The conflict of The Catcher in the Rye can be very difficult to understand because it is very tricky to understand what the conflict in this book is. Holden decides to leave school early because he absolutely hates it. If this is the conflict then the causes of this is the fact that he struggles in his classes. He is expelled from the school because he managed to pass just one out of five courses(Salinger,6). Another cause of this particular conflict is that Holden thinks the entire school is full of phonies because no one is who they think they are or Holden believes they have so many undesirable traits that he has decided they are awful as a person. The gains in him leaving school is that he gets to see his favorite person in the entire world sooner, his little sister Phoebe. He also gets some life experience by living on his own means for three days. He meets some interesting characters and encounters some of his old peers and lovers. With gains comes losses though. He is no longer able to go back to his house as soon as he leaves because he does not want his parents to know of his unfortunate fate yet. He also is kicked out of another great school and has to try and enroll in a new prep school. Holden also has to spend a small fortune on living expenses that he would not have had to pay if he had stayed at the school for his remaining three days there until Christmas break.
Another conflict could be between him and his parents. Holden does not want to disappoint his father and he does wish a heart attack upon his mother, because he believes that is how she will react. The reasons of their disappointment would come in the fact that Holden was expelled from another expensive prep school for failure to keep his grades at the schools high standards or any standards really, because he only managed to pass one subject and it is because all the other classes were full of jerks and phonies.
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print
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