Holden Caulfield's Depression

Depression is a common feeling where emotions reflect unto ones personality, creating anger or sadness causing the person to isolate themselves from others. In J.D Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist Holden Caulfield struggles with his life. Ultimately, the character of Holden is depressed. His depression is seen in his inability to move on from his brother’s death, his constant rejection of change and growth, and his failure to commit.
Holden unable to move on from his brother’s death, it reflects upon his actions and the way he handles situations. Holden’s brother Allie died of leukaemia three years before the beginning of the novel, the date being July 18, 1946. At the time, Allie was eleven years old and Holden was

thirteen years old. Allie was a brilliant, friendly, red headed boy. According to Holden, Allie was the smartest in the Caulfield family. Holden was traumatized by Allie’s death and on the night of his death, Holden broke all the windows in his garage, causing him to be hospitalized. It is easy to tell how strong Holden’s love for his brother was. Holden’s parents did not allow him to grieve and they believed that he needed some time alone, so they sent him away to a couple of schools far away from home. In reality, Holden needed his family around him in his time of need and he hated being alone. Holden constantly keeps his brother close to him, even after his death. He carries Allie’s baseball glove and a red hunting hat around with him, both of which have a symbolic meaning. Allie’s glove is important because he used to write meaningful poems on it in green ink, portraying his feelings. The red-hunting hat is symbolic because it is the same colour as Allie’s hair. The glove and the hunting hat also symbolize Holden’s inability to move on from Allie’s death, causing depression.
Holden constantly rejects growing up and changing who he is. His rejection of growing up obviously makes him immature. This immaturity shows when he is with girls. Girls play an important role in Holden’s life, a specific example would be when he takes Sally on a date. He believes that every girl is superficial and only cares about social status. On Holden and Sally’s date, Holden gets angry when Sally goes over to talk to a guy that she knew and he assumes that she approaches him because of his status. Holden truly believes that sex and love relate to each other judging from when he says "You don't always have to get too sexy to get to know a girl" (76). He feels that it is necessary to build up a healthy relationship before having sex, which is unusual for a teenage boy because they would rather just sleep with the prostitute, pay them, and let them go. This shows when Holden gets into a fight with Stradlater because he is the type that dates a girl only to have sex with her and Holden gets worried because Stradlater is going on a date with his friend Jane, who Holden is obsessed with but she never. The thing about Holden’s inability to grow up is that he always thinks about the past and will never let go of it. The museum is one of Holden’s favourite places because fact that it never changes, and that it still has the same artwork from when he was a child. When reflecting on Allie’s death, that Holden realizes that Allie is gone and that death is real. “I know he’s dead! Don’t you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can’t I? Just because somebody’s dead, you don’t just stop liking them, for God’s sake.” (171) Perhaps Holden would not like to grow up because of his constant fear of death and his idea of adults being phony.
Holden constantly fails himself and has commitment issues.

Holden assumes that he would get kicked out of Pencey Preparatory School, and before that could happen, he decided to leave the school. He had been kicked out of two schools before attending Pencey Prep. One can only assume that the reasons why he had been kicked out of the schools had been the same, due to the fact that he is very fond of his childhood and is immature. Primarily, Holden tells the reader that he is failing four classes, this could be one possibility. Another possibility could be the fact that he gets into many verbal and physical fights with others, simply because he does not get along with people in general. Holden has many chances at having a true friendship with people his age, but he usually speaks highly young children and believes they are smarter than adults, like his sister, Phoebe. It is easy to tell when he says, “You should see her. You never saw a little kid so pretty and smart in your whole life... I mean she's had all A's ever since she started school...You'd like her. I mean if you tell old Phoebe something, she knows exactly what the hell you're talking about.” (Put page number) When it comes to people his age, Holden tends to feel lonely because he thinks they are phony. His definition of phony is when someone does not fit into his perception of normal, which is usually when people show off, he believes it is unnatural to not act like themselves. Holden’s loneliness can be compared to the event at the beginning of the novel when the Pencey Prep students were watching the football game from the stands and he was watching it from Thomsen Hill, separating himself from everyone. Holden has tries to be friends with Ackley and Stradlater. Holden tries to get Stradlater to like him by complementing him by calling him a “very sexy bastard” (32) or a “handsome, charming bastard” (34), doing his homework, and letting him borrow his hound’s tooth jacket to wear on his date with Jane.

After being nice to Stradlater, he would not tell Holden about his date with Jane. As a result of this, Holden gets into a fist fight with Stradlater, at this time he goes to his acquaintance Ackley for comfort. Holden tries to sleep in Ackley’s roommate’s bed for the night, but Ackley refuses to give Holden permission to sleep there. At this time, it is easy to see that Holden’s friends do not actually care for him, which renders him to feel like he has been rejected and hated. “You'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.” (189) However, judging by this quote, I see to it that there are only two people in Holden’s life who truly understands him, Mr Antolini and Phoebe.