Catcher in the rye help? please?

Question

okay so im in the middle of catcher in the rye and i dont get why hes so depressed? does it have something to do with the society?

Answer 1

Holden's an alienated adolescent, a naive lover of innocence who feels let down by the human race in general:

"The number of readers who have been able to identify with Holden and make him their hero is truly staggering. Something about his discontent, and his vivid way of expressing it, makes him resonate powerfully with readers who come from backgrounds completely different from his. It is tempting to inhabit his point of view and revel in his cantankerousness rather than try to deduce what is wrong with him. The obvious signs that Holden is a troubled and unreliable narrator are manifold: he fails out of four schools; he manifests complete apathy toward his future; he is hospitalized, and visited by a psychoanalyst, for an unspecified complaint; and he is unable to connect with other people. We know of two traumas in his past that clearly have something to do with his emotional state: the death of his brother Allie and the suicide of one of his schoolmates. But, even with that knowledge, Holden’s peculiarities cannot simply be explained away as symptoms of a readily identifiable disorder.

The most noticeable of Holden’s “peculiarities” is how extremely judgmental he is of almost everything and everybody. He criticizes and philosophizes about people who are boring, people who are insecure, and, above all, people who are “phony.” Holden carries this penchant for passing judgment to such an extreme that it often becomes extremely funny, such as when he speculates that people are so crass that someone will probably write “f*ck you” on his tombstone. Holden applies the term “phony” not to people who are insincere but to those who are too conventional or too typical—for instance, teachers who “act like” teachers by assuming a different demeanor in class than they do in conversation or people who dress and act like the other members of their social class. While Holden uses the label “phony” to imply that such people are superficial, his use of the term actually indicates that his own perceptions of other people are superficial. In almost every case, he rejects more complex judgments in favor of simple categorical ones."

Answer 2

He is depressed because he thinks everyone is fake ('phoney' in his words) and stupid, and because he disagrees with the way his male friends treat women. He's dissatisfied with life and the society he lives in.

Long time since I read it but I think I remember it well enough.

Answer 3

Yes I answered this earlier today. I think that you need to speak to your teacher about any misunderstandings but go to this website for a synopsis....perhaps it will help you. It gives you a detailed analysis of the story.