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The catcher in the rye holden's depression
Psychological evaluation of holden caulfield
The catcher in the rye holden's depression
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Throughout the paragraph, Holden expresses signs of depression and blame shifting. For example, Holden is contemplating suicide and claims he “felt like jumping out the window” and “probably would've done it” if his body was concealed from the public (Salinger). The direct characterization helps the reader infer Holden does not value his time on Earth and has shallow reasons for not ending his life. Another trait exhibited is Holden’s tendency to project the blame onto others to handle pain. When he treading towards the bathroom, Holden begins to imagine a scene with graphic diction such as “blood trickling”, and “bandage up my guts” (Salinger). However, instead of addressing the violence of the scene being a sign of his depression getting
Holden begins his story of his grieving process when he tells of his memory of his night in the garage the same night Allie had died. This is when Holden expresses the step anger and denial. Holden tells of how he broke the windows in the garage. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddamn windows with my fist, just for the hell of it… it was very stupid I have to admit, but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie (Salinger, 39).” Holden expresses his anger through the physical force he applied to the windows, and he expresses his denial when he does not clearly state why he does it and does not fully own up to his actions that he committed that
In life there comes a time when everyone thinks that they are surrounded by phoniness. This often happens during the teen years when the person is trying to find a sense of direction. Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old teen-ager is trying to find his sense of direction in J.D. Salinger's, "The Catcher In The Rye." Holden has recently been expelled from Pency Prep for failing four out of his five classes. He decides to start his Christmas recess early and head out to New York. While in New York Holden faces new experiences, tough times and a world of "phony." Holden is surrounded by phoniness because that is the word he uses to identify everything in the world that he rejects.
A scene in which Salinger uses the character of Holden to display the theme is when he nonchalantly discusses death as an inevitability. In the book, Holden hired a prostitute from a man named Maurice. After sending the prostitute away, Maurice returns to collect an extra 5 dollars. After having a fight with Maurice over the money, Holden contemplates suicide: “I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn’t want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory” (Salinger, 117). Holden decides not to kill himself over the reason that he didn't want anyone to see his body covered in gore after his death, the power of isolation and loneliness is applied because of the non caring attitude Holden displays over his own demise, only thinking about bystanders looking at his gory corpse was enough reason to end his suicidal thoughts. Another notable time, which the theme of isolation and loneliness is displayed is one of the times he asks a random stranger out for a drink. Holden is riding a cab being driven by a man named Horowitz. He asks Horowitz out for a drink and begins conversing with him about where the ducks go after a lagoon freezes over: “‘Would you care to stop off and have a drink with me somewhere?’ I said. He didn't answer me, though. I guess he was still thinking. I
People’s shortcomings cause them to look at themselves and the environment around them, Holden does this multiple times throughout the book. “It’s a funny kind of yellowness, when you come to think of it, but it’s yellowness, all right. I’m not kidding myself,” (100). Holden doesn’t delude himself into thinking he’s perfect, which will allow him to better understand himself and his needs, but it also causes him some problems, like depression. Depression is said to ail everyone at least once at some point in their lives, Salinger makes it apparent that Holden is suffering it throughout the novel. “What I really felt like doing, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would have done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed,” (116-117). Depression and suicide are still present in today’s society, and unfortunately a part or many people’s lives, contributing to the American
First, Holden is mentally unstable because throughout the book he shown himself to be an extremely depressed and sad person on the verge of suicide. For example, "It made me so damn sad when I thought about it, their never going anywhere swanky for lunch or anything. I knew it wasn't too important but it made me sad anyway."(Pg. 114) Sadness comes so easily to Holden that something as joyful as two Nuns collecting money for a good cause that helps people depresses him. He is like a time bomb "tick" "tock" just waiting for the right situation to arise till he has a complete break down. In addition, "I thought probably I'd get pneumonia and die. I started picturing millions of jerks coming to my funeral and all."(Pg. 154) Thinking about death in general is a very hard thing to do for most people but thinking about your own death and funeral is quite bizarre. Holden lacks the emotional skill of controlling his feelings; instead he blows his emotions out of proportion and takes it to the extreme. Finally, " I'm glad the Atomic Bomb was invented. If there's another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will."(Pg.141) Holden starts to think about this horrible idea because of his natural melancholy attitude about his own life. Even to the untrained eye this is an obvious sign of mental illness.
Throughout The Catcher in the Rye Holden puts himself in situations that are very stressful. His personality type puts him in these situations. Holden has trouble-making friends because he thinks almost everyone is a phony. The pressure created from not having friends and being able to be comfortable at a school forced him out of an education, “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all...For instance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life” (Salinger 13) not only did this force him out of the school but also onto the streets. The song “Under Pressure” by Queen perfectly fits the theme that the pressure Holden created on himself forced him to the edge of sanity. In the song, one of the reoccurring lines is “puts people on the streets” (Queen) referring to pressure. This song perfectly relates to this theme.
As Holden is writing Stradlater’s composition about his brother Allie, he thinks back to the times when both he and Allie had fun together as well as the effects Allie’s death had on him. Due to his inability to express his feelings, Holden isolates himself in the garage and “[breaks] all the goddam windows with [his] fist”(44). Holden chooses to handle the pain of losing his brother by separating himself from the rest of his family and letting his emotions run loose. Although he may believe that he took the right course of action he is actually setting the foundation of a defense mechanism to keep others away. It prevents himself from having to deal with the pain of someone he cares about from leaving him again. While Stradlater is on a date with Jane Gallagher, Holden’s childhood sweetheart, Holden is unable to stop worrying about what Stradlater is doing to her. Once Stradlater returns from his date with Jane and shares some of the details, Holden’s anger continues to grow as he listens to Stradlater's remarks. As he thinks about Stradlater stealing Jane from him Holden’s anger begins to boil over pushing him to unsuccessfully “sock [Stradlater]...right smack in the toothbrush, [to] split his goddam throat open”(49). In Holden's eyes Jane is an important person, almost like Allie, and Stradlater is trying to take her away from him. Any other reasonable person would have talked out the situation and solved the problem, however, Holden is just the opposite. Rather than taking a rational approach Holden jumps to conclusions and attempts to use violence as a solution, which ends in him held to the floor. Holden is out on a date with Sally Hayes and finds himself confiding his problems to her. While Holden hysterically venting his angers out, he comes up with the idea to “drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont,” with good old Sally “tomorrow
From the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the youthful protagonist Holden Caufield, employs the word “phony” to describe the behavior of a number of characters including Mr. Spencer and Ossenburger, however it is not them who are“phony”, it is the young main character. First, Mr. Spencer, Holden’s ex- history teacher, is not described as phony, but according to the adolescent, his choice of words are. Secondly, according to our main character, Ossenburger is not the generous philanthropist he portrays himself to be, but rather a greedy undertaker. Lastly, the protagonist could quite possibly be the authentic phony. All in all, the main character’s use to describe many other characters in the book is with the single word phony, when in fact the word phony would be the most probable word to describe the lead character.
Some people feel all alone in this world, with no direction to follow but their empty loneliness. The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger, follows a sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, who despises society and calls everyone a “phony.” Holden can be seen as a delinquent who smokes tobacco, drinks alcohol, and gets expelled from a prestigious boarding school. This coming-of-age book follows the themes of isolation, innocence, and corrupted maturity which is influenced from the author's life and modernism, and is shown through the setting, symbolism, and diction.
Salinger creates this symbolic scene to show how Holden views himself as a martyr who is being destroyed by the horrors of the adult world that he does not wish to enter. He puts on a rugged and older exterior to unsuccessfully protect himself from the world’s corruption. Holden, drunk and stumbling along the street, imagines that he has been shot: “I kept putting my hand under my jacket, on my stomach and all, to keep the blood from dripping all over the place. I didn’t want anybody to know I was even wounded. I was concealing the fact that I was a wounded sonuvabitch” (Salinger 166). Holden is also severely injured in reality because of the lack of love and nurturing he has received in his life. He tries to put on a tough face to use as walls against the evil in society, but truly he just craves the sympathy and companionship of another person. He describes himself as “a wounded sonuvabitch” because he is mentally in pain. Holden tries to act strong and brave to “conceal” his agony. He portrays himself as a hero fighting the pain and continuing to walk though he has been “shot;” however, because he is
The narrative allows the reader to be exposed to Holden Caulfield’s mind to form a psychoanalytical perspective and emphasize how he goes through many experiences. An example of when Holden went through a violent outburst is when his brother, Allie passed away. “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.” (Salinger 39). This citation is meaningful and clearly shows what kind of person Holden becomes. He was very close with his brother Allie and that mentally broke him. He had a very strong and sad mental breakdown in the moment that affected his futu...
In the novel, Holden attempts to deny the feelings of his sorrow due to his brother’s death. Holden makes judgment calls on others based on his ability to connect them with Allie’s purity. Holden takes out his anger on others in the effort to deny his brother’s death. Specifically, when Holden disagrees over a girl with Stradlater, his roommate, Holden begins to throw punches and has a violent outburst: “This next part I don’t remember so hot. All I know is I got up from the bed...
He also tries to downplay the anger that he is experiencing, and does not want to admit it, shown by his use of “just for the hell of it” (Salinger, 44) which clearly is not true, but he is still not willing to admit the real reason. This event sparks an epiphany that life is cruel, which is why this inspires Holden to begin his journey to prevent other people from experiencing all of the pain that the world has made Holden
In his fight with Stradlater, Holden’s character is shown as a defender of innocence. He defends the memory of his brother through the report he writes for Stradlater. Because of Stradlater’s criticism on his brother’s death, Holden destroys the essay and says “All right, give it back to me, then,’ I said. I went over and pulled it right out of his goddamn hand. Then I tore it up.” Holden is tormented by the memory of his brother throughout the novel, and in this fight he defends his brothers memory by protecting the baseball glove. Later in this scene Holden is upset with Stradlater’s relationship with Jane. Holden explains, “If you knew Stradlater, you 'd have been worried, too. I 'd double-dated with the bastard a couple of times, and I know what I 'm talking about. He was unscrupulous.” Holden tries to defend Jane’s innocence and the reader is able to see Holden’s ethical code to protect the innocence and memory of others. In Holden’s confrontation with Maurice, Holden displays his detestation of the evil phony. “All of a sudden I started to cry. I 'd give anything if I hadn 't, but I did. 'No, you 're no crooks, ' I said. 'You 're just steeling five ' 'Shut up, ' old Maurice said and gave me a shove.” The scene between Maurice and Holden over the prostitute Sunny shows his emotions when it comes to fake people. In this scene he
In the article “Depression in Teens” it says “symptoms of depression may include [...] thoughts of suicide, suicide attempt.” Although Holden never tries to kill himself, he does have some thoughts. Wishing he was dead was one of Holden’s thoughts. After Holden was hurt badly by Maurice, an elevator man in the hotel where Holden was staying, he took a bath and got into bed. Holden than states “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed,” (Salinger 104). Holden felt really bummed out after he had been treated very harshly by Maurice. He was now not only alone, but hurt with no one to help him. Also, Holden uses the word “suicide” six times and the word “kill” 64 times in the novel (“Catcher in the Rye: Student Resource”). Holden’s choice of words tells the readers where his thoughts are. Holden’s use of words related to death conveys Holden’s suicidal thoughts, therefore, his dejection can be clearly