The Catcher in the Rye #3

Salinger reveals that he understand a lot about human nature. In this story Holden was feeling awful throughout the whole story. He felt very depressed and nervous all the time and at some points didn't even want to continue living. Salinger understands that people can be depressed or have other mental illnesses. Mental illnesses are actually quite common and he expressed only one person in this book who has one. I think it is important that people are aware of this. You never know what a person might be going through and you should never judge a person for being the way that they are. I think Salinger wanted to express that through his writing. Whenever Sunny came with the elevator man, Maurice, into Holden's room I felt really bad for Holden. Those people had no idea what he was going through and how he felt and they were only making it harder for him. "Then he smacked me. I didn't even try to get out of his way or duck or anything. All I felt was this terrific punch in my stomach." (Salinger 135) They had no right to do that to him and had no idea what they were putting him through. That's why I think the universal theme of this story is understanding and not judging people. If you saw Holden walking down the street you would have never known he went through all of the things he went through. People have no right being mean to one another. Nothing good comes from that and I think Salinger wanted his readers to gain that from this book. Holden did some odd things in this book like sleep in the train station. People probably wondered why he woke up from sleeping there and just sat there for a while. But, he had his reasons. Everyone has a reason for doing what they do. Salinger tried to express this in the book. I don't know if other think the same thing I do. But, that is what I got out of this book.