Novels Exam  >  Novels Notes  >  The Catcher in the Rye- Summary, Themes & Characters  >  Sadness - Themes, The Catcher in the Rye

Sadness - Themes, The Catcher in the Rye | The Catcher in the Rye- Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels PDF Download

Let’s do some word counting: variations of “depressed” or “depressing” occur 41 times in Catcher in the Rye. “Happy”? Five. As in, you can count them on one hand. Yep, we feel pretty comfortable saying that “sadness” is a major theme. Holden is just—well, today we’d probably call him clinically depressed. He has no apparent reason to be so bummed out all the time; he just is. The question is, is this sadness a rational response to how awful the world is? Or does he just need some good old-fashioned talk therapy?


Questions About Sadness

  1. Check out our list of things that make Holden depressed in our “Character Analysis.” Do they have anything in common? Or are they just random because everything makes him depressed?
  2. Holden is most happy at the end of Chapter Twenty-Five, while he watches Phoebe go around on the carousel. In fact, he's so happy that he's "damn near bawling." What's up with that? Why does this, of all things, make him happy?
  3. Does Holden sound like he's still sad, now that he's seventeen and telling the story? Or is it more of a, "Sure, I was sad then, but I'm OK now" sort of deal?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

Isolation is the greatest source of Holden's melancholy in The Catcher in the Rye.

The more Holden connects to other people in The Catcher in the Rye, the more depressed he becomes.

The document Sadness - Themes, The Catcher in the Rye | The Catcher in the Rye- Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels is a part of the Novels Course The Catcher in the Rye- Summary, Themes & Characters.
All you need of Novels at this link: Novels
87 docs
Explore Courses for Novels exam
Signup for Free!
Signup to see your scores go up within 7 days! Learn & Practice with 1000+ FREE Notes, Videos & Tests.
10M+ students study on EduRev
Related Searches

Important questions

,

Themes & Characters - Novels

,

pdf

,

Exam

,

The Catcher in the Rye | The Catcher in the Rye- Summary

,

Themes & Characters - Novels

,

Previous Year Questions with Solutions

,

Summary

,

Sadness - Themes

,

Semester Notes

,

Objective type Questions

,

study material

,

practice quizzes

,

MCQs

,

Free

,

shortcuts and tricks

,

past year papers

,

Themes & Characters - Novels

,

video lectures

,

Sadness - Themes

,

Sadness - Themes

,

mock tests for examination

,

Extra Questions

,

Viva Questions

,

The Catcher in the Rye | The Catcher in the Rye- Summary

,

The Catcher in the Rye | The Catcher in the Rye- Summary

,

ppt

,

Sample Paper

;