Depression In J. D. Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye

In the novel Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher writes about the depression of Hannah, a teenager, who faced depression until the effects took her life. Hannah is dead from the beginning of the novel, but she sends tape recordings to 13 people before she died. Each recording has a message for the listener explaining how one of them helped in the cause for her depression/death. Since each recording is in chronological order, it is clearly noticeable how Hannah’s depression increases as the novel proceeds. Similarly, in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden is suffering from depression just as Hannah was before she took her life. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main theme is depression’s occurrence in a teenager’s life.

In The Catcher in the Rye, the plot shows the occurrence of depression in Holden in different ways. A few different occasions throughout the novel showcase Holden saying rude statements directed at himself. During Holden’s stay at the hotel in New York City, Holden mutters, “The whole lobby was empty. It smelled like fifty million dead cigars. It really did. I wasn't sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all. I almost wished I was dead”(Salinger 90). Holden clearly shows signs of depression as he believes that life is not worth living any longer.

He clearly states that he is depressed pointing out that it is a real problem in his life. Along with directing rude statements at himself, Holden’s actions express his depression. Holden seems to call everyone that does not agree with him to be a “phony”. When Sally ran into her old friend, Holden gets very upset and says, “The worst part was, the jerk had one of those very phony, Ivy League voices, one of those very tired, snobby voices. He sounded just like a girl. He didn't hesitate to horn in on my date, the bastard”(Salinger 128). Holden uses crude and insulting terms to judge the people he sees, perhaps due to realizing and punishing himself for his own shortcomings. This is a sign of depression because some people who are depressed tend to lower the self-esteem of others by way of attacking them verbally. The plot of the novel shows Holden’s depression at more of an in depth level.

The figurative language written by J.D. Salinger clearly expresses Holden’s depression in different ways. Holden has a few bouts of imagination expressing his struggle of depression. When Holden was walking on the sidewalk in New York City, he says, “Every time 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. I thought I'd just go down, down, down, and nobody'd ever see me again” (Salinger 197). Holden is implying that he believes that his life is not worth living and that he is a letdown to himself and his family. Since he believes that he has letdown his family, Holden starts to feel more depressed thoughts. As well as his imagination showing his depression, Holden’s feelings seem to have more of an underlying message. After Holden gets the news of him being expelled from Pencey, he decides to go and talk to his Mr. Spencer, his old teacher. As he is crossing the street to get to Mr. Spencer’s house, he says, “I felt like I was sort of disappearing” (Salinger 5). The underlying message of this simile describes how Holden self-reflects on his life by indicating that he is fading away from the real world. This also means that Holden is slipping into a depressed attitude by feeling as if his life has no significance any longer. J.D. Salinger's usage of figurative language marks the occurrence of depression in Holden.

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, depression’s occurrence in a teenager’s life is clearly evident as Holden suffers from it in many ways.

From saying that he wants to kill himself to dissing everyone who has different beliefs than him, it is shown that he is suffering from depression. From the time the novel begins, till the novel ends, many different examples of a state of depression are apparent. In the novel Thirteen Reasons Why, Hannah was suffering from depression just like Holden does in Salinger’s novel. Depression is a part of some people’s life that can be truly menaceful and degrading as it is shown in Holden’s and Hannah’s

lives.