“We sometimes think we want to disappear but all we really want is to be found.” The Catcher In The Rye has lots of themes but one that is very obvious in the book is loneliness. The main character in the book is Holden Caulfield, a teen age rich boy, who doesn't want to grow up, has had enough of people and he gets lonely because he can't find anyone who gets him. Everyone in life has had the feeling of loneliness and depression at some point. Holden feels loneliness and depression throughout the book, especially at school and when he is alone in New York. The feeling of loneliness can make people think crazy things. Holden's loneliness starts when he is at Pencey School before he got kicked out.“I didn't answer him, all I did was, I got up and went over and looked out the window. I felt so lonesome all of a sudden, I almost wished I was dead” (48). This quote is Holden talking to himself right after him and his roommate, stradlater, got in a fight, this is the start of him feeling lonely. After Holden and Stradlater got in a fight, Holden decides he was to lonely at Pencey and he decides to leave that night for New York. “That's the thing about girls. …show more content…
When Holden is getting so lonely depression is a way it is also coming out. “I was crying and all. I don't know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome.”(153). Holden is feeling so lonely and depressed that he is drinking and getting drunk a lot. At last at the very end of the book holden goes to a rest home for his problems but we notice by the very last line he said that he isn't actually getting better.”Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do you start missing everybody.”().Holden is still thinking that you can't get close to anyone ever because it only makes you lonely. Depression and loneliness really sucks when you're
Holden experiences both alienation and disillusionment when meeting with people like Sally Hayes, Sunny and Ackley. Holden is so desperate to have human connection yet, when he starts to talk to them, he experiences them as ‘phonies’. This makes him more depressed, continuing his downward spiral. Holden is caught in a trap of his own making.
He's so used to the idea of being alone that it becomes what he wants. Holden is so petrified of losing the people he is closest to, so he decides to not be close with anyone. He is afraid of the same repercussions from Allie. He would rather keep to himself than risk contentment, rationality, and stability. He for so many days after his removal from Pencey would by himself go to bars alone and try to drink away his pain. “I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (Salinger 198). It’s during this time that Holden is falling down a dark, bottomless pit of depression and loneliness. It eventually almost became the death of him when he had isolated himself so much. He became sick, depressed, and full of anxiety. His decision to distance himself weakened him beyond his belief. “I still had that headache. It was even worse. And I think I was more depressed than I ever was in my whole life” (Salinger 252). His depression was starting to get the best of him and all he needed was to be comforted by someone other than
Russell (1978), (http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jedp/article/download/46795/25238) established the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness scale, which has been widely employed to this day, and performed a theoretical factor analysis for loneliness. His research and results attracted broad attention around the world. Loneliness can be studied by three approaches: the cognitive process approach, the human needs approach and the behavioral approach. The cognitive process approach emphasizes an individual’s mental awareness and assesses his or her social
Emotional symptoms can be harder to detect sometimes, especially ones like hopelessness, and sadness. He indicates sadness by saying, “Then I went over and laid down on Ely's bed. Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome” (48). Holden, even though he says he does not need anybody, he really wants and needs that social interaction, with people like Ackley. He views phony people and social outcasts to have no life, when in reality,
The experience of being in a state of grief is not limited by age but by experience. The symptoms of a person experiencing bereavement and grief are found throughout the book. These symptoms not only apply to Holden and his situation, but also are accepted as classic symptoms recognized by the Grief Counseling Community. The story is replete with the phrases "I felt so lonesome; I almost wish I was dead; it was so depressing; it was so quiet and lonesome out; feeling sort to lousy; made me sad; I felt miserable; felt like committing suicide; jumping out the window; sitting on an atomic bomb; blue as hell; felt like getting stinking drunk; can't sleep."
The tears shed in this scene are crucial as Holden becomes aware of the situation caused by his actions, which is a turning point in the novel as previously Holden has ignored his own well being and has not thought of the consequences of his actions. As Holden’s personal empathy grows, he also becomes au courant of what is occurring around him and how relationships have had an impact on his life; “don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start to miss everybody” (234). By the end of the novel, Holden is developing skills to understand his emotions and how to deal with them in an ordinary manner. In doing so, he learns that having great memories comes at a price. Holden ends up missing the memories and the people more than he thought he would. The emotional depth of Holden’s character has grown extravagant amounts throughout
Holden feels as if he is stuck in his 13 year old self. Although he is aging he isn’t necessarily maturing the way his classmates and other people are around him. This is due to the fact that he never received closure when Allie died. When he starts picturing his own funeral because he might get pneumonia and die, he remembers D.B. telling him about his brother's funeral. He stated, “I wasn’t there. I was still in the hospital. I had to go to the hospital and all after I hurt my hand” (Salinger 171). Since he never attended the funeral he never got to say his final goodbyes to the one person he truly loved. Holden feels as if he can’t connect with anyone else in the world like he did with Allie. If he did then he would most likely push them away, so he wouldn’t have to experience the trauma of loss again, because it greatly impacted his life the first time. The trauma Holden experienced when he was younger resulted in him not being able to form stronger relationships with people which made him more depressed and
The Catcher in the Rye focuses on Holden Caulfield’s journey to New York City after he learns that he has flunked out of the fictional Pencey Preparatory School. Caulfield, a troubled sixteen-year-old boy, is totally alienated from his environment and from society as a whole. (Telgen 120) Caulfield is not alienated by others, rather he chooses to alienate himself. He feels a desire for isolation sometimes because he cannot stand the company of others, or because he becomes disappointed with their company, and at other times because he feels a need to drive others away. (Engel 53)
Holden Caulfield conveys his melancholy, sarcasm, and seclusion greatly through his dialogue; his vocabulary constantly consists of depression and loneliness. He expresses such agony all throughout the dialogue of the book. An example of this would be when Holden quotes, “When I finally got down off the radiator and went out to the hat-check room, I was crying and all. I don’t know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (153). In this quote, Holden is expressing his confusion and unhappiness but mostly is just confused to why he is unhappy. He feels a severe amount of misery that devours him, all of which is shown greatly in all of his dialogue. He, at one point in the novel, feels like committing suicide because he cannot handle the pressure. He says that “I stayed in the bathroom for about an hour, taking a bath and all. Then I got back in bed. It took me quite a while to get to sleep- I...
Holden returns to school and goes to his bedroom in the dorm. In his room quietly reading, his neighbor Robert Ackley came in. Holden describes him as a pimply, insecure, annoying boy with a bad dental hygiene. When Holden’s roommate Stradlater who was “madly in love with himself” (27) arrived home after the football game, Ackley abruptly left. Stradlater tells him that he has a date with a friend of his, Jane Gallagher. Jane is someone that Holden really cares for and because he knows the way Stradlater is, Holden became worried for her. “It just drove me stark raving mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere in that fat-assed Ed Banky’s car”. (48) Holden became depressed and lonely, so out of the blue Holden decides to pack his things and leave for New York a few days earlier. On the train to New York, Holden meets the mother of one of his schoolmates. Not wanting to tell his whole life story, he told her his name was “Rudolf Schmidt”, the name of th...
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?
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.
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.
However, readers can infer that Holden has depression, causing him to become alienated. Also, in chapter fourteen, Holden even cries “Boy, I felt miserable. I felt so depressed, you can’t imagine (Salinger 98).” Holden uses the term, “depressed,” as an exaggeration, but he does not realize until the end of his journey that he is mentally
J.D. Salinger, in his novel The Catcher in the Rye, shows that often times when an individual faces problems in their life they will try to find a means to escape, instead of solving them. Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded from any group. He feels alienated from the rest of society, but I believe that Holden stays bitter on purpose. He keeps a cynical, sarcastic outlook on life so as to escape his true feelings. This is not uncommon for people who have trouble accepting their problems.