The tragedies and socially awkward life that Salinger's character endures would be extremely damaging to most any human being's, already precariously balanced, mental health. The symptoms of popular health disorders such as bipolar disorder, anti-social disorder, and anxiety disorders are expressed prominently by Holden Caulfield throughout the entire novel.

    Read More

  • Holden's Pessimistic View of the World in The Catcher in the Rye

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he expresses this attitude through his dialogue, tone, and diction.

    Read More

  • Holden's Disillusionment In The Catcher In The Rye

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Catcher in the Rye revolves around Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the novel, and his disillusionment. Holden’s disillusionment illustrates that he has a problem accepting such. Aforesaid is based upon multiple factors, most which have brought Holden lasting traumas. A remedy is required for Holden to accept his disillusionment and enable an improvement of his situation. For Holden’s remedy, the consultation of psychologists, and additional specialized health professionals would be the core of an apt remedy for Holden’s psychological and physiological state based upon the numerous causes of such and the everlasting trauma of some of the determinants of aforesaid situation. The origins of Holden’s disillusionment revolved mainly around the death of his younger brother Allie three years ago, of which he still experiences the trauma to this day. His disillusionment is caused by both

    Read More

  • The Mental Health of Holden Caulfield

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is an example of a prosaic rich adolescent boy,with a pedestrian set of problems, but a psychoanalysis reveals that Holden has a plethora of atypical internal conflicts. Internal conflicts that other students at Pencey, such as Stradlater and Ackley, would not normally experience.

    Read More

  • Holden's Lonliness Catcher In the Rye

    600 Words  | 2 Pages

    Holden?s loneliness is apparent in more than just his lack of friends. His loneliness is made apparent by the way he misses his deceased brother, Allie. Holden makes several references to Allie and how the two used to get along and acted more like friends than brothers. Holden deeply misses his brother and even talks to him out loud to comfort himself because he still feels a void inside of him. Holden misses his brother more than others because Holden never had the final closure to his brother?s death, Holden never went to Allie?s funeral, and because Holden didn?

    Read More

  • Holden Caulfield Depression Essay

    597 Words  | 2 Pages

    The catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger is about a boy named Holden Caulfield and his struggles in one part of his life. Holden seem very normal to people around him and those he interacts with. However, Holden is showing many sighs of depression. A couple of those signs that are shown are: trouble sleeping, drinking, smoking, not eating right, and he talk about committing suicide a couple times during the book. On top of that Holden feel alienated plus the death of Holden’s brother Allie left Holden thinking he and no where to go in life.

    Read More

  • Holden Caulfield Mental Illness Essay

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the book, “The Catcher in The Rye” by J.D. Salinger, the main character is very strange in numerous ways. His name is Holden Caulfield and boy has he got something wrong with him. He rambles on and on about nonsense for the first 20-something chapters of the book. He only likes 3-4 people in the book. He smokes and drinks heavily at the ripe age of seventeen. He has been expelled out of numerous prep schools, and feels abandoned and not wanted. He has some sort of mental illness and I think I know what it is. I believe that Holden Caulfield has a mental illness known as Borderline Personality Disorder, also known as BPD. The reasoning for my thinking is that Holden’s actions match up with the symptoms of this illness and the isolation he

    Read More

  • Free Catcher in the Rye Essays: Manic-Depressive Holden

    605 Words  | 2 Pages

    Events in Holden's life lead him to become depressed. Holden's depression centers on Allie. The manner that Holden sees himself and how he sees others leads him to be expelled from school. The speaker expresses, "One thing about packing depressed me a little," (51). Holden expresses these feelings when he packs his bags after being notified that he is expelled.  Holden leaves school and heads for New York City, where he finds himself to be more lonely and depressed than ever. He is all alone and he laments, " What I really felt like doing was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out of the window," (104). Holden says this while he is all alone in his motel room. He is too ashamed of himself to return home, he knows that his mother will be upset and his father will be angry with him. He also adds that " I wasn’t feeling sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all, I almost wished I was dead," (90). Holden states this during one of the first nights that he is staying in New York.  Holden expresses many thoughts of depression.

    Read More

  • Holden Caulfield's Psychiatric Evaluation

    1187 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is the first psychiatric hospital admission for the patient, a 17 year-old male. The subject freely admitted himself to care at 13:00 hours on November 28, 1958. Mr. Holden Caulfield arrived at the hospital in the company of his parents--whose consent was necessary given Holden's legal status as a minor--and his younger sister Phoebe. His induction took place without any incident.

    Read More

  • Mental illness and Mental Disorders in Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

    2034 Words  | 5 Pages

    Holden Caulfield suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder throughout the course of the novel. In fact, the root of all his problems come from Allie’s passing; he died from leukemia. Holden used to be extremely close with him and his imminent death changed his entire life and psyche. Holden seems to relive the event of his beloved little brother Allie’s death over and over. “What is clear, however, is that many of the symptoms Holden displays in the course of the novel mirror the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The death of his younger brother, Allie was a traumatic event in Holden Caulfield’s life and is perhaps at the root of the depression he battles in the novel. The death of a sibling can trigger post-traumati...

    Read More

More about Holden Caulfield's Depression

Open Document