Depression In Catcher In The Rye

The Catcher in the rye Final Research Paper

Depression, a serious medical illness that involves the brain, it is a disorder of the brain. Depression usually starts between the ages of 15 and 30. There are a variety of causes, including genetic, environmental, psychological, and biochemical factors. Some symptoms can include sadness, change in weight, difficulty sleeping or oversleeping, energy loss, feelings of worthlessness, loss of interest or pleasure in activities you used to enjoy, and thoughts of death or suicide. Depression is a serious kind of mental illness that should be treated as soon as possible, before something undoable happens. Usually when depression reaches it climax the
only thing the person can think about is either death or suicide. In this essay I will try and explain why I strongly think that Holden Caulfield is undergoing depression.

One symptom that we can see in Holden Caulfield from the beginning of the book is difficulty sleeping.
For example, the night that he has a fight with Stradlater and that same night when he leaves Pencey he wanders the street in the middle of the night not even feeling sleepy or tired. Like how on page sixty-five when he is on the phone asking Faith Cavendish on a date she says, “By any chance do you have any idea what time it is?” then lower done on that same page she says, “Well, look Mr. Cawffle. I’m not in the habit of making an engagement in the middle of the night. I’m a working gal.” This quotation informs us that how late it is and on the next page it tells us that Holden is not even feeling sleepy or tired which is quoted on page number sixty-six, “It was still pretty early. I’m not sure what time it was, but it wasn’t too late. The one thing I hate to do is to go to bed when I’m not even tired.” This shows that even after midnight he doesn’t even feel tired or sleepy, one of the symptoms of depression. This could happen to anyone though but Holden is showing multiple other symptoms of depression throughout the
book.

Another one of his symptoms is that of loneliness.
You can easily tell that he is lonely because he is always trying to get some company no matter how bad he thinks of them. A good example would be that when he asks the guy that he asked about the ducks to come and have a drink with him. I mean if it were me, I wouldn’t even pay the guy. But in Holden’s case he would basically ask every cab driver he would meet to come and hang out with him. Later his loneliness really started to show when he accepted the offer from Maurice, the guy that ran the elevator. It was really surprising that he accepted because his character is one with a lot of innocence, but later on you find out that the real reason he accepted the offer was because of how lonely he was and because of his inability to sleep. All he wanted was someone that he could spend some time chatting with.

Another major symptom that Holden has is the thoughts of death and suicide that he is having. Not only does this prove that he has depression but it shows that it is in its final stages before it drives him crazy and makes him do something unthinkable, like commit suicide. After the fierce and painful second encounter with Maurice he just wanted to die. He started to think of how when he jumped off of the window people would look at him when he was all gory and all. These kinds of things aren’t what normal people would think
about.

I think the main cause of Holden’s depression is from environmental and psychological experiences. Even though it doesn’t have it printed on the book anywhere, it’s one of those things where you have to read between the lines and you can tell. I think Holden might’ve developed depression because of how little time he gets to spend with his parents. It might also be because the death of his beloved brother, Ackley. I think what might’ve made things worst for Holden is that instead of his parents helping him, they got a therapist because they thought that he was going crazy. If you ever let someone know they’re being treated like that they will try and make it look like they are okay, that is something patients do and it’s called patient bias.

In conclusion I strongly think that Holden Caulfield is undergoing major depression. I think so because of how his loneliness shows, how he thinks about suicide, and how he has an alcohol-drinking problem. I think the best and quickest way for him to recover would be to spend some real good quality time with his family members. This would work because since his depression is occurring because of his family issues, his family might be the ones to cure him.
"Depression." MedlinePlus. National Institutes of Health , 21st September 2011. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/depression.html>.