Holden's Depression In 'Catcher In The Rye'

Holden’s Depression

There were recurring patterns Holden unconsciously fell into that contributed to his depression and then there were events that halted these depressions. The events that contributed to his depression were that he judged people, he judged himself and he did not take care of himself. Of course there were events that halted the depression such as the act of love shown by his sister Phoebe. Love is perceived as forgiveness, peace, living in the moment and happiness. His sister is the only person in the book who shows these characteristics. As for Holden he never doesn’t experience love at all, he is always depressed and is never really happy in the book. Except when he is with his sister, he feels happy and is in the moment.
Throughout Holden’s life, he judged other people based on their appearance or what they had done in that moment when they were with him. For example, he judges Ackley because he has a pimply face and always comes inside of Holden’s room. Holden states that he is really annoying and has a poor hygiene. But he does not know anything about him. He also judges people by calling them phonies or fake people. In one incident he calls Ernie a phony “Old Ernie turned on his stool and gave this very phony humble bow. Like as if he was a helluva humble guy, besides being terrific piano. It was very phony-I mean him being such a big snob and all” (.84) Holden doesn’t even know Ernie at all and he judges him and says that he is a phony. And this causes him to be depressed because he always goes somewhere and ends up leaving because somebody is phony. The other incident would be, when he his with Sally Hayes, he starts talking to her about how there are a lot of phonies “and being introduced to phony guys that call the Lunts angels” (55) He judges people he barley even knows and he feels as though he should not stay with them because they are fake. In one part of the book, he calls the person who had made his school a phony “I can just see the big phony bastard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus to send him a few more shifts.” He doesn’t even know the guy and he just makes up things that are not true. He makes a big problem off of who is a phony or who is not a phony.

Furthermore, he not only judges other people, he judges himself too. Holden never tells his real name to the people he meets, he always tells his false name. For example, when he meets Ernest Marrows mom he tells her that his name is Rudolf Schmitt which is the
Janitors name of his dorm.
When he is with Sally Hayes, a girl who used to be his girlfriend, he starts talking to her about what he hates. Sally tells him not to shout, but he denies it. He is judging himself because he doesn’t believe that he is exadrating and shouting. Then he starts talking about other things that he hates, he keeps shouting and denying that he is shouting. Then Holden asks Sally if she wants to live in the woods with him. She says no and he states that she is making him depressed “I was getting depressed as hell again” (pg.133). But in reality he is making himself depressed by hanging on to the fact that she doesn’t want to live in the woods. When he goes to Mr. Spencer’s house, he comes in to the door and immediately starts hating on everything and getting depressed. But the only reason he went there was to feel happy and not get depressed “The minute I went in, I was sort of sorry I’d come. He was reading the Atlantic Monthly, and there were pills and medicine all over the place. And everything smelled like Vicks Nose Drops. It was pretty depressing.” (7) He makes himself feel like he does not deserve to be happy and that he needs to be depressed in order to be Holden, he cannot change himself at
all.

Holden makes himself more depressed by not taking care of himself. For example, he always says something mean to someone and they end up beating him up. When he was at the hotel, he called the bellhop a “dirty moron” (103) then the bellhop hit him in the stomach. He had described the hit as a terrific blow as if he had enjoyed it. Moreover, he doesn’t ware a winter coat when he is outside. In one part of the book, he talks about getting buried in a cemetery because he thinks he is going to die of pneumonia “I thought probably id get pneumonia and die. I started picturing millions of jerks coming to my funeral and all” (154) in the book at this point, he has lost all hope and is looking to die of pneumonia. But when he goes to his house to see his sister, he comes out of non consciousness and lives in the moment. Because of his sister, he begins to break out of the depressed mood and begins to open up to live in the moment. When he is in the bar, he pretend that he got shot “ I was the only guy at the bar with a bullet in their guts. I kept putting my hand under my jacket, on my stomach and all, to keep the blood from dripping all over the place.” (50) He is so depressed that he wishes he were dead. He doesn’t care about what has happened to his body, he never looks at himself in the mirror and say “boy! Look at me, I need to change myself”

In conclusion, Holden experiences depression throughout the book because he judges himself and others and he also has really bad health conditions. He thinks everybody is a phony and thinks that he is not capable of being in the moment. Throughout the book, he puts himself down by not feeling happy at all. He is never in the moment because he worries about people being phony or has a really bad personality without knowing them. Holden constantly holds on to the past and never let’s go. But when he is with his sister, he breaks out of non consciousness and beings to live in the now.