How Is Holden Caulfield Depressed

Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, is depressed not because of the environment he is in, but because of his perception of it. For most of the book, we see how he is continuously depressed by the digressions he makes, such as considering a stranger’s story, which ends up having no importance to him, except for the fact that it depresses him. He also is constantly angry at "phonies," who, to Holden, are essentially flawed people. This applies anywhere he goes, meaning that the only constant thing, and therefore the cause, is Holden himself. However, by the end of the book, we see how he has grown happy, despite the world he lives in. Holden Caulfield, as the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, demonstrates that

On his date with Sally, for example, during a break in the movie, Sally sees someone she met a while back, and they end up talking, in a way as if they had known each other for a long time. This irritates Holden to a great extent due to his perception of the conversation as insincere. (Salinger 141). We see that, even though the conversation doesn’t have anything to do with Holden and is of supreme unimportance, it still irks him, so much so that he seemed to be bordering on hating Sally, not to mention the other person, whom he never bothered getting to know. Such is the effect of the meaningless on Holden’s relationships, and since there is no end to the meaningless and the small talk, Holden would be unable to like anyone if he ended up hating them after a single conversation. Moreover, even when Holden admits the person is ‘nice’, he could still dislike them. Holden talks about an old veteran who gave phony advice to Holden. Holden then goes on to say that even the nice people can be depressing (Salinger 186). Holden’s thoughts about people, his own self, prevents him from forming these meaningful relationships, and not who specifically he is trying to form a relationship

He is unable to appreciate the higher pleasures; the museum for one, which he stopped enjoying after a minor incident: "Then, all of a sudden, you'd never guess what I saw on the wall. Another ‘Fuck you’. It was written with a red crayon or something, right under the glass part of the wall, under the stones. (Salinger 224). All it took was a stray swear word to completely ruin his enjoyment of the museum, going so far as to make him physically ill after he saw that. The curse word had no effect on him—at least not physically. Rather, it was his perception, his thinking, that caused him to become physically ill, because his habit of digression had caused him to consider the context of the swear word and all negative connotations associated with it; Holden successfully made himself sick with that kind of negative thinking. However, it was not only intellectual but also physical pleasures that were ruined by his thinking. Holden explains why, even though he purchased a prostitute, he couldn't get in the mood: "The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than sexy, if you want to know the truth. She was depressing. Her green dress hanging in the closet and all." (Salinger 107). His thoughts about Sunny’s background and current mood, even though they really shouldn’t have an influence on what really matters in the situation, lead to his depression.