Background+Information

Background Information Patient Holden Caulfield is a sixteen year old male who is resides in New York City, New York. He comes from a wealthy family, whom he lives with in their NYC apartment. His father is a successful lawyer which is a job he would never consider because "it doesn't appeal [to him]" ( 172). He considers lawyers "phonies" because all they do is make money and win cases, not actually save people's lives. Since her son Allie's death, Caulfield's mother has a cold, she felt a hundred percent healthy (171). Caulfield is not close to his parents because they don't understand him and don't understand what he wants to do with his life. For example, Holden father wants him to go to an ivy league university like Princeton or Yale. Holden has an older brother named D.B. Caulfield thinks that D.B. is a talented writer but is now "out in Hollywood, being a prostitute" (20). This is because D.B. now writes scripts for movies, which Caulfield detests. Phoebe is Caulfield's nine year old sister who he considers her smart and likeable by everyone (68). Holden's third sibling is his younger brother Allie who died of leukemia three years ago. Allie was the only person Caulfield ever connected with and refers to him as "the most intelligent member of the family" and "the nicest" (38). Caulfield broke all he windows in his garage by punching them, after Allie died and ended up in in the hospital during his funeral (39). Another tragic event happened in Caulfield's past. He witnessed the suicide of one of former classmates named James Castle. He jumped out of a window because his other schoolmates were forcing him to take back what he said about one of them. (170) Caulfield was thrown out of Pencey Prep because he was failing all of his classes. He then went on an adventure to New York City. While there he met up with numerous people due to loneliness. One of these people was Sally Hayes. She was an old friend that Caulfield "has known for years" (104). Another person Caulfield encountered is a prostitute named Sunny, who he ends up not sleeping with (96). Caulfield attempted to call Jane Gallagher, a childhood fiend, several times during his "adventure." Holden experienced several hallucinations and imageries of unrealistic events. For example, twice Caulfield pretends to get shot twice. He grabs his stomach, "to stop" the "bleeding." The first time was after Maurice, Sunny's "daddy", punched Caulfield in the stomach for not paying the full ten dollars he "owed" (108) The other time this happened is when Caulfield is drunk at a bar and is leaving to go see Phoebe (150). Caulfield went to his former teacher's apartment to stay the night after goes home to speak to Phoebe. His name is Mr. Antolinni and he is one of the few adults Caulfield ever considered to not be a phony. Holden wakes up in the middle of night and finds Mr. Antolinni "petting or patting" him on the head (192). He then left thinking Mr. Antollini had a sexual attraction to him. At the train station where Caulfield slept, he read a magazine about the signs for cancer. He had a few a of the symptoms mentioned which causes him to become paranoid. He seriously starts to think that he has cancer and that he is going to die (196). He soon has hallucinations before he decides to leave and never return to school. While crossing streets, he felt like he would never make it to the other side and would just disappear. He pretended that Allie was there and begged him not to let him disappear. Then he thanked him every time he reached the other side of the street (198). Holden later decided to not leave New York. He went back to his parents house and is eventually checked in here.