English and Literature

Andres Llorente
Javier Fernndez
Block 7
June 19, 2013
Anxiety in Holden Caulfield

Love looks forward, hate looks back, anxiety has eyes all over its head.
Mignon McLaughlin. People around the world have physiological problems that
affect their personal lives in many ways. Symptoms like depression, feeling panic,
heart pounding, and obsession are common in people with mental disorders. In the
book The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield
displays symptoms of many mental disorders including PTSD, OCD, SAD,
bipolarity, and anxiety. Although at the beginning he seems like a normal
teenager, his life is full of issues that affect him on a daily basis making it
impossible for him to socialize. During the book, Holden's symptoms become
stronger and the reader can really feel his physiological problems. Even
though Holden displays many mental problems, anxiety is the disorder that is most
clear in his life.


Anxiety is the most common emotional disorder. Doctors can't tell why
people get anxiety, but speculate that it is because of stress and disorganization.
Common symptoms of anxiety are feelings of panic and fear, obsessive thoughts,
painful memories, nightmares, hysterical acts and sick to stomach. Another
important thing about anxiety is that people may suffer from depression, abuse
alcohol or drugs making it impossible for them to act conscientiously. Holden for
example, abuses cigarettes in the book. "He never smoked in the dorm. It was only
me." (Salinger, 1951 pg. 41) Another symptom of anxiety is that relationships of the
individual can be affected by this disorder. Holden shows this when he says he has
no friends and when he is alone when everyone is at the game. Finally, anxiety has
two types, panic attack and phobias. Holden displays these behaviors during the
book as soon as his life starts falling apart.


Holden displays his mental disorder all along the book and you can infer that
through his actions. For example you can see he seems very anxious and nervous
at parts of the novel. The first clear example is his obsession with organization
when Ackley comes to his room and disorganizes a lot of things. "He always
picked up your personal stuff and looked at it. Boy, could he get on your nerves
sometimes." (Salinger, 1951 Chapter 3) His behavior after this is all about
criticizing Ackley and everything he does in his room. For example his reaction
when Ackley trims his nails is thinking how disgusting that is and tells him to do it in
another place. " "Ackley! For Chrissake. Willya please cut your crumby nails over
the table? I've asked you fifty times." (Salinger, 1951 Chapter 3)this reactions
show how Holden gets stressed for little things that dont matter. Finally Holden is
really nervous before fighting with Strandlater and thinks "When I really worry
about something, I don't just fool around. I even have to go to the bathroom when I
worry about something. Only, I don't go. I'm too worried to go. I don't want to
interrupt my worrying to go." (Salinger, 1951 Chapter 6). These kinds of attitudes
show the mental disorder Holden has and how it affects his relationships with other
people.

People with anxiety or similar problems have complicated or almost no
social relationships with anyone. Since Holden has these problems, he is the
perfect example for this. He is alone the whole book and no one is always next to
him. People like Strandlater, Ackley, Sally, Mr. Spencer, or Jane go away easily
and separate from Holden. Also during his journey he tries to find "friends" or even
just random people to talk to. For example when he calls Luce to meet him or when
he talks to the taxi driver to ask what he thinks about the ducks and the pond. The
best example of loneliness is at the beginning when everyone is at the game and
Holden is alone going to Mr. Spencer's house. "The other reason I wasn't down at
the game was because I was on my way to say good-by to old Spencer, my history
teacher." (Salinger, 1951 Chapter 1). These situations show how Holden's mental
problems affect him on a daily basis.

Anxiety and other common mental problems make people's life hard and
really different from a normal life. Doctors haven't found the causes for
anxiety, yet there are some treatments like group therapies. JD Salinger takes a
bunch of physiological problems and places them in Holden's mind. He achieves
an effect of a damaged person that has no one to go to and therefore is a loner.
Holden displays symptoms varying from anxiety, OCD, SAD to PTSD and
bipolarity. Problems like this are difficult to treat and a wide variety of people
experience them during their lives. They become less affable and therefore end
alone in many cases.
Bibliography
Salinger, JD. (1951) The Catcher in the Rye. Retrieved June 19, 2013 from:
http://sleeplessinmumbai.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/jd-salinger-catcher-in-the-rye.pdf