Who is Holden Caulfield?

He's a younger born twin of his author, J. D. Salinger:

Salinger vs. Holden

• both born and raised in NYC


• both attend schools and fail to graduate (Holden-prep school; Salinger-college)


• both have parents of different religious faiths


• both have well-to-do parents


• both underwent treatment (Holden-psychiatric; Salinger-post war stress)


• both isolate themselves from others (Holden runs away; Salinger is a recluse in N.H.)

As a literary character, he is a 16 year-old unreliable narrator who is very conservative, anti-social, immature (though he stands over six feet and has grey hair), and obsessed with child-like things (checkers, his dead brother, the ducks in Central Park) and sex.  He is hopelessly stuck in the past: he has never gotten over his brother's death, and he dreads conforming to the post WWII materialistic and "phony" culture.