When Stradlater returns, Holden picks a fight with him before deciding to leave Pencey that instant, packing his bags and leaving Pennsylvania for New York City without another thought. Since then, Holden has built up an image of Jane as a perfect woman, which is why he finds himself distraught by the idea that Stradlater might try to have sex with her. That night, he discovers that his roommate, Ward Stradlater, is going on a date with Jane Gallagher, a girl whose family lived in the neighboring house two years ago when HoldenвЂ™s family summered in Maine. This idea frustrates Holden, who thinks itвЂ™s absurd to approach life with such a narrowminded worldview. Spencer, who tells him to heed the headmasterвЂ™s advice to play the game of life by the rules. Wanting to bid this chapter of his life a proper farewell, he visits his elderly history teacher, Mr. His story begins shortly after he learns that he has failed out of his most recent school, Pencey Prep. The novel opens with Holden recuperating from an undisclosed ailment in a rest home, and he tells the reader that he will relay the вЂњmadman stuffвЂќ that happened to him just before last Christmas. On the brink of adulthood, Holden struggles to bridge the gap between the innocent perfection he perceives in childhood (namely in Phoebe and Allie) and the 'phoniness' that he thinks makes up most of adulthood and the rest of society.

Holden also has a deceased younger brother, Allie, and an older brother, D.B. He is from New York City, where his younger sister, Phoebe, still lives with his parents.

The novel's narrator and protagonist, Holden is a high school junior who has flunked out of prep school several times.

Read the catcher in the rye