He runs away from school, engages in underage drinking, and even hires a prostitute—all as a means of rebellion, as an attempt to escape from the societal constraints that seem to weigh down on him like an invisible force. In this way, Holden is an antihero: a bewildered, deluded teenager who at times acts in a rather unheroic manner. At his core, the boy is a good person, but one whose flight from society eventually ends with his being put in a mental institution. The question the novel seems to be asking is: who is more crazy, the boy, or the society in which he lives?
	Although Holden’s actions are somewhat minor compared to the rife delinquency of Astrid in White Oleander (she engages in drinking; drug use; and promiscuity, on one occasion prostituting herself in exchange for drugs), his actions would have been considered scandalous during the 1940’s, the time period during which the book was written. Holden Caulfield is comparable to the protagonist played by James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause—a loner who acts out of place because he is unable to make sense of the world around him. At first glance one would consider such characters to be spoiled, naughty children. However, on a closer look, one realizes that what these children are searching for is justice, in a world where justice is not always doled out to whomever justly deserves it. In a sense, the sole purpose of a hero is the search for justice, a search which has far more literary ramifications than a search for morality. For although morality defines justice, there can be no true morality without true justice. In other words, just as an ambiguous world is necessary for the existence of an antihero, so is a clear moral code necessary for the existence of justice.
	A book in which an antihero faces a similar dilemma—at least in a metaphorical sense--is Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. The main character is Yossarian, a military man who is scared of flying for psychological reasons, and as a result has major issues with being sent on flying missions during World War II.  Colonel Cathcart’s insistence on increased flying missions for the soldiers threatens to send Yossarian over the edge, much like Holden went crazy as a result of too many societal pressures. Both characters end up running away in order to escape their problems, and both appear to be the only sane people in an otherwise insane world. Whereas Yossarian is mostly fighting against government/military bureaucracy, Holden is mostly rebelling against his parents and teachers. Yossarian’s struggle is undoubtedly on a larger scale, but in the end both characters can be seen as antiheroes trying to make sense of a morally ambiguous world. (Potts, 84) 
In writing The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen revealed his innate ability to understand not only what things people do, but why they do them at all. 