Teenage Depression: An Analysis of Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye
投稿類別：英文寫作
篇名：
Teenage Depression: An Analysis of Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye
作者：
陳薇涵。台南女子高級中學。高二 17 班
指導老師：
黃昭瑞老師
1
Teenage Depression: An Analysis of Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye
I.
Introduction
The Catcher in the Rye was among Time’s 100 best English –language novels
in 2005(1. Grossman, Lev, & Layaco, Richard., 2005). It is applicable with
complicated teenage issues such as confusion, alienation and rebellion. The story was
narrated by the first person, Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, and the plot was a
flashback of Holden’s memories.
The plot started from a private school in Pennsylvania, called Pencey Prep.
Holden Caulfield was expelled from the school before the upcoming Christmas break.
In order not to let his parents know it earlier than the doomed time when he was
supposed to go home, he headed for New York. During his stay in New York, he had
spent few days at an unrefined hotel where a lot of prostitutes solicit, and had visited
some of his friends; he also sneaked back home to give a glimpse of his little sister,
Phoebe.
On the day right before the beginning of Christmas break, he decided to go west
and settle his life there. Missing Phoebe since the last night he saw her, Holden rushed
to her school and told her he would never be back. Conversely, Phoebe was
determined to go with him. He took her to a zoo as a cessation of his sister’s thought.
At the end of the story, Holden was at a mental hospital , reminiscing about this
memory.
Teenage Depression is a disorder caused by both mental and physical factors. It
usually starts between the ages of 15 and 30, especially among students. Some of the
features are noticeable: excessive sleeping, solitude, confusion, rebellion, apathy,
inferiority complex, alienation and mercurial emotion.
The purpose of this analysis is to delve into the field of teenage depression,
including its typical features, various factors and how teenage depression affects
teenager’s life through looking at plots mentioned in the book.
However, due to the limited information about teenage depression available and
lack of specific detection for teenage depression, this thesis narrows down on simply
analyzing noticeable symptoms of Holden Caulfield. Therefore, it may not be able to
cover all the symptoms of teenage depression.
2
Teenage Depression: An Analysis of Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye
II. Thesis
A. Family factors
1. Parenting
I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed
and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don’t blame them. I
really don’t. I slept in the garage that night he died, and broke all the
goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all
the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was
broken and everything by that time, and so I couldn’t do it. It was a very
stupid thing to do, l admit, but I hardly even knew I was doing it, and you
didn’t know Allie. (2. Salinger, J.D., 1951)
Grief had occupied Holden the day his sibling, Allie, died. Holden thought
him as the most intelligent and the nicest guy in the world; he idolized Allie,
while he considered himself always the dumbest one; however, his parents had
never discussed about Allie’s death openly, which compounds Holden’s grief,
due to the lack of a way for him to let out his emotions. One the other hand, the
reason why Holden considered that his siblings’ behaviors usually upstaged his is
that his parents seldom contribute positive comments on Holden’s behaviors. He
did not receive comforts or any encouraging words from his parents, compared
with his other siblings.
The family is undeniably associated with shaping children’s understanding
and the expressions of emotions. On one hand, understanding emotions is an
ability for children to understand their emotions or others’ emotions. On the
other hand, expressions of emotions refer to children’s ability to effectively
convey their emotions in an appropriate manner. Parents who show positive
responses to their children’s behaviors intends to lead a better ability of
children’s emotion understanding and expressions of emotions than those who
don’t. Parental acceptance of children’s emotions has also been linked to their
emotional functioning, which brings out the fact that parents’ emotional reactions
and patterns are similar to children’s. In addition, growing up in a friendly
emotionally expressive environment prevents teenagers from emotional
problems.
3
Teenage Depression: An Analysis of Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye
Children become more independent from family during adolescence,
turning to friends for supports, yet family members still remain supportive,
which means the role of parents is supposed to shift from a teacher to a
consultant. Conversely, neglect of children’s expression of emotions and
negative comments on their behaviors might draw on inferiority complex since
children might label themselves as useless and not perfect enough for praise; as a
result, they often act defiantly in order to attract their parents’ attention.
2. Comparison between siblings
D.B. is my brother. He just got a Jaguar. One of those little English
jobs than can do around two hundred miles an hour. It cost him damn near
four thousand bucks. He’s got a lot of dough. He wrote this terrific book of
short stories, The Secret Goldfish. It is about this little kid that would not let
anybody look at his goldfish because he had bought it with his own money.
It killed me. Now he is out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute.(2. Salinger,
J.D., 1951)
Through the subjective description of Holden’s brother written by Holden,
the excerpt incited above can be referred to Holden’s jealousy of his brother, who
turns out very successful in Hollywood and is able to afford an extravagant car
by his earning; while Holden, flunked four subjects and got expelled from his
current school. Comparison between siblings makes children feel less important
in the family and they often become afraid to express their feelings to their
parents or siblings since they reckon themselves as not perfect enough to arouse
other’s attention and that they are supposed to be neglected. It also leads into
incomplete development of children’s ability to express their thoughts clearly
since they are aware of being mocked at due to their lackluster demeanor
compared with their siblings.
B. School factors
1. Stress from study load
I forgot to tell you about that. Pency kicked me out. I was not
supposed to come back after Christmas vacation, on account of I was
flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all. Pency gave guys the
ax quite frequently. It has a very good academic rating, Pencey. It really
4
Teenage Depression: An Analysis of Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye
does. (2. Salinger, J.D., 1951)
Holden had attended few schools before got expelled from Pencey Prep.
Why he hated school so much is the efficiency of studying. He didn’t practically
hate all the subject, that is, he passed English while failing all the other subjects.
More than that, he sometimes claimed that he likes reading historical novels.
However, all the teachers he had encountered all said that studying is the priority
for a student, while Holden himself valued studying as useless.
There are many incipient stressors from school, but mainly in high school,
such as fulfilling graduation requirements, striving for college acceptance exams
and coping with college applications. Those stressors mentioned above are
believed to manifest symptoms of depression. Some optimistic students will take
failure as a power to push themselves forward, while pessimistic students might
reproach themselves. Once students fail to achieve their parents’ or themselves’
expectations, they might develop self-criticism and inferiority complex. On the
other hand, self-evaluation is also related to academic performance. Evidence has
shown that self-evaluation can not be easily separated from expectations of
evaluations from others.(3. Santor, D., & Walker, J., 1999). Individuals who
received supportive relationship are less upset by the failure than those who are
primed with depressive responses of blaming themselves for the failure.
Over- emphasizing on academic performances might generate worries and
anxiety in teenagers. Anxiety disorders are prevalent in depressed teenagers,
especially when he or she is a perfectionist. Substance abuse is usually a result
stemmed from anxiety disorder, serving as self-treatment. Other than that,
self-criticism, which tends to have lower self-esteem, and self-focused, which
prone to have a low threshold for frustration might exist in a depressed teenager.
2. Bullying
There was old James Castle laying there right on the stone steps and
all. He was dead, and his teeth, and blood, were all over the place, and
nobody would even go near him.(2. Salinger, J.D., 1951)
This excerpt will be looking at the loss of one of Holden’s friends named
James Castle. He was continually harassed and bullied in school, while nobody
was willing to give him a hand, consequently, he ended his life on his own.
5
Teenage Depression: An Analysis of Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye
Though Holden did not describe how sad he was while knowing his friend had
been dead, but it can tell he was struggling to stay brave.
Bullying consists of the victims and the bullies. Usually those who are less
popular in school and do not fit to the gender norms are more likely to be bullied.
Often, victims will develop anti-social behaviors like dropping school, smoking,
or addiction to alcohol as comfort. Apart from that, persistent bullying might
eventually lead to depression, mostly hopelessness and isolation. What’s worst,
some people who had suffered bullying in their childhood might even be
negatively emotionally traumatized in even adulthood.
Conversely, the bullies are impulsive and easily frustrated. Due to the
excitement of bullying others, they might call up more and more fellows to bully
other social outcast. Conduct disorder and behavior problems are common
features of the bullies. Conduct disorder is a pattern of seriously violating the
rights of others. Teenagers with conduct disorder often wage a fight to harm
people because of their misdeeds, while having little concern for their own
misbehavior. The more depressed a teenager is, more likely it is to manifest in
conduct disorder.
C. Peer Factors
1. Interpersonal relationship
“How’s your sex life?” I asked Old Luce. He hated you to ask him
stuff like that.”Relax,” he said. “Just sit back and relax, for
Chrissake.””How’s Columbia ? Ya like it?” “Certainly.” “No kidding, how’s
your sex life? You still going around with that same babe you used to at
Whooton? ” I asked him. “Oh, God! Is this going to be typical Caulfield
conversation? ” (2. Salinger, J.D., 1951)
The excerpt mentioned above would be looking at how Holden manage to
get along with his friends. Obviously, he always irates others with some personal
questions, and he apparently does not know that he has trespassed the crossing
line. Occasionally Holden would think bringing up old topics would be the best
way to excite other’s interest in the conversation with him, however, doing so
only makes himself look shallow.
6
Teenage Depression: An Analysis of Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye
For teenagers, the importance of friendship is can never be neglected.
Research reveals that decent friendship is the key to protect teenagers from
depression; also, they are expected to get along with their parents. Teenagers
infer a sense of belonging and acceptance from peers; hence, intimate friends
surpass parents as the prior source of social support during adolescence(4.
Machoian, Lisa., 2005).
Peer relations can be divided into two dimensions: rejection and
acceptance.(5. Allen, Nicholas B., & Sheeber, Lisa B., 2008). Acceptance refers
to the individual is liked by the peer while rejection shows the opposite.
Apparently, peer-rejected teenagers are more likely to be at stake for depressive
symptoms; as a result, rejected teenagers report lower self-esteem and lower
support from peers. They might also have experienced peer victimization at
school, which is associated with feeling of loneliness and low self-worth. For
example, rumor spreading and social exclusion, both of which may lead to
increases in depression as well.
2. Sexual orientation
The first thing when I got in the elevator, the elevator guy said to me,
“Inarested in having a good time, fella?” “How do you mean?” I said.
“Innarested in a little tail t’night?” “Okay.” I said. “Okay, I’ll send a girl up
in about fifteen minutes.” When I opened the door, this prostitute was
standing there. “Come in, won’t you?” I said. She was a lousy
conversationalist. “Look,” I said. “I don’t feel very much like myself tonight.
I’ve had a rough night. Honest to God. I’ll pay you and all, but do you mind
very much if we don’t do it? ” (2. Salinger, J.D., 1951)
Holden firstly called a prostitute and then gave up immediately, according
to the book, the girl was good-looking enough for him, but he somehow got
depressed while the real chance for him to experience what he had imagined for
a long time accosted him. The author did not depict Holden as gay, it was open
for readers to discuss whether he is heterosexual or not. On the other hand, he
probably did not figure out what kind of person he loved since he was lost
towards his life.
Sexual orientation refers to a person’s sense of identity concerning sexual
attractions toward men, women, or both. It is usually categorized into three
7
Teenage Depression: An Analysis of Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye
different terms: heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual. Often, except for
heterosexual people, the other two groups of people have suffered prejudice and
discrimination not only in school, but also in the society. However, the public
generally regards heterosexual as the most acceptable orientation, which means
discrimination against homosexuals and bisexuals in school might be worse than
in society owning to their immaturity.
Sexual orientation discrimination primarily covers homophobic violence ,
including both physical harassment and verbal harassment, yet some people have
reported to feel threatened by heterosexism, a belief stating that other sexual
orientations than heterosexual are unacceptable. As a result, homosexual and
bisexual people have constantly been taunted, feeling the fear of marginalized or
feeling ashamed of themselves, which would aggravate mental disorders such as
self-harm and substance abuse.
III. Conclusion
Through the symptoms mentioned above, teenage depression can be concluded
into “a mental yet curable disorder prevalent to see in teenagers”. Apart from genetic
heredity factors which induce depression potentially, other superior factors might
cause the perpetual depression, if we don’t deal with it properly. Most depression
stems from inner pressure caused by comparing ourselves with others, envying others,
and lacking confidence. That is, mostly depression was invoked by ourselves.
It is unfortunate that Holden ended up with staying in a mental hospital; most of
the time, mental hospital has to do with mental disorders. To add on, noticeable
symptoms has shown on Holden, such as apathy, inferiority complex, rebellion, and
the sudden swifts of emotions, as a result, this thesis tends to believe that Holden had
had the depression since the day Allie died.
Given that life is constituted on consecutive events which push people to go
further or to be crashed down by unbearable stress, it basically depends on us whether
to feel jaunty or to stay upset. Though there are various treatments on hand, they are
not likely to work effectively and efficiently. The aspects of an event usually have
two different sides, while pessimists are believed to look on the dark side of an event,
which leads them to be exposed to higher odds of suffering from depression.
Looking at Holden’s case, the thought that every teenager might feel lost and
8
Teenage Depression: An Analysis of Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye
suffer inferior complex struck me. As a teenager nowadays, I do believe there is
umpteen pressure loaded both physically and mentally, and sometimes people would
think of themselves as useless, simply because they didn’t perform in accordance with
their own expectations; however, without pressure acting as catalyst to motivate us,
our potential can’t be unraveled thoroughly.
IV. Reference
(1) Grossman, Lev, & Layaco, Richard. (Eds.). (2005). All-time 100 novels: The
Complete List. Time.
(2) Salinger, J.D., (1951). The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown and Company: NY.
(3) Santor, D., & Walker, J. (Eds.). (1999). Garnering the interests of others:
Mediating the effects among physical attractiveness, self-worth, and dominance.
British Journal of Social Psychology.
(4) Machoian, Lisa. (2005). The disappearing girl. Duton.
(5) Allen, Nicholas B., & Sheeber, Lisa B. (Eds.). (2008). Adolescent emotional
development and the emergence of depressive disorders. Cambridge University
Press.
9