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In the 50's , when the boo was published, a great number of people was able to identify with Holden, even those that came from backgrounds completely different from his.
Most certainly, he is a unreliable narrator, so as the book is written as a first person narrative, one cannot trust his account of the action but has to make up his mind himself. He certainly has great psychological problems that probably stem from his remembrance of the death of his brother Allie.
He alienates himself and shows little more than contempt for the world around him, in fact the only person in the whole book he seems to like is his sister Phoebe, all the others he dismisses as phonies whom he regards as superficial. Though, as well it might be that he himself is superficial and fails to see them as whole personalities.
A second facet of Holden's personality is his obsession with sexual matters. In fact, he spends a good part of the novel trying to lose his virginity and even more thinking about it. However, when it comes close that he might actually have sex with the prostitute, he backs out of it by saying he doesn't feel well because he has been operated on his "clavichord".
Some critics also said that he might have a Madonna/whore complex. He keeps thinking about Jane Gallagher, who he must have really loved at some point, but can't make up his mind to go out with her, but makes passes at prostitutes and women he doesn't really like instead.
The book is a Classic American bildungsroman and has been compared to the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for this reason. The great theme of the novel is the difficulty that lies in the transition from childhood to adulthood. Although Holden is an adult in his outward appearance (over 6 ft tall, he has grey hair), it becomes very clear that he is still very much a child. He is very observative and notes every detail he sees, but isn't able to understand the world around him and can't cope with society's complexity. This becomes clearer every time he dreams about leaving the city and living in the woods or pretending to be a deaf mute, and flee from society is in fact what the author did.
Instead of "growing up" and becoming and adult himself, he dismisses the world of the adults as phony and superficial. He protects himself from it by alienating himself and preventing others to get close to him with his cutting cynicism.
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