Everyone feels depressed at one point or another in their life. However, it becomes a problem when depression becomes so much a part of a person's life that they can no longer experience happiness. This happens to young boy Holden Caulfield in JD Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye. Mr. Antolini accurately sees the cause of Holden's depression as his lack of personal motivation, inability to think, and stubbornness to ignore the obvious, which collectively leads him to give up on life before he truly has the chance to start it. .Holden lacks the essential ability to motivate himself, which he needs to survive in the “real” world. He continues to get kicked out of every school he attends because he doesn't apply himself, his simple reasoning being, "How do you know what you're going to do before you do it?" The answer is no” (213). Everyone in his life tries to encourage him to care about school and his grades, but it makes no difference. Early in the novel, Holden's history teacher at Pencey tells him, "I'd like to put some sense into your head, my boy." I'm trying to help you. I'm trying to help you, if I can? (14). But the fact is, he can't help him, Holden has to help himself. The drive to succeed has to come from him: “I mean, you can almost never do something just because someone wants you to? (185). For Holden to succeed, he must want it for himself. The only problem is that Holden is unable to push him to do something he's not really interested in, thus missing out on the additional knowledge he could gain that would really appeal to him. Holden drops out of school because he's afraid if... middle of paper... why he never found them. He won't allow himself to do that because at this point he's dropped out of school and ultimately he's dropped out of the whole world. Unfortunately, he abandons everything before he really has the chance to begin. Antolini's theory about what's wrong with Holden is right, it's just a shame he couldn't get a hold of Holden. Due to the fact that Holden has already given up on himself and is not willing to implement the valuable advice given to him. He has lost the substantial ability to find happiness in life and therefore cannot find the energy to motivate himself in anything he does. It's a tragedy that someone as brilliant as Holden Caulfield is unable to find the strength within himself to persevere in a world of madness. Works Cited: Salinger, JD The Catcher in the Rye. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1994.