Depression In J. D Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye

“Depression causes feelings of sadness and loss of interest in activities. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person's ability to function at work and home.(American Psychiatric Association)” In the book, The Catcher in The Rye By J.D Salinger uses the theme of depression to express the idea that one of the main characters Holden Caulfield faces is depression, and that depression is not an enjoyable valuable or subject for a book.
In the Book Holden Caulfield has been kicked out of many schools because he does not apply himself to his academics. Holden wants to make a connection with his school Pencey Prep but he assumes that if he starts liking it then he will be let down and get depressed. He would …show more content…
At the hotel, he talks to an elevator operator and accidentally got talked into having a prostitute go up and into his hotel room. “I took her dress over to the closet and hung it up for her. It was funny. It made me feel sort of sad when I hung it up. I thought of her going to a store and buying it, and nobody in the store knowing she was a prostitute and all. The salesman probably just thought she was a regular girl when she bought it. It made me feel sad as hell—I don't know why, exactly.?”(Salinger 96) Holden is upset that Sunny is a prostitute and that she was just a normal person around his age. Holden paid her but did not do anything because he thought he was saving her. After Sunny is gone his depression gets a little bit worse because then he starts talking to his dead younger brother Allie. “After old Sunny was gone, I sat in the chair for a while and smoked a couple of cigarettes. It was getting daylight outside. Boy, I felt miserable. I felt so depressed, you can't imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed. I keep telling him to go home and get his bike and meet me in front of Bobby Fallon's house. Bobby Fallon used to live quite near us in Maine. We thought we could shoot something without BB guns. Anyway, Allie heard us talking about it, and he wanted to go, and I wouldn't let him. I told …show more content…
While he's there his sister figures out that he got kicked out of another school and gets mad at him. “"You don't like anything that's happening." It made me even more depressed when she said that. "Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Sure I do. Don't say that. Why the hell do you say that?" "Because you don't. You don't like any schools. You don't like a million things. You don't." "I do! That's where you're wrong—that's exactly where you're wrong! Why the hell do you have to say that?" I said. Boy, she was depressing me.” Some of what Phoebe says is true but the one person Holden actually cares about is his sister. When Phoebe points it out it just makes him feel on edge and depressed because the one person he cares about is saying mean stuff. Eventually, his parents come home and Holden doesn't want them knowing he's home yet but he's run out of money. “"Wait for a second—take the rest of your dough, too." I started giving her the rest of the dough she'd lent me." "You keep it. Keep it for me," she said. Then she said right afterward—"Please."That's depressing when somebody says "please" to you. I mean if it's Phoebe or somebody. That depressed the hell out of me. But I put the dough back in my pocket.” Holden likes to get and do stuff for Phoebe but when she offers it back to him he feels depressed about it because he's used to helping her out. This shows that in Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger that