The Catcher in the Rye
(J.D. Salinger)

Holden Caulfield, the narrator of the story, is a sixteen-year-old boy living around the time of the 1950’s in New York City. At the time he is telling the story he alludes to being in some sort of a mental hospital, obviously under treatment but goes on to tell his story.

Holden has been kicked out of three different prep schools and has just now been expelled from his fourth, Pencey prep, for failing all of his classes but one. At Pencey prep, Holden is surrounded by people who he finds annoying or disgusting in one way or another. He gets in a fight with his roommate, Stradlater, and decides to leave school early.

Once arriving in Manhattan, he decides to stay at the Edmont Hotel, rather than return home to his parents. Holden encounters many people whom he dislikes or finds disgusting in one way or another, tries to lose his virginity but cannot fathom why he would want to go through with such a pointless adult ritual, and ceaselessly interrogates an old classmate about his sexual conquests.

Holden tells his sister Phoebe, one of the most important people in his life, that he plans to run away and she wants to come with him, which he refuses. He watches Phoebe ride a carousel in the park and is so happy just watching her that he cannot bring himself to leave and instead returns home where he gets “sick” and decides to spare his audience the rest of the details on his mental state.