Reading it, The Catcher in the Rye is a depressing novel, but you have to read between the lines.
The Catcher in the Rye is very popular among young adults which is how I found out about and decided to read it. The first time I read it I was so confused, I had no idea what it meant and so I went online and looked up study notes and flipped through the book again. I finally got the whole meaning of the book. The Catcher in the Rye is a complex book and has many themes (here are a few). There was something I learned from the book and something I am still trying to fix; trust and the way I look at people.
Whether we deny it or not, we judge people. I judged Holden when I first read the book. He came from a good background, he had a good family, what did he have to complain about? Then I caught myself.... 'What did he have to complain about?' that line is almost similar to what people have asked me, "What do you have to complain about?" For years I suffered (and still suffer at times) from depression and people have asked me that. It's almost another way of saying that you don't deserve to be depressed. Holden was deeply depressed for nearly the whole book and even considered suicide, but he kept it all to himself. After reading The Catcher I have begun to look at others differently, when I catch myself thinking why someone is depressed I say to myself that maybe there is something that I don't know about or maybe they just need someone that will listen to them, someone who understands them.
For a long time, I didn't want to trust people. I was afraid of opening myself fully to someone. After reading The Catcher I didn't want to become like Holden. I didn't want to become someone who didn't trust at all, but I was slowly becoming him. I built wall around myself, I pushed people away. I closed myself off from my family, I didn't want to make any close friends because I was so afraid they would leave. At the end of The Catcher when Holden realizes that he can't be alone anymore, he begins to trust his sister and starts to break down his walls. It was like waking up, I realized I couldn't keep on pushing myself away from others. I couldn't keep on building the wall higher and higher.
I am still learning to trust people, I've learned that there are people who will listen, people who care. My brother (who recommended this book to me) once told me, "People will come and people will go." And it is true. People will come and go, but that doesn't mean you have to stop loving or trusting others.
