Causes Of Depression In Catcher In The Rye
Depression, the feeling of severe despondency and dejection. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher In the Rye, is a 16 year old who suffered the loss of his younger brother to cancer. The death of his brother had a profound, and overwhelming, effect on Holden’s mental and emotional state throughout the entire book. It can be said that Holden may very well be suffering from depression. As the story unfolds, the reader begins to understand the root of Holden’s struggles. Although some readers think that Holden has a unique personality, his actions show that he may have a mental illness because he uses drinking to distance himself from reality and he always focuses on the negatives in life.
Holden is often found drinking to an …show more content…
This is most evident when Holden is visiting his old school to drop off a note to his sister and sees a “Fuck You” scratched into the wall. Holden goes from being very nostalgic, briefly reminiscing to himself about the good times he once had at his school to becoming angry instantly saying “I kept wanting to kill whoever’d written it”. This relates to the article Rashness and Rumination: New Understanding About the Roots of Depression. It claims that people who have depressive rumination, are constantly thinking about what went wrong and what will go wrong, and have an inability to find a solution to a problem, and have a higher chance of becoming depressed. Holden shows that he has depressive rumination by constantly verbalizing his sadness and depression to the reader when he uses negative phrases to describe his feelings about life in general. Holden also shows signs of depressive rumination when running away from Pency when he finds out that he was expelled instead of facing his parents and dealing with the consequences. Afterwards, Holden also shows he has an inability to find a solution to this problems by talking to Sally Hayes about running away from his problems. These examples of constant negativity and poor problem solving show that Holden is, or has an increased chance of, becoming
Holden is often found drinking to an …show more content…
This is most evident when Holden is visiting his old school to drop off a note to his sister and sees a “Fuck You” scratched into the wall. Holden goes from being very nostalgic, briefly reminiscing to himself about the good times he once had at his school to becoming angry instantly saying “I kept wanting to kill whoever’d written it”. This relates to the article Rashness and Rumination: New Understanding About the Roots of Depression. It claims that people who have depressive rumination, are constantly thinking about what went wrong and what will go wrong, and have an inability to find a solution to a problem, and have a higher chance of becoming depressed. Holden shows that he has depressive rumination by constantly verbalizing his sadness and depression to the reader when he uses negative phrases to describe his feelings about life in general. Holden also shows signs of depressive rumination when running away from Pency when he finds out that he was expelled instead of facing his parents and dealing with the consequences. Afterwards, Holden also shows he has an inability to find a solution to this problems by talking to Sally Hayes about running away from his problems. These examples of constant negativity and poor problem solving show that Holden is, or has an increased chance of, becoming