Holden Caulfield calls life as he sees it. Life is mostly full of phonies but there are good people as well. The good people are usually the "little people" such as the ladies working at his sister Phoebe's school, the coat-check lady and the two nuns that Holden bumps into while eating breakfast. The phonies tend to be those in a position of power and those with money. Very young kids are almost always genuine and nice. Sometime between childhood and adulthood, something can go horribly wrong. Holden recognizes this with unusual clarity and yearns to shelter children from the ugly realities of life. Burdened with his own considerable issues, he finally focuses on saving only one child - his beloved sister, Pheobe.