A Boy in Search of the Meanings of Life——Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye

As countercultural revolt began to grow during the 1950s and 1960s, The Catcher in the Rye was frequently read as a tale of an individual´s alienation within a heartless world. Holden seemed to stand for young people everywhere, who felt themselves beset on all sides by pressure to grow up and live their lives according to the rules, to disengage from meaningful human connection, and to re..