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The Catcher in the Rye Sadness Quotes Page 5
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
I was way early when I got there, so I just sat down on one of those leather couches right near the clock in the lobby and watched the girls. […] It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them. When they got out of school and college, I mean. You figured most of them would probably marry dopey guys. Guys that always talk about how many miles they get to the gallon in their goddam cars. (17.1)
It's interesting how Holden makes personal connections sometimes without ever reaching out – or even talking – to another individual. Here he goes to far as to feel depressed over the futures of the girls he's watching, yet he has made no attempts to learn anything about them, other than from what he can observe from a distant and rather detached stance.
"You don't like anything that's happening."
It made me even more depressed when she said that.
"Yes I do. Yes I do. Sure I do. Don't say that. Why the hell do you say that?"
"Because you don't. You don't like any schools. You don't like a million things. You don't."
"I do! That's where you're wrong – that's exactly where you're wrong!
Why the hell do you have to say that?" I said. Boy, she was depressing me. (22.18-23)
It looks like Holden hasn't been willing to admit to himself just how negative he is. Of course, as soon as Phoebe points it out to him, he feels worse. This indicates that what she's saying is very true – if it weren't, he wouldn't be so bothered by it.
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 [sic] I was getting cancer. That magazine was some little cheerer upper.
This demonstrates Holden's ability to make absolutely everything depressing, as well as his morbid outlook.
