The Catcher in the Rye portrays Holden Caulfield’s struggle to accommodate to the adult world. Caulfield is overtly ashamed of his inadequacy and resorts to deception to alter the way people think about him in addition to how he feels about himself. He attempts to mask his ineptitude at school and intimacy to create an ideal persona. Although Caulfield’s deception malignantly inflicts others as well as himself, it simultaneously enables Caulfield to exploit others and rebel against social pressures and his own
