Holden's Mental Health

1. Psychotic Activity

1.1. Weird Conversations

1.2. Maniac Rampages

1.2.1. Holden breaks all the windows in his garage.

1.2.2. Fighting with his roommate

2. Character Flaws

2.1. Lack of contact with humans

2.1.1. Holden has always been shy from people, and possibly been neglected by his own parents.

2.1.2. Does not use a prostitute for her clinical use.

2.2. Bad attitude

2.2.1. Throughout the book, Holden displays a very nasty attitude toward everyone and everything that is better than him.

3. Symbolism

3.1. Hunting Cap

3.1.1. Holden always seems to be wearing his hunting cap, yet there is no real explanation why he is so in love with it.

3.2. Swearing

3.3. Youth

4. Obsessiveness

4.1. Youth

4.1.1. The title of the book comes out of one line in the book.

4.1.2. Holden has a weird obsession with children

4.2. Swearing

4.2.1. Holden uses swearing to portray all of his narration throughout the story.

4.3. Hunting cap

4.3.1. Whenever Holden puts his hunting cap on, he always gets into rebellious modes.

5. "Do you know where the Ducks go in the winter?" (What does this have to do with anything? He brings up random things leading me to think he may have some sort of austism?)

6. " Goddam"

7. "Phony"

8. "Hell"

9. "Damn"

10. "Moron"

11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI1CusL7Ceo

12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R66eQLLOins

13. "What I was really hanging around for, I was trying ... to feel some kind of good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse." (This is making Holden look like he cares but in all reality he's very careless. He may be bipolar or even constant mood swings.)

14. "There was this magazine that somebody'd left on the bench next to me, so I started reading it. It was all about hormones. It described how you should look. I looked exactly like the guy with lousy hormones. So I started getting worried about my hormones. Then I read this other article about how you can tell if you have cancer or not. It said if you had any sores in your mouth that didn't heal pretty quickly, it was a sign that you probably had cancer. I'd had this sort on the inside of my lip for about two weeks. So figured I was getting cancer. That magazine was some little cheerer upper." (It's weird how all of a suddden he starts to think about things that don't matter that much. He likes to give himself a little drama in his life, loves to make himself nervous. Maybe Holden has anxiety problems?)

15. "After I shut the door and started back to the living room, he yelled something at me, but I couldn't exactly hear him. I'm pretty sure he yelled "Good luck!" at me. I hope not. I hope to hell not. I'd never yell "Good luck!" at anybody. It sounds terrible, when you think about it." (He takes everything positive and immediately changes it to being negative. Maybe he might have anger issues? or maybe depression.)

16. "I was only thirteen, and they were going to have my 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 the night he died, and I 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 already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it. It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it, and you didn't know Allie. " (Once again with the outrageous mood swings Holden experiences it's obvious that there's something wrong with him.)

17. "The next part I don't remember so hot. All I know is I got up from the bed, like I was going down to the can or something, and then I tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddam throat open. It probably would've hurt him a lot, but I did it with my right hand, and I can't make a good fist with that hand. On account of that injury I told you about." (He seems really angry for absoultely no reason at all. Maybe he has anger managment issues that leads to things going wrong in his mind.)

18. "I thought it was 'If a body catch a body,'" I said. "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around nobody big, I mean except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy." (Where does he come up with these weird scenarious and different things about himself and all other things he's never going to end up doing. This might be a sign of austicness because more so than often kids that are autistic will lie about their personal lives.)

19. "I would have walked , but I felt funny when I got outside. Sort of dizzy." (He's always feeling sick, maybe he has nausia or anxiety towards everything he does.)

20. "Anyway, I kept walking and walking up Fifth Avenue, without any tie on or anything. Then all of a sudden, something very spooky started happening. Every time I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddam curb, I had this feeling that I'd never get to the other side of the street. I thought I'd just go down, down, down, and nobody'd ever see me again. Boy, did it scare me. You can't imagine. I started sweating like a bastard my whole shirt and underwear and everything. Then I started doing something else. Every time I'd get to the end of a block I'd make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I'd say to him, "Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie." And then when I'd reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I'd thank him. Then it would start all over again as soon as I got to the next corner. But I kept going and all. I was sort of afraid to stop, I think I don't remember, to tell you the truth. I know I didn't stop till I was way up in the Sixties, past the zoo and all. Then I sat down on this bench. I could hardly get my breath, and I was still sweating like a bastard. I sat there, I guess, for about an hour." (He over exagarates a lot and makes his life seem a lot harder than it really is. Once again leading back to depression and anxiety.)

21. "In the first place, my parents are different religions, and all the children in our family are atheists. If you want to know the truth, I can't even stand ministers. The ones they've had at every school I've gone to, they all have these Holy Joe voices when they start giving their sermons. God, I hate that. I don't see why the hell they can't talk in their natural voice. They sound so phony when they talk." (How is his entire family athiest but they'll send him to a private christian school? None of this stuff is adding up.)

22. Thesis: Throughout the novel Catcher in the Rye Holden experiences many different aspects of life, such as going through things that give him different mind sets and alter his mental health.