The Secrets of a Teenage LifeMany actions and feelings are expressed by JD Salinger through his character Holden Caulfield through both physical actions and emotions expressed in the book The Catcher in the Rye. The overall main message of the book is to express the problems of growing up in the teenage years, for Holden Caulfied, the main character of the book, growing up involves facing the falseness of others and simply not worrying about it. we expect from life. Many negative effects emerge from the teenage years in the eyes of JD Salinger's Holden Caulfield. In The Catcher in the Rye, it almost seems as if Holden is invisible to the world due to the problems he is trying to overcome in his life. It almost seems as if Holden is cut off from the world around him. For starters, anger is one of the many main phases of depression. JD Salinger shows how Holden is affected by the death of his brother Allie. “What I did was start talking, out loud, to Allie. I do it sometimes when I'm very depressed” (Salinger 98). This is a perfect example of Holden finally admitting his feelings of depression. Teenagers all over the world are affected by depression every day. “20% of adolescents experience depression before reaching adulthood” (Borchard 1). In the book The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger makes it clear that Holden suffers from adolescent depression by expressing his emotions through physical actions. An example of one of the many physical actions shown by Holden was when he broke all the windows in the garage the night Allie died. “I was only thirteen and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and everything, because I had broken my whole wi... middle of paper... life. “I always say "I'm happy I met you" to someone I'm not happy I met at all. If you want to stay alive, though, you have to say those things” (Salinger 87). This quote shows how Holden doesn't care about everything that comes his way. In conclusion, J.D. Salinger uses the character of Holden in The Catcher in the Rye to express grief, the stages of depression, and the loss of care that comes with it. the lives of those in their teenage years. Holden's character not only expresses the feelings of adolescence, but also experiences them in the book. The Catcher in the Rye perfectly represents the phases that accompany adolescence. The secrets of adolescence are those feelings that do not fully manifest themselves through emotion, but are present. Hurt, pain, depression and loss of care all belong to the secrets of the adolescent stage of life.