What makes holden depressed quotes

Perhaps because he feels alone in the big city, he cynically assumes that the happy people he sees must be phony. The floor was all stone, and if you had some marbles in your hand and you dropped them, they bounced like madmen all over the floor and made a helluva racket, and the teacher would hold up the class and go back and see what the hell was going on.

She never got sore, though, Miss Aigletinger. Then you'd pass by this long, long Indian war canoe, about as long as three goddam Cadillacs in a row, with about twenty Indians in it, some of them paddling, some of them just standing around looking tough, and they all had war paint all over their faces. There was one very spooky guy in the back of the canoe, with a mask on.

He was the witch doctor. He gave me the creeps, but I liked him anyway. Another thing, if you touched one of the paddles or anything while you were passing, one of the guards would say to you, "Don't touch anything, children," but he always said it in a nice voice, not like a goddam cop or anything. His sentimental, idealized memories of the museum contrast starkly with his generally cynical attitude toward the world.

I knew where her school was, naturally, because I went there myself when I was a kid. When I got there, it felt funny.

I wasn't sure I'd remember what it was like inside, but I did. It was exactly the same as it was when I went there. They had that same big yard inside, that was always sort of dark, with those cages around the light bulbs so they wouldn't break if they got hit with a ball. They had those same white circles painted all over the floor, for games and stuff. And those same old basketball rings without any nets--just the backboards and the rings.

Even though the gymnasium seems to be dark and somewhat neglected, Holden seems pleased that it is exactly the same as he remembers. Boy, it began to rain like a bastard. In buckets, I swear to God. All the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel, so they wouldn't get soaked to the skin or anything, but I stuck around on the bench for quite a while.

Of course, it makes sense that he would be beside himself, but this strong reaction is worth noting because it suggests he has trouble dealing with difficult emotions. More importantly, his parents wanted to have him psychoanalyzed in the aftermath of this event, but for some reason they seem to have decided against this.

Throughout his three-day solo stint in New York City, he frequently experiences feelings of depression and isolation, and during one of these moments he even speaks out loud to Allie, addressing his deceased younger brother simply to make himself feel less alone.

In fact, he even seems to fantasize about suicide, which is a troubling sign because it underlines just how fixated he is on the idea that death might be a way to solve his problems. However, it is clear that Holden struggles with both ordinary and more severe forms of unhappiness, since some of his discontent resembles the everyday angst most people experience at some point in their lives, whereas other forms of his unhappiness have to do with his unprocessed grief.

By bringing this dynamic to light, Salinger considers the many nuances of depression, ultimately implying that certain kinds of discontent ought to be addressed even if unhappiness is an unavoidable and universal part of life. I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage.

When I was all set to go, when I had my bags and all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddam corridor. I was sort of crying.

I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, "Sleep tight, ya morons! Then I got the hell out. What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide.

I felt like jumping out the window. I got up close so I could hear what he was singing. He was just singing for the hell of it, you could tell. It made me feel not so depressed any more. Open your ears. Yes I do. Sure I do. Why the hell do you say that? Why the hell do you have to say that? Boy, was she depressing me. He just keeps falling and falling. So they gave up looking.

Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. The Catcher in the Rye. Plot Summary. Caulfield Mr. Morrow Ernie. LitCharts Teacher Editions. He was reading The Atlantic Monthly , and there were pills and medicine all over the place, and everything smelled like Vicks Nose Drops.

It was pretty depressing. I'm not too crazy about sick people, anyway. What made it even more depressing, old Spencer had on this very sad, ratty old bathrobe that he was probably born in or something. I don't much like to see old guys in their pajamas and bathrobes anyway. Everybody was asleep or out or home for the weekend, and it was very, very quiet and depressing in the corridor. I mean not wait till Wednesday or anything.

I just didn't want to hang around any more. It made me too sad and lonesome. My nerves were shot. They really were. Holden has a good point: empty corridors really are kind of depressing. One thing about packing depressed me a little. I had to pack these brand-new ice skates my mother had practically just sent me a couple of days before.

That depressed me. I could see my mother going in Spaulding's and asking the salesman a million dopy [ sic ] questions—and here I was getting the ax again. It made me feel pretty sad. She bought me the wrong kind of skates—I wanted racing skates and she bought hockey—but it made me sad anyway.

Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad. When he says that he finds any present from anyone to be depressing, it seems as though he feels he doesn't ever deserve gifts. Then I went over and laid down on Ely's bed. Boy, did I feel rotten.

I felt so damn lonesome. Even though he's judged Ackley to be pimply and disgusting and painted a portrait of him as a social outcast , Holden still reaches out to the guy when he feels lonely. They were so ignorant, and they had those sad, fancy hats on and all.

And that business about getting up early to see the first show at Radio City Music Hall depressed me. If somebody, some girl in an awful-looking hat, for instance, comes all the way to New York — from Seattle, Wash ington, for God's sake — and ends up getting up early in the morning to see the goddam first show at Radio City Music Hall, it makes me so depressed I can't stand it.

I'd've bought the whole three of them a hundred drinks if only they hadn't told me that. Holden is depressed that these girls are just lapping up phoniness of New York. They've traveled all this way just to see a bunch of phony dancers prancing around Radio City Music Hall.

Well, when you put it that way …. New York's terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed.

I kept wishing I could go home and shoot the bull for a while with old Phoebe. I took her dress over to the closet and hung it up for her. It was funny. It made me feel sort of sad when I hung it up. I thought of her going in a store and buying it, and nobody in the store knowing she was a prostitute and all. The salesman probably just thought she was a regular girl when she bought it. It made me feel sad as hell—I don't know why, exactly. After old Sunny was gone, I sat in the chair for a while and smoked a couple of cigarettes.

It was getting daylight outside.