of a residence in or around Los Angeles, California, but that he is originally from New York City, and attended preparatory schools in New England and, most recently, in Pennsylvania. The California residence is, we can surmise, some kind of hospital or mental facility, as Holden notes the following with regard to his current status and his location:

“I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy. I mean that's all I told D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. He's in Hollywood. That isn't too far from this crumby place, and he comes over and visits me practically every week end. He's going to drive me home when I go home next month maybe.”

So, we know from the outset that Holden is relating his story from someplace to which he was sent to “take it easy,” and that this place is geographically close to Hollywood, where his brother resides and from where his brother is able to easily visit. With regard to the location from which Holden has fled, following yet another lackluster experience at a presumably pricy preparatory school, we can focus on the setting for much of Salinger’s story, Pencey Prep, the “school that's in Agerstown, Pennsylvania.” Agerstown is a fictional stand-in for the myriad northeastern rural locations where such prep schools are often located. Salinger, in fact, had attended Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, a rather bucolic area of Delaware County in the eastern-most part of the state. Pencey Prep, therefore, represents the kind of schools attended by the novel’s author.

With respect to Holden’s home, this part is simple. In the novel’s opening chapter, the young narrator states the following:

“I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go.”

Obviously, we can conclude from the above quote that Holden’s family resides in Manhattan, in the middle of which sits Central Park, apparently walking distance to the Caulfield residence. We also know, from later in the novel, that Holden’s parents routinely drive into nearby Connecticut, as his sister, Phoebe, informs him at one point: "They (Holden’s parents) won't be home till very late . . . They went to a party in Norwalk, Connecticut.”

In conclusion, then, we know that Holden is narrating his story from a facility in or around Los Angeles, that he attended preparatory school in Pennsylvania, and that his home is in Manhattan, New York City, New York State.

Holden Caulfield in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye seems like a regular high school kid. Except in the beginning of the book, we find him all alone rather than down with the other students cheering on their team during a Saturday night home football game. Holden claims that he's not down with the others for a couple of reasons. First, he says the following:

The reason I was standing way up on Thomsen Hill instead of down at the game, was because I'd just got back from New Your with the fencing team... We'd gone in to New York that morning for this fencing meet with McBurney School. Only, we didn't have the meet. I left all the foils and the equipment and stuff on the goddam subway... The whole team ostracized me the whole way back on the train. (3)

The second reason Holden wasn't at the game is because he had to go say goodbye to a professor, because he was being kicked out of his third private school in just a few years. Not many kids wind up missing football games or get kicked out of so many schools in so little time, but Holden suffers an unknown mental illness. Based on these two reasons for his isolation from the other teens, it seems as though Holden is a misfit or at least he perceives himself as such.

Another way to compare Holden to other kids his age is to look at his relationship with two roommates: Robert Ackley and Ward Stradlater. Holden seems to view himself in the middle of these two boys. For example, Holden seems to be jealous but respectful of Ward and disgusted in Robert; therefore, he is like the middle class in a hierarchical class structure. Holden says of Robert the following:

He was probably the only guy in the whole dorm, besides me, that wasn't down at the game. He hardly went anywhere. He was a very peculiar guy... The whole time he roomed next to me, I never even once saw him brush his teeth... Besides that, he had a lot of pimples... And not only that, he had a terrible personality. (19)

Above, Holden is very critical of Ackley and doesn't hold back judging every flaw that the tall boy has. Of course, he never says exactly what he thinks to Ackley's face, per se, but just like any teenager and many, if not all, humans, he picks others apart when he feels superior.

On the other hand, when Ackley starts criticizing Stradlater for having a "superior attitude" (24), Holden jumps to Stradlater's defense by saying the following:

He's conceited, but he's very generous in some things. He really is... Look. Suppose, for instance, Stradlater was wearing a tie or something that you liked... You know what he'd do? He'd probably take it off and give it to you. He really would. (25)

Holden shows with the above quote that he respects Stradlater; however, once he finds out that Stradlater is going out with Jane Gallagher, a girl he knows well and likes a lot, he becomes jealous and winds up getting in a bloody fist fight with his roommate. Even before the fight, Holden tries to get Stradlater's attention and probably approval, because he hangs around while Stradlater gets ready for his date and even pounces on his roommate "like a goddam panther" (30).

Holden's approval turns on a dime after the fight, but he still tries to write the essay that Stradlater asked him to write for him. Quite fickle these teenagers be! One minute they are acting like they are totally in control and mature and the next minute they are horsing around or getting into fist fights! As much as Holden likes to isolate himself and separate himself from other teenagers, he winds up acting just like many others.

I feel sorry for Holden.  I find that he is so lost that he cannot seem to find the direction to which he must go.  Holden's character is shown in negative light throughout the novel, but only twice is he seen as sincere: watching Phoebe ride the carousal and talking to Phoebe about his dream.  The sad thing here is that Holden is too worried about everyone else and not concerned enough about himself.  These two passages save Holden's character for me.

Holden is one of my least favorite characters in literature.  I think that he is a self-absorbed person who is a complete hypocrite.  He thinks that everyone else is such a phony and yet he himself acts in so many ways that are not genuine either.  I do not like him because he does not seem to accept his own shortcomings and instead chooses to denounce everyone else around him.

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Sallinger, the main character is a teenage boy named Holden Caulfield. We know from the story that he has had trouble in school, that he is socially inept, awkward with people, and has a set of ideals by which he lives in order to be able to tolerate the actions of people.

However awkward he is, Holden is far from being a mentally-ill individual. He is indeed going through a situation that does not allow him to free himself to trust and love others. However, this is not a result of mental illness, but of trauma.

As we also know, his trauma is caused by the death of his younger brother, Allie, to leukemia. Holden narrates that he smashed the windows of the garage and car, and that he literally lost it. He has had trouble with peers ever since, and only communicates effectively with his only (younger) sister,Phoebe, whom he adores.

Hence, Holden is a child with a post traumatic disorder caused by the death of a relative of which he has not allowed himself to grief properly. In order to protect his deep fear of pain, he masks it by creating ideals of what life should be like. This is how he tries to heal.