People often conflate the figure Holden with J.D. Salinger. Salinger himself once said it was 'sort of autobiographical'.
-Holden is obsessed with younger women, conflicted about their sexuality and Salinger dated women decades younger than him
-The obsession with childhood and innocence. Holden has experienced trauma which has led to the destruction of his innocence. The death of his brother and the sexual molestations (he only hints to). Salinger experienced the gore of WW2. At the end of WW2 the Germans resorted to using child soldiers, believing the allies would lessen their offence. He will have seen his own innocence and that of others ripped apart.
-Both were born into high-middle class families. Both were sent to military school.
-Both felt alienated and isolated in their societies. Salinger's family was half Catholic, half Jewish. In the 1930s, Judaism was suffering the genocide of the holocaust in Europe. Jews were also marginalized in America.
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