Catcher In The Rye Depression

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Depression in younger people has traveled on an uphill curve for the past few generations. Children are experiencing mind-blowing thoughts of the inevitable black that is death and are being forced to deal with their depressive thoughts on their own because they do not know how to handle them In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield is a teenager who is retelling how he was expelled from another school and how he is struggling with his depression and the phonies he is surrounded with on a daily basis.
In a few weeks, I will have graduated high school. I will start my journey into college and work full-time at McDonald’s, all while completing online courses for State Fair Community College. In my high school experience, I …show more content…

He may have trouble understanding the material or he may just not care for his education or the education system. Furthermore, failing at something generally does not give one a positive feeling. Holden could end up depressed because of this failure. In Catcher in the Rye, that is exactly the case. Holden is a depressed teenager trying to navigate the real world all while holding his emotions above his head away from everyone else’s eyes. Holden does not care much for his surroundings and the opportunities he is given in school. According to ‘Depression Among Adolescents:’ by SAMHSA’s NSDUH, “An estimated 12.3 percent of adolescents ages 16 or 17 suffer [from] MDE” or a major depressive episode (Brown). Teenagers are more susceptible to depressive thoughts when they are forced to think fast about their future or any other life-changing option. As Holden is packing to leave Elkton he said that “packing depressed me a little” (Salinger 51). One thing after another will depress Holden even more until he breaks. Like Holden, I have had many MDEs. I have been in the position that I had to make a major decision and did not know what my options were because they were supposed to be my options. I am also bipolar. I have many bipolar episodes that could be called MDEs. Unfortunately, I am in Holden’s situation. I am faced with having to leave one school and enter another. Holden is doing so in high school but I am furthering my education by going to college. When Holden goes to this next school, he fill have to face his next frustration:

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