Depression- the Holden Case

In the novel the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield is a depressed teenager trying to find some innocence left in the world. The fact that Holden continually asks questions, such as the “duck question”, and prefers to have a conversation over sex with Sunny, shows that he is a lost boy in desperate need of some help. As we are slowly introduced to who Holden Caulfield is we look deeper and deeper into the depression symptoms that he is so often showing. Of these, Holden constantly shows how much he can not achieve the simplest of things, like sitting still. Whenever he is asked to wait he needs to do something. For example, when Holden has some time to spare before his date with Sally to see ‘the Lunts’ he decides to go for a walk in the park. Along these lines of depression, Holden also a huge lose of interest in a lot of the things he used to do. Which is why he suddenly started to fail out of school; he clearly doesn’t care anymore about school and just wants to get away from all the “phony” people, but won’t admit that he is one of them. Another sign of depression that Holden shows is the lack of sleep he gets. Unlike most teenagers, that might occasionally stay up all night, Holden really only sleeps for a few hours one night out of the three that he is in New York. For instance, when he gets to the hotel he was staying in Holden chooses to go back out for the night to the ‘Lavender Bar’, even though it was already around midnight.   Later on in Holden’s “little adventure” he goes to see Mr. Antolini, a teacher from yet another school he failed out of. While there Mr. Antolini starts to talk to Holden about school and how he should try harder. During the conversation Holden begins to narrate to himself about how tired he was, and that he wishes he could just go to sleep. However, Holden continues to do his best to not yawn and stay awake. Between the death of his brother, Allie, the fact that he had to deal with the loss...