Journal 9:
“The Patterns of Your Mind”
When Holden goes to see Carl Luce, Carl claims that his father is a psychoanalyst who taught him to recognize Holden's mind patterns. When you recognize the patterns of the mind you can sometimes find out what you want to do in life. Holden does not think like other people, he is very unique, the patterns in his mind were always hard to understand. Holden was lonely throughout the novel because he never let anyone close after Allie’s death. This affected him because he was not able to get the help he needed. This led him to struggle through the his life eventually leading to a pattern of failure - failing and being expelled from all the schools he attended. Holden's emotional imbalance stem from his inability
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Depression is a condition when you feel sad, unimportant, and helpless in life. Depression can lead to self-harm because people that are depressed feel that it releases the emotions and emotional pain. People that are depressed usually do not talk unless they have to and they feel as if they are hopeless. Depression can always be treated. The most popular way to treat depression is to go to a therapist. Therapist usually help the person express their feelings and let go of their guilt and hopelessness that they feel. Depression can lead to suicide and the longer you wait to get treated the worse it will get and the more your life is in danger. Some people that have the disorder do not show it. They hide it when they are around people, but when alone they self harm. People that are depressed usually are depressed because of a death, or life issue that they are going through. This relates to the novel because Holden is depressed. Throughout the book Holden's depression gets worse. He shows lack of responsibility throughout the book showing that he feels unwanted. He frequently blames himself for Allie's death, and this makes him think that he had to save other people's innocence instead of his own. Towards the end of the book Holden realizes that he is depressed and he knows that he needs help so he seeks it from his friend Carl Luce. Depression is a terrible disorder but the sooner you come …show more content…
Holden feels this way when he got kicked out of Pencey he felt isolated and alone, and felt like he had no one to turn to talk to for help and advice. He feels that everyone he knows doesn't care about what he does and where he goes, he feels as if he is irrelevant. For example Holden says “After I got across the road, I felt like I was sort of disappearing” and “It was that kind of a crazy afternoon , terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road”(p 5). This shows that throughout the book Holden felt like he was disappearing and he did not know how to not feel another way. Another example occurred when Holden said, “Allie, don’t let me disappear”(p198) that showing that Holden does not want to disappear, but just wants his parents to notice him. He wants to to be helped with his problems. Everyone feels like their disappearing sometimes. For example, when I am done with my homework and I have nothing to do I go into my sister’s room where she is often facetiming her friends and doesn't respond when I try to speak with her, just tells me to get out. When this happens I feel like I am disappearing and am unwanted. Holdens situation is a lot worse then mine but it is a feeling that I have shared with Holden. Another time I’ve ever felt like I was disappearing was falling off my bed in my sleep. As I was falling and waking
Holden's constantly telling that he is different from everyone else, who he defines as "phonies", wearing his hunting cap to make him standout in society, and inability to make a social contact with a Jane Gallagher, who he constantly brings up, are just a few lucid examples of his self-alienation of society. Holden feels and uses this alienation to protect himself from the harshness of society is this constant defense mechanism eventually leads to his
The death of Holden’s brother Allie at a young age adds to Holden’s negativity as well as stopping Holden from accepting inevitable change. Allie dies immaturely of leukemia. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it” (p. 39). Holden is in the hospital because he broke his fist, and he was unable to attend Allie’s funeral. Holden has trouble accepting Allie’s death because he never said goodbye to Allie. His relationship with Allie is similar to his maturity. Just as Holden is unable to accept his brother’s death, Holden is not able to accept that
Throughout the novel, Holden attempts to find the true from of himself as he struggles with the social interactions around him. Due to the struggle and confusion that arouses from it,
Holden’s deep depression arose from Allie’s death, and at Holden’s lowest moments, he starts to think about Allie. His depression started when Holden “broke all the goddamn windows with [his] fist” (39). Holden is unable to properly grieve for his brother leaving him in bitter depression with the lingering memories of Allie to bring him comfort. At the park, Holden’s contemplation on his own death leads him back to thoughts about Allie at the cemetery. Holden recalls the feeling of guilt he felt when he had to leave Allie at the cemetery so eventually he stopped going. Allie brings Holden back to reality at the park making him go see Phoebe and eventually Allie’s death reminds Holden of why he can’t leave Phoebe. The pain Holden constantly feels because of Allie’s death drags him deeper into depression, but also gives him some comfort in his toughest times. Holden’s contrast of emotions about Allie portrays his inability to stop thinking about Allie and to accept that Allie is gone.
Holden reveals to the reader that he, “almost wished he was dead” how is the plight of his mental health shown?
You begin to feel lost and lonely like no one can hear or understand what you're going through. Depression cause you to act out in ways that you shouldn't such as thinking about depression. It leads you in that direction but i've seen through this book that suicide is not an escape. “Dying for a cause does not make you noble, living for one does.” That quote really hit me hard because as a teen myself we do not tend to think these things though. If Holden were to kill himself all i can think of is how hurt Phoebe would be by not only losing one brother but now two. Holden seemed to not have thought about that because all he thought about was leaving the fictitious world he hated and being reunited with Allie again and being happy. Depression makes it hard for one to be happy but when it came to Phoebe, Allie or kids in general Holden seemed to be
Another significant factor in Holden’s life was the suicide of James Castle, a schoolmate form Elkton Hills. This is shown when Holden returns home and is conversing with Phoebe in her bedroom. Phoebe asks Holden to name one thing that he really likes. At that moment all Holden can think of is about two nuns he met at the train station and James Castle, “The funny part is, I hardly even know James Castle…” (171). Holden kept replaying the incident just before James died. James “was a
Holden seems to struggle with depression. In many places throughout the novel, Holden describes to us his deep sadness. A lot of times his depression is unpredictable and triggered by tense situations. In one situation while he was explaining his feelings about the Elkton Hills headmaster’s phony and rather boring conversations with well-built and
Nineteen million American adults suffer from a major case of depression (Web MD). That is a staggering one in every fifteen people (2 in our classroom alone). Holden Caulfield is clearly one of those people. Depression is a disease that leads to death but is also preventable. Psychology, stressful events, and prescription drugs are causes of depression. Stressful events brought on Holden’s depression. Holden has been trying to withstand losing a brother, living with careless parents, and not having many friends. The Catcher in the Rye is a book that takes us through the frazzled life of Holden Caulfield, who appears to be just a regular teen. But by hearing his thoughts and through heart-wrenching events in the book, the reader learns that
Teenagers such as Holden who have thought of suicide do not desire to die but they want to escape from the problems in their life that at that particular moment the impression of dying was the only way out. Holden often lies to himself to ease the emptiness and guilt he is living with that even Holden himself tells us that he “really felt like, committing suicide” (104). Even if we did not have the evidence that Holden was depressed through his actions of lying and having suicidal thoughts we still have the profound statement of all. What other way to prove that Holden Caulfield is depressed then Holden himself announcing that life itself “makes (him) so depressed” (75). Every single page of the novel is gorged with Holden telling us he is depressed. Whether it was Holden remembering someone say please and Holden commenting “that’s depressing” (211) or Holden warning us to never sleep in Grand Central, because “it’ll depress you,” (194) it is obvious that Holden is suffering from a mental illness.
Holden encounters asignificant fall into his depressive state due to his detachment from society, unconventionalbehaviour and internal psychological turmoil.
This portrays that Holden is tired of running away and wants to be loved and taken care of. Holden desperately needs support at a time like this when he is so mentally unstable and needs to be in an environment with his family. This shows a slight change in Holden because before he wanted nothing to do with his parents. Later in the book Holden plans to run away somewhere out west. He says,” …
Holden is always talking about how he doesn’t fit in at his school. Holden wanted to leave his school because he felt like he belonged there. He would always talk about how lonely he is and he never seems to be happy about anything. Holden had a room mate he was very jealous of and he had a friend named ackley
Throughout the novel Holden is rejected and exploited by the society around him. As he is conflicted with himself to find a purpose in life he constantly tries to connect with a superficial society. The ongoing failure and fake personas he meets adds to his depression and cynicism. But instead of facing the problems by growing up and to move on Holden uses this negativity and isolation to protect him. Holden tries show that he is better than everybody else as this is the little stability he has left. When in reality Holden is just scared of the interaction of people because they just submerge him with complications he doesn 't know not yet how to deal with. Holden not being be able to cope with the idea of growing up adds to his loneliness which is the core of his pain. When his encounters first interaction in the novel, Holden Caulfield is an uncaring outcast who sees no motivation in life. As he says to Mr. Spencer, he feels trapped on “the other side of life” (Salinger). Holden constant attempt to fit into society is hidden because of his detachment to people. His only stability right now is to search for his own individuality and to face adulthood himself. That is why
Holden recognizes and perceives to be alienated from the adult world thus causing himself to believe he is depressed. Holden believes he is depressed from viewing the adult world and thinking that it is phony. He believes that the world is phony, superficial, hypocritical, and shallow. He views this world everyday and realizes that one day he will have to step into it, but every time he thinks about the world surrounding him it causes him to become depressed. Holden becomes depressed because he desires to remain a child were innocence is preserved and not drastically taken away. In Holden?s scenario, he feels that his innocence was taken away by witnessing the suicide of his close friend and the death of dear brother. Holden sees the world that he has to become a part of and desires more to not be a part of it. This hatred of stepping into the adult world causes Holden believe he is depressed and