The Catcher in the Rye: Lonely

Holden mentions frequently that he is either lonely or depressed, "I wasn't sleepy not anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all. I almost wished I was dead." First of all, the fact that wishing he was dead was only considers "sort of lousy" to Holden is concerning. But the point is that Holden doesn't seem to really have anyone to always count on as a companion. He had the boys at school, but didn't show any particular attachment to any of them. He also has his family, especially his sister whine he references a lot, but he is away at school all the time and hardly sees them. Apparently he hardly speaks to them either because they don't know that he was kicked out of school. He talks about his older brother, but he lives in Holleywood, on the opposite end of the country. Then there is his younger brother Allie who died of leukemia. Holden speaks of Jane Gallager all the time as well, but clearly hasn't spoken to this old friend in a while due to the fact that he was so shy thy he refused to say hi to her when she came for her and Stradlater's date. All in all, Holden is a very lonely person which explains a lot in regards to his apparent strides for attention, like flunking out of school and breaking all the rules like lying about his age, smoking in the rooms, and drinking underage. Holden says he wishes he was dead sometimes, and I really hope that this book leads to some development in morale for Holden.