The Catcher In the Rye is a story of a troubled young man that goes about his everyday life while caught up in the web of his pessimistic views on life. As the story unfolds, Holden Caulfield faces the anxieties of growing up and dealing with adolescent fears, dealing with farfetched. .
To understand Holden's pessimestic views on life, the reader as to understand what are the troubles he deals with on a day to day basis. One problem is his universal anxieties. Early in the story, Holden explains how he is "yellow" and won't stand up for himeslef or what he bleives in in fear of getting beaten up. Other fears that he has is what his family is going to think of him and how they are going to treat him after they find out he got kicked out of school again. Growing up is also a personal anxiety he has because of the fear of growing up and having to be an adult, which ultimatly means being "phony".
Holden has two dreams in the story. One dream is that he wants to move to Colorado and work on a farm which soon tranformes into him wanting to move out west into a cabin by himself. A place where noone can be "phony" and he can be at peace with himself. The other dreams he talks about is that he wants to be "the catcher in the rye", meaning while the kids play in the rye, he'll stand off a cliff and save them from falling off which symbolically means reaching adulthood.
Holden doesnt have too many problems, but the problems he does have play a major role in his life and he constantly thinks about them. In the story, you come to see that the death of his younger brother, Allie, deeply saddens him. He finds himself regreting times he didn't spend with him. Holden also has a severe problem between him and himself. He views the world in a very evil, horrid way which leads him to always feel "lonely and depressed" most of the time.
An adolescent back in the 1940's seemed laidback and "cool.