The Catcher in the Rye, the only novel of the reclusive J. D. Salinger, is the story of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old boy who has been dismissed from Pencey Prep, the third time he has failed to meet the standards of a private school. He delays the inevitable confrontation with his parents by running away for a forty-eight hour "vacation" in New York City. A series of encounters with places and people in the city serves to further disillusion Holden and reinforce his conviction that the world is full of phonies. He plans to escape by going West and living alone, but even his little sister Phoebe, the only person with whom Holden can communicate, realizes that her brother is incapable of taking care of himself. When Phoebe reveals her plan to go with him, Holden accepts the futility of...