Teenage Angst

            Teenage angst is a common predicament amongst teenagers that causes them to feel like nobody understands them. When experiencing teenage angst, many teenagers feel misunderstood and helpless in situations.

Teenage angst most frequently occurs in teenagers after fighting with their parents. The teenager feels that his or her parents are controlling the teenager’s live in a harmful way. This can extend to teachers and other adult figures who interact daily with the teenager’s live. Parents who impose too many rules or direct the teenager’s life may cause the teenager to feel teenage angst.

            Holden Caufield is the classic example of teenage angst in literature. Holden thinks that everyone else is a “phony,” meaning they act fake in attempt to get people to like them. Holden goes into deep bouts of depression interspaced with happy periods. Holden feels that his school is terrible and his parents don’t care about him and just get angry at him.

            Holden thinks that he is one of the only genuine people out there. He thinks that anyone who attempts to act nice is a phony, and as a result, Holden has very few close friends. Holden is unable to connect with people very well.

            Like teenagers experiencing teenage angst, Holden thinks that his parents don’t understand him, and travels by himself around New York. In New York, Holden experiences drastic mood swings from happiness to depression and towards the end of the novel, he grows paranoid and thinks he sees his dead brother Allie.

            Holden seems to have a distrust of adults. Adults have never helped me before, and he only has one teacher he likes. Holden is constantly misunderstood by adults who think he is just a troubled teenager.