The novel The Catcher in the Rye follows the story that troubled teenager Holden Caulfield tells his audience about his fight to survive one of the messiest weekends of his life.  This J.D. Salinger piece truly puts its main character through his fair amount of suffering.  The way that Holden approaches his problems, however, leads him into even more trouble, making him the perfect subject of Thomas Merton’s quote: “The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.”  Holden Caulfield does exactly what Merton claims and attempts to avoid his suffering, but as a result, he only makes himself fragile to more suffering.
The root of Holden Caulfield’s suffering can easily be traced back to the death of his brother Allie.  The novel hints at how much this death affects the main character by informing the readers of his fits of rage and destruction after the affair.  Holden also mentions the way he idolizes his brother frequently and even talks to him.  However, the stubborn teenager attempts to avoid this suffering and push it to the back of his mind.  He believes that he can outrun this torment, but because he tries to run so fast, he finds himself tripping over obstacles that would normally seem insignificant.  As the reader progresses through the novel, Holden states that more and more little things depress him: “That’s depressing, when somebody says ‘please’ to you… That depressed the hell out of me” (211).  In the character’s attempt to shut out his emotions, he actually makes himself vulnerable to mental abuse of everyday life and fuels his own despair.  Ultimately, Holden’s depression is actually a result of his efforts to deny his depression associated with his brother Allie’s death.
The distressed main character of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, has a difficult time dealing with the burden of his brother’s death, so he attempts to completely avoid it; consequently, he actually makes himself susceptible to more emotional anguish.  Holden actually becomes creative in the everyday situations that depress him, such as when someone uses the word “please.”  As his story advances, he makes more and more comments on circumstances that depress him, revealing that the longer he lies to himself, the deeper he falls into depression.  Holden puts up a hard fight against his mental state, but in the end, his fighting only damages him further.