Who Is Holden Caulfield's Journey In Catcher In The Rye

In the novel by J.D Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield tries to battle through the burdens of becoming an adult and growing up in a bone chilling world. Through his journey he comes across five central themes that are psychological paths to cross. Predominantly, alienation is an accent that Holden can’t contradict. Next, Caulfield shows self-protection by isolating himself. Then, losses of innocence, his mental capacity to understand the nature of acts start to become incomprehensible. Thereafter, depression starts to play a role in his mind frame. Lastly, his processed present mindset and his pursuit of happiness.
Holden visits Mr. Spencer, his history teacher at Pencey Prep in the beginning of the novel because

Suddenly Holden tells Mr. Spencer that he feels trapped on “the other side of life” (pg. 8). Holden’s frustration stems from the fact that he does not feel that he belongs in the world he lives in. Throughout the novel Holden is stumped with a question by his younger sister, Phoebe Caulfield. She demanded an answer by saying “You don’t like anything that’s happening…Because you don't. You don't like any schools. You don't like a million things… Because you don't… Name one thing… You like a lot." Holden soon answered with "I like Allie." Allie was their brother that they never knew much about because he died of leukemia. After a barrage of “Daddy's going to kill you. He's going to kill you” (Chapter 22) by Phoebe; Holden finally becomes one with himself and states "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field

The only person that Holden makes an actual connection to is his sister, Phoebe. This barrier that he has created causes him to become a bit introvert and rather cynical. In the book, Holden finds his roommate, Stradlater, to be overly cocky and his neighbor, Ackley, to be annoying. He starts to make some of the same judgments about a girl that he goes on a date with, Sally Hayes. Sally is pretty and outgoing, but Holden feels she cannot hold a conversation. However, Holden’s loneliness is soon exposed when he asks Sally, this girl that he doesn’t like much, to run away with him to Vermont on an outburst impulse. An important character from The Catcher in the Rye that shows how Holden isolates himself is Jane Gallagher. Holden has a massive crush on Jane that he went to such lengths as to fight his roommate, Stradlater when he finds that he may have given her “the time” in the back of Ed Banky’s car. Ed Banky is the basketball coach for Pency Prep and would do almost anything for Stradlater because he was the star player. Yet, Holden never even attempts to contact Jane. He always cuts himself short and says something along the lines of, “I thought about giving old Jane a buzz, to see if she was home yet and all, but I wasn’t in the mood.” (pg. 105) Since Holden is