The Conflicts of Holden Caulfield

In J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield's struggle with society is important because it basically defines him as the person he is. His life is made up of one conflict after another, and his story gives readers a portrait of American culture at that point in time. Through his eyes readers see prep school life, Manhattan, and his social isolation. Conflict forms the main subject of Holden's words, especially when he contradicts himself because his greatest conflict in inside him.
The first and most important problem is school. He is kicked out of every school his parents have enroll him in and although he seems very intelligent, he never succeeds at anything, which must be very frustrating to his teachers. At Pencey Prep, the school he is expelled from in the beginning of the novel, the only class he didn't fail was English. In another class, Oral Expression, each boy had to get up and make a speech, and if a boy got off topic, the other boys were supposed to yell "Digression!" at him. Holden fails this class and says to Mr. Antolini, one of his former teachers with whom he is close, "That digression business got on my nerves. I don't know. The trouble with me is, I like it when somebody digresses. It's more interesting and all." p.183. This is a metaphor for Holden's Life, which is one big digression.
Holden is unable to connect with anybody. Apart from his old teacher, Mr. Antolini, who is available to Holden whenever he needs something and is a close family friend, and his little sister, Phoebe, he has no friends. He's easily grossed out by the bodily functions of his roommates and is rather hardhearted when it comes to sympathy. Even though he is sixteen and seems very mature, he finds himself more compatible with children than adults, who he sees as either corny, phony, or both. Holden is a compulsive liar and can't stop himself even when he wants to. "I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say the opera. It's terrible." p.16. This keeps him from having to get close to people or open up to them.
Holden is also always arguing with himself, contradicting his own opinions and constantly changing his mind. He'll suddenly be inspired to call someone or do something. But then the more he thinks about doing it, the more nervous he get until the urge leaves him and he'll say "But you have to be in the right mood to do something like that." He experiences this indecision frequently when thinking contacting Jane Gallagher, a crush of his. Holden also talks about being very mature for his age but then never really shows much responsibility and is wistful about childhood and the simplicity and innocence it represents in the novel.
Holden seems to have a lot of difficulty with the unspoken rules of society. Most of he time he criticizes them or disregards them entirely, getting drunk, smoking, and swearing, all of which were things sixteen year-old boys were not supposed to do back then. He also exaggerates quite often, using hyperbole in many of his descriptions.
Holden's life is like an obstacle course, and some of those obstacles he makes for himself. There is a certain amount of tragedy in his life, like the death of his little brother, Allie, the loneliness he feels at many times in the novel, once he even feels like committing suicide. He knows that his parents are disappointed in him but doesn't feel the need to try and gain their approval. He seems to suffer from severe depression, the way he can never seem to enjoy anything or how most things happen to rub him the wrong way. In his story the reader can recognise themselves and their own dissatisfaction with the world around them, and this gives the novel its power.