Cathcher in the Rye

Adam McRae

Period 2

It’s nothing new, that everybody feels depressed at some time or another in their lives. However, it becomes a problem when that depression is so much a part a person’s life that she can no longer see the happiness right in front her. (As tragically happens to the young boy, Holden Caulfield in J.D Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye.) Mr. Antolini accurately views the cause of Holden’s depression as his lack of personal motivation, his inability to self-reflect and his stubbornness to overlook the obvious which collectively results in him giving up on life before he ever really has a chance to get it started.

Holden lacks the essential ability to motivate himself, which he needs to survive in the ‘real’ world. He continues to be kicked out of every school he attends because he fails to apply himself, his simple reasoning being “how do you know what you’re going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don’t” (213). Everybody else in his life tries to encourage him to care about school and his grades but it doesn’t make any difference. From the start of the novel Holden’s history teacher at Pencey tells him “I’d like to put some