Everyone feels depressed at some point in their life. However, it becomes a problem when depression is so much a part of a person's life that they can no longer experience happiness. This happens to the 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, his inability to self-reflect, and his stubbornness to overlook the obvious which, collectively, lead him to give up on life before he truly has the possibility of starting it. .Holden lacks the essential ability to motivate himself, which he needs to survive in the "real" world. He keeps getting kicked out of every school he attends because he can't apply himself, his simple reasoning being "How do you know what you're going to do until you do it?" The answer is no” (213). Everyone else in his life tries to encourage him to care about school and his grades, but it makes no difference. From the beginning of the novel Holden's history teacher at Pencey tells him, "I'd like to knock some sense into that head of yours, boy." I'm trying to help you. I'm trying to help you if I can? (14). But the fact of the matter is that he can't help him, Holden has to help himself. The drive to succeed must come from within him: "I mean, you can hardly do something just because someone wants it." (185). For Holden to be successful, he must want it for himself. The only problem is that Holden is unable to convince him to do something he isn't genuinely interested in, thus missing out on additional knowledge he could gain that would actually appeal to him. Holden gives up on school because he fears ... middle of paper ... because he never found them. He won't allow himself to because at this point he had given up on school and ultimately given up on the entire world. Tragically, though, he gives up on everything before he really has a chance to get started. Antolini's theory about what's wrong with Holden is right, it's just a shame he couldn't get through to Holden. Due to the fact that Holden has already given up on himself and is not willing to apply 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 can't find the strength within himself to persevere in a world of madness. Works Cited: Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1994.