When Holden Gets Attached To Someone

Throughout the novel, Holden rarely gets attached to anyone. This can be the result of two reason, the first being that he has a hard time trusting people and the second reason being that he is afraid to get attached to someone since he knows from experience that losing someone you were once very close to causes deep pain and sorrow. Toward the being of the novel, Holden mentions that, “People never notice anything” (Salinger 9). In order to be able to trust somebody, the individual must first know that the other person knows them and knows when something is different or out of place. Since Holden says that people never notice anything, it tells the reader that he is not close to anyone since he has no one close enough to him to be able to

tell the difference in his behavior from time to time. When Holden does tell the truth, he states that, “People never believe you” (Salinger 37). Since Holden seems to have no one believe him, he has a hard time believing others. In The Huffington Post, the author, Naphtali Hoff mentions in his article, “The Importance of building trust,” that “Trust is a feeling of security that you have, based on the belief that someone or something is knowledgeable, reliable, good, honest, and effective” (Hoff). When using Hoff’s definition of trust, the reader can say that Holden has a hard time trusting others since throughout the novel Holden keeps on mentioning how almost everyone around him is a ‘phony’ and a ‘fake,’ thus having no one who is trustworthy. When talking about the reasons why he left Elkton Hills, Holden says that, “One of the biggest reasons [he] left Elkton Hills was because [he] was surrounded by phonies” (Salinger 13). Having lost someone that was very close to him, Holden experienced the feeling of loss at an early age, which has made him more alert when it comes to letting himself grow attached to other individuals that he knows he might one day also lose. Since the loss of his brother, Allie, affected him greatly, he seems to have metaphorical put up walls that keep anyone else from getting emotionally too close to him. At the end of the novel, Holden says “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (Salinger 214). Although Holden didn't want to get too emotionally attached to anybody, he ended up getting attached to everyone that he ever spoke to, even those he wasn't very fond of. Therefore even though his outward and conscious state show signs of not wanting to get close to anybody, he was in a way always unconsciously getting attached to everybody he ever met and spoke to.
Holden shows signs of depression throughout the novel.

While at his parent’s house Holden says that he, “Got up and went into the living room and got some cigarettes out of the box on the table and stuck some in [his] pocket. [He] was all out” (Salinger 166). One of Holden's most noticeable habits is that he is constantly smoking, which can be seen as a way to quell his anxiety and depression. Suzanne Gerber states that, “People who feel lonely and depressed and unhappy and isolated are more prone to smoke and overeat drink too much,... such behaviors help them just get through the day” (Gerber). Knowing this, one can say that Holden suffers through deep depression. While at a bar he says that, “[He] sat at the bar till around one o'clock or so, getting drunk as a bastard. [He] could hardly see straight” (Salinger 150). Smoking and drinking are the most easily seen habits in Holden that can be linked to depression. According to flowpsychology.com, people who constantly smoke and drink do so because they have become fixated in the oral stage of Freud's psychosexual stages of development that take place between the ages of 0-18 months in a child’s life. This fixation, according to Freud, “Is developed because of [a] traumatic experience a person had during childhood” (flowpsychology.com). When given this information, the readers can conclude that Holden’s ‘poor’ childhood, which consisted of his brother’s death and his parent’s lack of attention towards him during their time

of mourning, is the cause for his depression. Holden would constantly say throughout the novel that, “[He] felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. [And would] almost wish [he] was dead” (Salinger 48). Since he never was close to his parents or anybody else, he constantly feels lonesome and depressed since he believes that he has no one by his side. According to Gerber, “Many people believe they’re the only lonely or depressed ones because it looks like everyone else has it all together. If [they] don’t have anybody to talk to about these issues, it may seem that way” (Gerber). With this in mind, the reader can conclude that since Holden didn't have anyone that he trusted enough to talk to, he believed that he was lonely, thus cause him to go through depression.
Holden’s mostly noticeable character trait is that he doesn't like the concept of growing up since he relates it to losing one’s innocence.

On the other hand he sometimes lies about his age by telling others that he is older than he appears while at the same time he acts younger than he actually is. He doesn't like seeing children grow up too fast since he doesn't want them to ‘lose’ their innocence at an early age. In the novel, when his sister asks him what he wants to do as a career, he says, “[He] keeps picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big,...except [him]. And [he’s] standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What [he has] to do, [he’ll] have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff...if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going [he’ll] have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all [he’ll] do all day. [He’ll] just be the catcher in the rye and all” (Salinger 173). He wants to somehow be able to prevent as many kids as possible, from growing up and losing their innocence. He wants to do this partly because he wants children to stay innocent children since he himself experienced the dark reality of death as a child and wants to keep the dark realities away from the children as long as possible. While reading one of his little sister’s notebooks, he says that, “Kid’s notebooks kills [him]” (Salinger 161). Mostly because he is able to

read all the innocent thoughts that run through their little minds. According to Robert Firestone, author of, “Why People Fear Growing Up and Functioning as Adults,” some, “Individuals are restricted in their ability to function in an adult mode because of ‘unresolved childhood trauma and the defenses they form to relieve emotional pain and existential dread’” (Firestone). This can most likely explain Holden’s contracting thoughts and behaviors on growing up. Holden mentions how he’s, “Seventeen now, and sometimes acts like [he’s] about thirteen...And yet [he’ll] still act sometimes like [he’s] only about twelve” (Salinger 9). Holden sometimes acts too immature or too young for his age, maybe even unconsciously trying to get back the years of his childhood that he ‘skipped’ due to his brother’s death that forcibly made him ‘grow up’ by showing him the dark reality of life. The fantasies he sometimes has allows him escape the troubling reality of growing up. While talking to an old classmate he begins to tell her that they should move away together, get married, and start a life (Salinger 132). This fantasy helps him shield from the reality that in real life he can’t do something like that because he is only sixteen. When he is at bars though, he always tries to get away with being seen as a person who is older than twenty-one in order to be able to buy drinks, which is the sometimes the only reason he ever says that he is not a child or a teen but an adult.
By using a psychoanalytical lens, the reader is able to get a better understanding of the psychological and social forces expressed in Holden’s behavior. Most of his behaviors and ways of thinking come from experiencing the death of his brother alone since his parents never seemed to be there for him. Due to this, Holden has a difficult time trusting people, seeing people grow up and getting too emotionally attached to anybody, as well as experiencing depression at an early age.